n rose to efficiency with astonishing
rapidity. Many men read eagerly in text books about training and
tactics and so forth, and the Battalion from end to end was intolerant
of slovenliness. If it resembled a young man, it was a young man who
meant business.

[Illustration: Major The Rev. A. HERBERT GRAY.]

[Illustration: CHURCH PARADE--PREES HEATH CAMP.
_To face page 76._]

[Illustration: VARIOUS PHASES OF BATTALION TRAINING
_To face page 77._]

It was also very gifted youth. Its athletic record speaks for itself,
as does also its military record. But other gifts were lavished upon
it. It knew and loved good literature. It had numbers of trained
singers and musicians. It had dramatic possibilities in it. It knew
much of science and mechanics. That young thing which we call the 17th
H.L.I. in fact loved life, and every side of life. It throbbed with
energy of body, mind, and spirit. It tingled with many sided vitality.

But above all, it was loveable youth. Few bodies of soldiers have ever
so fully won the affections of towns and country districts. It has
left a mark of its own on Troon, Prees Heath, Wensley, Sheffield, and
Codford. People hurried out to see the column go by, and after it was
gone the hearts of men and women were happier because of it. It came
to have a place in the lives of thousands, and they all thought of it
with affection. As we look back on it now it lives with us as a silver
memory,--something belonging to the world of sunshine and laughter, of
beauty and of courage. The West of Scotland gave of its best to make
up that whole, and while it lived it made a place for itself in the
hearts of the West, which is secure for all time.

Its career was short, but its immortality is safe.

It is good to have known it. And though tragedy unspeakable dogged its
footsteps, and broke its life in this world, it lives and will always
live gloriously in the hearts and memories of uncounted men and women
who believe more in humanity, and perhaps even believe more in God
because of the "Seventeenth."

"CO-OPERATION."

One of the most outstanding and important things taught in military
text books is the value of striving to obtain "co-operation of all
arms." That is to say, the more sympathy, good comradeship and
understanding that exists between Infantry and Artillery and Cavalry
and Tanks and Air Force people and so on, the more efficient each of
these various arms becomes to car