How the Movement Began 63 



who has done so much to forward this work in the French 

 Army. 



On my return to England a large extension to the work, 

 and a proportionate increase to the establishment of the 

 War Dog School was ordered by the War Office. By this 

 time it was found that the available training-ground at 

 Shoeburyness was becoming too congested. A site was 

 chosen on Matley Ridge, above Lyndhurst. There was a 

 splendid stretch of country here, and the training went on 

 satisfactorily until May, 1919. During that month the 

 school was moved to Bulford, on Salisbury Plain. 



In November, 1918, the armistice came, but just before 

 that event the latest instructions for divisional attack were 

 issued. In these it was ordered that infantry battalions 

 in the attack were to be provided with messenger dogs. 

 This seemed to set a seal on the work. The long uphill 

 struggle, the open sneers, the active obstruction, the 

 grudging assistance, all was forgotten, in the knowledge 

 that countless men's lives had been saved and that this 

 fact had now been realized and acknowledged. 



Field-Marshal Haig, in his final dispatch on the war, 

 pays a tribute to the work the messenger dogs did in the 

 field. 



