onal Train;
Four Companies Divisional Medical Units;
21st Field Ambulance;
22nd " "
23rd " "

The mobilization of a Division for Active Service is a vast business;
everything has to be thought of and provided; there must be a thorough
equipment for the men, horses, and transport; medical stores, saddlery,
farriery, etc., etc., not a thing must be forgotten, for in those early
days of the war there was no well-equipped Ordnance Department on the
other side. Each Field Ambulance is a dispensary on wheels, comprising
the hundred and one field comforts which warfare rightly provides for
the lamentable wrecks that pass through the hands of the R.A.M.C.

The question of horses is no slight undertaking, and certainly gives
rise to no little heartburning, as every mounted officer naturally tries
to secure a good mount. To me it was a specially serious matter; when a
man walks 15.8 and rides another two stone at least, considerable care
has to be exercised in the selection of his equine friend, who has to
bear with him the fatigues, trials and risks of a campaign. I shall ever
feel the deepest obligation to Captain Kennedy Shaw, O.C., Remounts
Department, Salisbury, for supplying me with one of the best horses I
have ever ridden; a big upstanding bay, with black points; deep chested;
good quarters; with the most perfect manners, even under the heaviest
fire, which could be desired. Strangely enough his name (which was tied
to his halter) was 'Ora Pro Nobis,' a not inapt cognomen for a padre's
horse. He must have come out of a good stable, and I often felt that
someone must have hoped that he would fall into good hands. Should this
by any chance be read by the owner, let me say that both my groom and I
took the greatest care of my good steed until the day when German
shrapnel ushered him into 'the eternal hayfield.'

They were happy days at Lyndhurst, where the Division remained for a
fortnight. The future stress of awful losses was only a bare possibility
then, although it was on the horizon of many men's hearts; but at the
time it was ignored, for many of the officers had their women folk
staying, either in the village, or near at hand; and the lawn of the
'Crown,' the Divisional Head-quarters, was a bright and happy centre of
pleasurable intercourse.

It was a strange experience to be ushered into the very vortex of a
soldier's life, although my experience of military camp life was not a
new one;