ews that we were to go into camp
at the Grey Towers, Hornchurch, Essex, and next came the formation of
a fatigue party to go on ahead and get things ready for the reception
of the Battalion. There was a rush to get into this party as soon as
the news went round. Everyone was eager to do something fresh, and,
after all, we didn't know what fatigues were in those days. So the
party went on ahead.

We who were left kept on with our drills; we even did physical jerks
on the slopes of Savoy Street, Strand. Then came the news that we were
to march away. That bucked everybody up tremendously, for, to tell the
truth, we were really beginning to get tired of the London life. Some
of us, who had seen life in various parts of the world previously,
were sighing again for the open air. All of us were thinking it was
really time we did something to justify our existence. We did not
claim to be show soldiers; we wanted to get at it.

[Illustration: MARCHING AWAY FROM HYDE PARK TO ENTRAIN FOR
HORNCHURCH.
To face p. 28]

All things come to those who wait, however. We were to move to
Hornchurch--the first step to active service. We had our uniforms, we
even had white gloves, and at last we fell in, by the Hotel Cecil,
with a band at our head, and off we went. Funnily enough, some of us
felt this break with London more than we felt anything afterwards. It
was really our first introduction to "the Great Unknown."

Had the Guards been marching away they could not have had a greater
and a more enthusiastic send-off. The streets of the City were packed;
it was a struggle to get through. At Liverpool Street we were reduced
to a two-deep formation, and even then it became a case of shouldering
your way through those who had gathered to wish us "God speed." But we
were entrained at last; we detrained at Romford, and we marched to
Hornchurch. We were in the camp.

OUR FIRST SURPRISE.--That's when we had the first surprise sprung upon
us, for we learnt that the camp would be our home for a whole solid
fourteen days. No one was to be allowed to go into the village; we
were to begin our course of instruction in discipline. There were a
few heart-burnings, but nothing more. The Battalion played up to its
ideal.

We were drilled early and late; we were instructed in the art of guard
mounting; we peeled potatoes in the cookhouse; we fetched coal from
the quartermaster's stores; we fell in to get our rations from the
cookhouse; a