ed and commanded the section at
Courcellette, where he was killed, September 15, 1916. He came of a
long line of distinguished British officers, his father having been a
Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery. A brother and a brother-in-law
were in the service, one of them losing both feet by a shell. A sister
was working in the hospitals in France and another in England. He was
a true friend and a gallant officer--every inch a gentleman.

On the night of April tenth we were relieved by the Twentieth
Battalion and went out for a rest. I had not laid down to sleep for
fourteen days, snatching what rest I could, for fifteen or twenty
minutes at a time, leaning against a parapet or propped up in the
corner of a traverse. We were only able to get as far as Voormezeele,
where we stopped in the ruins of the convent school, and dropping on
the stone floor slept like the dead for twenty-four hours. The place
was being shelled all this time but none knew or cared. The next night
we made our way to where the battalion was in billets, near
Renninghelst, where I immediately "flopped" for a straight forty-eight
hours' continuous sleep. After that a bath, a shave and general
clean-up, supplemented by a good hot "feed," made me as good as new.
During that two weeks up in front we had had no warm food, nothing but
"bully and biscuits" and, occasionally, a can of "Maconochie," a
ration of prepared meat and vegetables, which is excellent when served
hot but not very palatable when eaten cold.

We now had the longest rest we had enjoyed since coming over, as we
did not go back to the front line until April twentieth. Our Sixth
and Fifth Brigades had been in during the time we were out and both
had suffered severely in the many counter-attacks, but held on, like
true British bull-dogs, to what had been our original front line. The
craters were lost as it was impossible for any troops to hold them
under the devastating fire of the German guns. Nearly every battalion
of the Second Canadian Division had retaken one or more of them but,
as it only resulted in additional loss of life, it was decided by the
higher command to give it up and endeavor to reestablish our front
along its original line.

We went in via Voormezeele, a town of several thousand inhabitants
before the war, now a pile of ruins. From here a _pave_ road ran
directly to St. Eloi and there had been two good communication
trenches leading up to the front line. We soon discover