SHEFFIELD BRANCH DINNER.
18
The Ypres Times.
Willow walk," would have sat up and stroked his whiskers. That dug-out, the boathouse," swam
in water. The trench was just a sewer. Rats skedaddled on the sandbag-tops and gnawed about in
the dark. The men, wet, cold, caked with slime, peering into Death's face. The country round blasted
with fire and fights tree-trunks stripped and broken short. We lay in mud, knelt in it, waded and
stumbled hip high in it.
Ay," broke in Dick on my dreary vision, his teeth evidently well into a savoury supper and his
heart full of sentiment, it's as snug as a doss down in Kentthe hopfields under the stars. Do
you mind, Lewin, them blinking guards in Morteldje Salient S'trewth, and that night young Hockley
stuck and left his gumboots in the slosh. It gave him his Blighty proper, sitting in that icy boghole
till dawn in his socks."
Dick was well-known for his imagination where facts failed him, and I grew alert. The two were
inseparable in weal and woe, mutual in old soldier cunning, though not long past their 'teens lank
Lewin of a fresh and ingenuous complexion, Dick short of stature, swarthy as a gipsy, and acquainted
with as many shifts as stories.
Suddenlya trumpet-like voice rang out, distant but clear, not unlike a foxhound's note in full
cry. The ruminant friends seemed to find it natural in this new found Arcadia. For Dick opened
again, recalling his own valour on the occasion of an enemy attack in the Salient. That day he was with
an officer whose batman had been knocked out. "There we were, doing the 'follow me, lads!' with
the tykesorficer Mickey and me we was prospecting against we'd take over, and bli'me if they didn't
just then start shelling. Out of 30 there were 14 casualties. A man on my right had his head took
off another, on mv left, was counting his beads. But they were stouthearted enough. The Bosches
are coming,' they shouted. We're ready for the blooming beggars,' and they put them back allright
and killed a lot. And I and Mickey just with our sticks
An agonised cry rose from the trencha few yards away, it seemedand froze speech on his lips.
A gasped Saints defend us! a scramble, and the pair were in frantic rout.
Posts were far apart, and almost immediately their footsteps died away out of my hearing. I
leaped down and was grabbing my helmet here, my belt and rifle there, when past the stair end limped
a rustling body, and curdled my blood with that awful wail as it went. What was it Was it some
•enemy ruse Some disguised devilry sprung on us in our securityI was up and out in time to see
a shadow of white flit round the next traverse, uttering woe on the track of the sentries the trench
deserted and silent as the grave behind it. As often when below the level of the soilwith the lawless
acoustics of subterranean dips and bendsno hint came back to me of what was happening beyond
with pursued or pursuer. I hurried after, and two bays on, crashed into the sergeant-major. Oh,
beg pardon, sir, but I was just bringing this along, thinking you'd like it for the officers' mess. I got
it with my sword as it went flopping down the trench. It must have strayed from its flight and found
a dose of shot. I think it gave Riflemen Dick and Lewin a bit of a turn."
And in his hand he held a plump Brent goose.
R. C. BROWN.
On the opposite page will be found a photograph of the very successful dinner held by the energetic
Branch of the Ypres League at Sheffield. It was held at the King's Head Hotel, Sheffield, in the evening
of November 3rd. The company numbered 93, and all stood in silence for two minutes prior to grace
being asked by the Hon. Chaplain. Lt.-Col. M. JDuggan, O.B.E., presided. The guests of the evening
were Major D. Ramsdale, Chairman of the London County Committee, and Dr. C. J. McGrath, Chairman
of the Sheffield Branch Toe. H." Balfour's Dannemora Orchestra rendered a splendid list of selections
throughout the evening, while a concert party composed of local artists entertained in a most admirable
manner after dinner.
During the evening there was received in reply to a loyal message the following telegram from His
Majesty
The King heartily thanks the members of the Sheffield Branch of the Ypres League,
assembled at their annual dinner, for their loyal message which His Majesty has received with
much pleasure."
Colonel Duggan, in proposing the toast of The League," said that in his experience of military
history, our greatest disasters, the greatest death-rolls and the greatest incompetencies, had always been
the rallying points of regiments in the hereafter. The esprit de corps of regiments was built up not
somuch on what they didason how terrifically they had suffered. In Ypres they had built the sentiment
on victory. It would go down in history as the most magnificent defence known. Verdun was grand,
but it did not mean the life of the world. The Soinme was bad the retreat in 1918 was bad but
