f many
farewells. 'Good-bye' has so many significations. It may be uttered at
the parting for a couple of hours; it may be uttered, and often is, in
these days as the final word on earth to much loved ones. Oh, these
partings! how they pull a man's heart to pieces; and yet, with that
remarkable insularity which characterizes our race,--or should I say
races--it is one of the things seldom or never mentioned among men on
service; and yet I suppose it is always uppermost in a man's mind. Again
and and again I have lit upon men in out of the way corners, reading a
well worn letter, or perchance gazing at a photograph, every facial
lineament of which was already well stamped upon the mind of the gazer.
It is one of the mental attitudes which go to form a spirit of
comradeship; the feeling that it is all part of the game, and we are
most of us tarred with the same brush.

I had received my orders at the War Office, to join the Seventh Division
then mobilizing at Lyndhurst.

The Seventh Division! that meant very little to me, and indeed to the
public generally at that time, but what it signified to the nation will
be more fully appreciated when the history of this war is written.

It may be interesting to give particulars of the composition of that,
which I believe is the first Division ever to march out of an English
camp fully equipped.

Under the command of Major-General T. Capper, C.B., D.S.O.,[1] now Sir
Thomson Capper, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., it represented the very flower
of our Army, possessing a Staff of most capable officers.

It consisted of:--

Divisional Signal Company;
Divisional Mounted troops;
Northumberland Hussars;
Cycle Company;
Four Brigades of Artillery (R.H.A., R.F.A., R.G.A.);
Two Batteries R.G.A.;
Divisional Ammunition Column;
Divisional Engineers, two Field Companies;
20th Infantry Brigade,--
Brig.-General H.G. Ruggles Brise, M.V.O.;
Brigade-Major A.B.E. Cator.

2nd Scots Guards;
1st Grenadier Guards;
2nd Border Regiment;
2nd Gordon Highlanders;
21st Infantry Brigade,--
Brig. H.E. Watts, C.B.;
Brigade-Major Captain W. Drysdale.
2nd Bedford Regiment;
2nd Yorks;
2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers;
2nd Wiltshire Regiment;
22nd Infantry Brigade--
Brig. S.T.B. Lawford;
Brigade-Major Captain G.M. James, The Buffs.

2nd The Queens;
2nd Royal Warwick Regiment;
1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers;
1st South Staffs Regiment.

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