They told us on Tuesday afternoon that our Battalion would be
relieved in the trenches that night (which made only five days
instead of six), and further that we were to move the next day,
Wednesday, away from our 23rd Brigade and 8th Division, and join the
154th Brigade of the 51st (Highland) Division. So we got everything
ready, and the whole Battalion and its Transport started on a ten
mile 'trek' in a South Westerly direction. After about four hours'
marching, we reached our destination, and while on the march our two
travelling kitchens were working, and water was being boiled for
making tea, so that the whole Battalion got a hot meal served out to
them immediately they reached their billets. On these 'treks' there
is always a good deal for me to do after the march is over, as kits
and mails and blankets and rations require to be distributed to the
different Company billets, and they are often scattered, so that the
furthest of them might be a mile or so apart. These I have to find
as best I can, generally in the dark and over unknown roads, so that
on Wednesday I was in the saddle continuously,--with the exception of
a few minutes now and then--from 2 p.m., till midnight. When
midnight came and the work was done, I lay down on my valise in the
open field beside my horses, pulled off my boots and jacket, and got
between the blankets and slept till 6.30 a.m., when it was time to
get up again to water the horses. This has to be done at a Canal
half a mile away, as there is no water nearer.
... This new Division appears to be entirely Territorial, but,
notwithstanding its name, there are a good many English Regiments
mixed up with Scotch ones in it.