f the 14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion,
the Black Watch, Royal Highlanders.

On 6th September 1915 Lord Lovat received the following wire from
Windsor Castle:--

"I send you and your Brigade my best wishes on your departure
for Active Service. I feel sure that the great and traditional
fighting reputation of Scotsmen will be more than safe with you,
and that your Brigade will spare no effort in the interests of
the Empire's cause to bring this war to a victorious conclusion.

GEORGE _R.I._"

The purport of this short history is to show how we did our best to
carry out His Majesty's command.

[Illustration: THE LYS SECTOR
_To face page 142_]

CHAPTER VII

SOME PERSONALITIES

In writing this short history of the regiment I have carefully
abstained from all personalities. These few notes on some of our best
known characters are only added to recall pleasant--or other--memories,
and the subjects are asked to forgive the liberty taken.

To criticise one's superiors is both impolitic and impertinent, but
there are three who cannot be omitted--two of them live in England and
may never see this book, and the third--well, he has expressed his
opinion of me quite bluntly more than once already.

At Grammont I received a letter from a very well-known member of the
football team thanking me for the medals, in which he said:--"We
always liked General Girdwood for his kindly consideration for the
men, and I know I am only expressing the opinion of all the boys when
I say we would not have changed him for Haig himself." There is no
doubt that was the opinion of the whole Division about our
G.O.C.--and, fortunately, we only had the one. Whether he was talking
to the men after a good bit of work in the line, or at a formal
inspection in the "back area," one always felt how keenly interested
he was in the men. They loved his "Beatty" cap--but not his roasts of
beef. He always expressed his appreciation of good work, but
apparently disliked the growing of oats on the spare pole of one of
the limbers--but the transport know more about that than I do!

The G.O.C. had certainly a brain-wave when he adopted the "Broken
Spur" as our Divisional badge. We were all very proud of our "Broken
Spur." An Australian officer, seeing it at Faustine Quarry, asked if
it was the badge of the 74th Division. "Well," he added, "we call you
'Allenby's Harriers,' because you are the only Division we can't