The sun was well up before we set out on Tuesday, August 25. Southwards
again our direction lay: a strategic retirement, we were told. Early in
the evening we reached Landrecies. Hardly had we passed the outskirts
of the town before a scare arose. Civilians came tearing out of
Landrecies. Motor cars and carts rushed past us at breakneck speed.
The cry went up, "_Les Allemands!_" ("The Germans!") A certain peasant
who for the moment had lost control of himself whipped the horse which
he was driving into a gallop, deaf to the heartrending call of some
children who ran in panic after him begging him to give them a lift.
Out rushed a footsore guardsman from one of the ambulance wagons,
placed a rifle at his head, and compelled him to stop and pick them
up....
At about 8 P.M. we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns and the boom
of field artillery. The men of the Royal Army Medical Corps meanwhile
awaited the summons that did not come. The rain came down in torrents,
and they lay down wherever they could find a sheltered spot. Sleep for
most of us was impossible. The din of battle was terrific....
I went at once in search of the Hon. Rupert Keppel and handed to him
Major Matheson's note. He was in an upstairs room with five or six
wounded men. He was lying on a bed with a bandage round his forehead,
but made light of the wounds which he had received. After a few words
and a short prayer at each bedside, I made inquiries for Lord Hawarden.
I was told that he was already dead, but I found him in a little room
by himself, still breathing although apparently unconscious. He had
lost his left arm, and a portion of his back had been shot away. I
knelt down beside him and commended him to God, saying in the form of
a prayer as from myself the hymn "Abide with Me." As I rose from my
knees he opened his eyes and smiled. He had been asleep merely, and now
began to speak with quite a strong voice. Not a word did he say about
himself, or his sufferings. He talked about the battle, about his old
home near Bordon, which was within a couple of miles of my own home and
formed a happy link between us, and about his mother....
The other poor patients were terribly knocked about. Limbs in some
cases had been entirely blown off by shells. Lyddite had turned many
complexions to a jaundiced yellow. And yet every man was calm and
resigned, and proud to have had a share in the fight.... A kindly
French priest was going from bed to bed saying comforting words in
French. Probably not one of the patients understood his words, but they
all understood and appreciated his meaning.
Meanwhile the Germans began to appear on the canal bridge near the
hospital. Major Collingwood went out to meet them, and they entered
the hospital with him. The officer in charge of them, Herr Ruttner
of Berlin, shook hands with me and said that my work would not be
interfered with, and that I had his permission to go anywhere over the
scene of battle in search of the killed, and that I might bury them
where most convenient. He said he was personally acquainted with Sir
Douglas Haig, who with Sir John French had actually been in Landrecies
the previous afternoon. He seemed disappointed not to find Sir Douglas
there still, and desired to be remembered to him. By his orders the
hospital was examined and all arms and ammunition were removed. A
sentry was then placed at the gate.
* * * * *
In the early morning of the next day, Thursday, August 27, the gallant
young Lord Hawarden died. The medical officer who looked after him said
that he had never met a braver patient. A party of twelve men, under
the command of Lieut. Hattersley, went with me to lay him to rest,
together with the two officers and men whose bodies had been placed in
the compound of the hospital. We selected the best spot in the pretty
little cemetery of Landrecies.