Rev. Rupert Inglis 185 



shell, which went through them both. They were wounded in 

 six places." 



Easter Day. — " It is two days since I wrote. I could not 

 finish it on Good Friday night, as while I was writing it a tre- 

 mendous bombardment was going on, and I knew the battalion 

 I am with was in it and I could not collect my thoughts. In the 

 evening the battalion went out, and I went to the dressing- 

 station. It was a perfectly awful night." 



Ajoril 24. — " It seems that the battalion has done very 

 well indeed, and in spite of the awful conditions has done 

 almost all if not more than they were sent out to do. They 

 have been tremendously complimented, but I hear the Colonel 

 is dangerously wounded. One of the officers killed was Jumbo 

 Johnson (author of ' At the Front ' weekly in Punch) ; such a 

 good chap and just engaged to be married. From what they 

 said to me when they bid me good-bye, I think the Colonel and 

 Johnson had a presentiment that they would not come back. 

 . . . While I was at the dressing-station the faithful Williams 

 found me out and brought tea in a thermos, which was much 

 appreciated by the wounded. They were in an awful state, wet 

 through and muddy from head to foot. One of the battalion was 

 found dead smothered in the mud. One officer, a nice boy, lay in a 

 shell-hole with a broken leg from Friday night to Saturday night. 

 He was then found, and it took eight men to carry him. The 

 mud was so awful they could not get him out before it was light, 

 so they had to leave him in the trench, and he stayed there all 

 Sunday. They got him out on Sunday night. It has been 

 rather a strenuous time, but it has only been a small affair as 

 things go nowadays." 



Later. — " Had to leave this and go and take some funerals. 

 I looked in at the dressing-station. There was a boy there 

 brought in this morning. He had been buried in a dug-out in 

 the trenches for six days. He had nothing to eat and only a 

 little water to drink. He was not wounded, and when I saw him 

 two or three hours after he had been brought in he really was 

 extraordinarily well. He had only been allowed a little food. 

 It would not have been safe to give him much. He had his first 

 cigarette while I was there. 



" Another man was brought in last night who had been 



