On the Kings Service

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On the King's Service

The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the King's Service, by Innes Logan This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: On the King's Service Inward Glimpses of Men at Arms
Author: Innes Logan
Release Date: November 3, 2005 [EBook #16992]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ON THE KING'S SERVICE
Inward Glimpses of Men at Arms
BY THE REV. INNES LOGAN, M.A. CHAPLAIN TO THE FORCES SEPT. 1914-MAY 1916
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXVII

TO MY WIFE

This little book is written as a slight tribute of love and respect for those with whom the writer had, for over twenty months, the honour of association.
UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MANSE, BRAEMAR.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
MUSTERING MEN
PAGE
I. THOSE GAUNT UNLOVELY BUILDINGS 3 II. WHY THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND ENLISTED 7 III. UBIQUE 10
CHAPTER II
A REINFORCEMENTS CAMP
I. THE SUNNY VALLEY 19 II. THE MAN FROM SKYE 22 III. 'YOU CAN HEAR THEM NOW' 26
CHAPTER III
A CLEARING STATION WHEN THERE IS 'NOTHING TO REPORT'
I. FROM PARAPET TO BASE 33 II. 'DO YOU THINK THAT SORT OF THING MATTERS NOW?' 45 III. THE NAME OF JESUS 50
CHAPTER IV
THE AFTERMATH OF LOOS
I. THE FLAVOUR OF VICTORY 57 II. DOUBTS AND FEARS 63 III. OUR SHARE OF THE FIFTY THOUSAND 69
CHAPTER V
DUMBARTON'S DRUMS
I. BACK AGAIN! 79 II. THE FIRST SHOCK OF WAR 81 III. AT THE NOSE OF THE SALIENT 88
CHAPTER VI
WINTER WARFARE
I. THE SHELL AREA 95 II. 'I HATE WAR: THAT IS WHY I AM FIGHTING' 103 III. BILLETS AND CAMPS 106
CHAPTER VII
HOW THE ROYALS HELD THE BLUFF: AN EPISODE OF TRENCH WARFARE
I. WAITING 117 II. THE BLUFF 125 III. 'WE'VE KEEPIT UP THE REPUTATION O' THE AULD MOB, ONYWAY' 128
CHAPTER VIII
THE HISTORIC TRIANGLE 135

MUSTERING MEN
CHAPTER I
MUSTERING MEN
I
Those gaunt unlovely buildings The War Office built Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow, to look exactly like a gaol, but these gaunt unlovely buildings, packed beyond endurance with men of the new army, were at least in some way in touch with what was happening elsewhere. Even in that first month of the war it seemed callous to be breathing the sweet, clear air of Braemar, or to let one's eyes linger on the matchless beauty of mountain and glen. The grey spire of my church rising gracefully among the silver birches and the dark firs, bosomed deep in purple hills, pointed to some harder way than that. Stevenson, who wrote part of Treasure Island here, called it 'the wale (pick) of Scotland,' but just because it was so we saw more clearly the agony of Belgium and the men of our heroic little Regular Army dying to keep us inviolate.
Up to the 10th of September recruits poured in in such numbers that it was hard to cope with the situation in the most superficial way. On that date the standard was raised, and, as though a sluice had been dropped across a mill dam, the stream stopped suddenly and completely. I suppose that was the object of the new regulation, but it caused misunderstanding, and to this day the spontaneous rush of the first month of the war has never been repeated. Beyond doubt the numbers were too great to be properly handled. Men slept in the garrison church, in the riding school, on the floor in over-crowded barrack-rooms, in leaky tents without bottoms to them. There were no recreation rooms. It rained a great deal, and once wet a man with no change of clothing or underclothing remained wet for days in his meagre civilian suit. There were too few blankets, no braziers, and the cheap black shoes of civil life were soon in tatters. Everybody became abominably verminous, and though the food was good enough in its way the cooks were overwhelmed, and it was often uneatable. Nobody was to blame, and in an astonishingly short time order began to emerge, but in those early days one enormous 'grouse' went up continually from the new army that was not yet an army, and those conditions were partly responsible for the fact that when the standard was lowered again the flow of recruits was so much less than before. This, the faculty for hearty grousing, in the army whimsical, humorous, shrewd, sometimes biting, never down-hearted, is evidently an old national custom, for Chaucer uses the word half a dozen times. But the aggravated discomfort of men soft from indoor life was really