MEN OF THE TREES 



was sent to 5 B Reserve Brigade. My commanding of- 

 ficer was Colonel John Harvey, who had been famous 

 in India as commanding the Tiger Battery. My acting 

 Major was Lieut. Fletcher, who within ten days of my 

 arrival was forced to go into a hospital as the result of 

 an old hunting accident. I was now left in command of 

 the Battery, which consisted of eight hundred Irish 

 Reservists, six hundred horses, and two guns. In addi- 

 tion to these responsibilities I was made Riding Master, 

 and the only time I had for working up my Field Ar- 

 tillery Training was at night time, after dinner, which 

 I did with an old Sergeant Major who had just returned 

 from the Battle of Mons. Before going to France my- 

 self, I passed out five hundred Drivers for the Front. 

 Those were happy days that I spent at Ballincollig. In 

 spite of my strenuous duties I generally managed to 

 hunt two or three times a week with the United, Mus- 

 kerry or Duhallow. I found that following the hounds 

 was the best sort of training for my Drivers, and we 

 often fell in with the hunt when they were in the 

 neighbourhood. 



In the early days of 191 5 I proceeded to France and 

 after a brief stay at Harfleur, the base camp, I went up 

 the line to fill the first officer casualty in the 115th Bat- 

 tery, 25 th Brigade, thus becoming First Temporary 

 Officer in the First Division of the Old Army. 



But I am not going to fight my battles anew, for I 

 recall the lines written by a brother Officer in my 

 Division. 



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