194 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



Land while rescuing the wounded, amongst whom he probably 

 hoped to find his friend, Ingram. 



In the inevitable confusion of so great a battle it was difficult 

 to find out exactly what had happened. Rumours that a 

 Padre had been killed came through the brigade headquarters, 

 and the Reverend Neville Talbot, S.C.F., did all he could to find 

 out the facts. On Wednesday, September 20, he wrote to 

 Mrs. Inglis, giving her the full story as follows : 



Wednesday, September 20, 1916. — " On Monday afternoon 

 about 3.15, whiflst searching for wounded who had been lying out 

 for several days, he was hit by a shell and killed instantly. You 

 would have heard before had the brigade to which he was 

 attached clearly known what had become of him, but while his 

 brigade (and division) has been in the big fight he has been 

 acting rather as a free lance . . . making his quarters back at 

 the transport lines and going up for longish spells to help with 

 the wounded at the advanced dressing-station near the lines. 

 Our attack, which his brigade and others in the division made last 

 Friday, was unsuccessful, with the result that at nightfall our 

 line was behind the ground over which the troops had tried to 

 advance. This meant that many wounded had to be left out 

 — some of them, at any rate — until Monday morning, when the 

 ground was won by a successful attack. 



" I think your husband joined in efforts that were made 

 previous to the successful attack to rescue the wounded by night. 

 Others will, I hope, tell you about that. What I do know is 

 that on Monday he joined a party of stretcher-bearers under 

 Captain Moir, R.A.M.C, which went out after the successful 

 attack and therefore behind our front line, to search for 

 wounded. 



" I will ask Captain Moir to write to you himself. He got 

 his leg torn by barbed wire and came down through my dressing- 

 station (some five or six miles back) and asked me if I knew 

 anything about your husband. It seems that Moir and he got 

 separated ; the former lost his way and never rejoined your 

 husband." 



What had happened was this : Mr. Inglis, unknown to the 

 headquarters, had joined a party of stretcher-bearers headed by 

 Capt. Moir, from whom he got separated, but met and fell in 



