98
THE YPRES TIMES
Through a small door in the nave I could see the bearskins of Guardsmen,
and the strains of Chopin's Marche Funèbre drifted into the Abbey.
What is this power in great music that takes the soul and causes it to range
in high places?
In at the Abbey door, surmounted by the Memorial to William Pitt, who was
in power in the days of Trafalgar, they bear the coffin, which is preceded by
the Abbey Cross borne aloft.
It is meet that all that is mortal of the famous Field-Marshal should pass
immediately by the grave of the Unknown Warrior.
The Unknown saluting the Known.
When this generation has passed away, the story of England's travail in the
Great War will prove to be the greatest of all stories, and the body that is borne
in upon us, flanked by figures that have touched the finger of History, calls to
me from places of the Spirit so often overridden and forgotten.
Who are these men who flank the coffin?
First on the left where lies the heart, LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM
PULTENEY, one of the dearest friends of the Field-Marshal. The name of
Pulteney conjures up scenes of the Peninsular War and Waterloo. Sir William,
who was once adjutant of the Scots Guards, was commanding the III Corps when
the late Field-Marshalthen Lieut.-General Sir Herbert Plumerwas in command
of the V Corps at Ypres in 1914.
First on the right walks LIELTT.-GENERAL LORD BADEN-POWELL,
who was gazetted to the 13th Hussars on the same day that Lord Plumer was
gazetted to the York and Lancaster Regiment.
Ladysmith and Mafeking knew Baden-Powell and Plumer too well ever to
forget them.
Another pall-bearer is GENERAL'THE EARL OF CAVAN, who commanded
a composite brigade in the first Ypres Battle, and who will go down to history as
the distinguished commander of the Guards Division.
FIELD-MARSHAL VISCOUNT ALLENBY, who commanded the Cavalry
Corps at Ypres in 1914, is here. All the world knows that he has immortalized
himself in Palestine.
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR GEORGE MILNE. On April 27th, 1915, when all
troops serving in the Ypres Salient came under the Command of the late Lord
Plumer, Field-Marshal Sir George Milne was his Chief Staff Officer. That Command
was known as Plumer's Force."
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR CLAUD JACOB, who ranks among soldiers as one
of the great fighting commanders, is on the right.
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON, who, as Quartermaster-
General in the early part of the War, handled one of the most stupendous tasks
with conspicuous success, walks by the coffin.
The Navy is represented by Admiral of the Fleet, SIR OSMOND BROCK
and the Royal Air Force by MARSHAL OF THE R.A.F. LORD TRENCHARD.'
GENERAL SIR ARCHIBALD MONTGOMERY-MASSINGBERD, who
was senior Staff Officer to Lord Rawlinson on the Somme, is another pall-bearer.
Carrying insignia one notes the features of General Sir Charles H. Harington
Did not Lord Plumer, the great picker of Staff, call him from the East, where he
was serving as a Major?
