e at
present in camp near Poperinghe Station. In the push they will be the
right rear battalion of Stockwell's Brigade. After my bath I made one or
two purchases in Poperinghe and then had tea there. Having had tea, I
returned to Query Camp--by lorry most of the way--where I arrived at
6.30 p.m."

"July 29th (Sunday).

"Up 9 a.m. At 10 it poured with rain and prevented Church parade. At
10.30 Allen and I set off with Sergeant Baldwin, Sergeant Donovan,
Sergeant Brogden, and a few other N.C.O.'s and runners, to reconnoitre a
track. We went on a miniature train as far as Vlamertinghe. Then we
walked across the fields. We were in a hot-bed of artillery batteries.
Suddenly a shell dropped close to us. Three of our party were
wounded--Sergeant Donovan, Lance-Corporal Segar and Private Hampson.
Lance-Corporal Segar had a large slice out of his hip, but only a flesh
wound, a nice, but painful, 'Blighty'! Donovan and Hampson had slight
wounds; they were 'walking cases,' but it will be hospital for them all
right. When they were dressed we left them with an R.F.A. man to be
taken on the first ambulance; and we then carried on along Track 6, past
Salvation Corner, beyond Ypres and into Liverpool Trench. We left some
sign-posts there and then walked back to the miniature railway. It was a
horribly dirty trip; all the ground was thick with slush. We got a train
part of the way back and travelled on an engine the remainder! It was
4.15 p.m. when we got back. We had some tea. Then we attended a
conference, presided over by Colonel Best-Dunkley, in Headquarters Mess
Hut, to have our last corporate discussion upon the coming battle. There
were officers from other units connected with us there; and Best-Dunkley
made sure that everybody knew exactly what he had got to do and what
assistance he could expect from anybody else. He was calm and dignified
and even polite. He concluded the proceedings by making a soldierly
appeal to the honour of the battalion, said that he knew that every
gentleman in the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers would do his duty, that he
placed entire confidence in our loyalty and our ability; and remarked
that he would not hesitate to recommend for decorations anybody who
carried on when wounded or distinguished himself by any conspicuous act
of bravery.

"Major Brighten looked into our mess tent just before dinner. I was
alone, looking at maps. He said that he wondered what I would think of
it all when I saw the c