Death of One of our Vice-Presidents
232
THE YPRES TIMES
We were rising reluctantly from our seats, and pulling on our equipment in
order to set off upon our nightly tasks, when the door opened and a Signal orderly
appeared, bearing in his hand a pink telegraphic slip.
"From Divisional Headquarters, sir," he announced to the Brigade Major.
The Brigade Major read the document aloud. It said
"Divisional General is most anxious to learn nature of casualty for which
your Brigade Headquarters required brandy this afternoon."
We sat down again and looked at one another. Finally our concentrated gaze
was turned upon the Brigade Major. We asked him
"What did you say when you telephoned for that brandy?"
The Brigade Major, that monosyllabic man, replied
"Don't let your mind dwell on that. The point is that we got it."
Someone—I think it was the Brigadier himselfadded
"Yesand what's more, we have had itThey can't take it away from us now
Finally we decided to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Court. The following
telegram was dispatched to Divisional Headquarters
"This is Saint Andrew's Night; and we are a Scottish Brigade. We wanted
the brandy because the B.M.G.O. had volunteered to brew us a bowl of
punch. No casualtiesas yet."
In the small hours of the morning, as we returned from our nightly round, a
reply came through from the Divisional General
"Scotland for ever!"
An Active and Useful Life.
IT is with deep regret we have to record that, since our last issue, one of our
valued Vice-Presidents, Viscount Burnham, has passed away, having died
suddenly in his sleep at his London residence on 20th July, in his 71st year.
In the early stages of the formation of the League he rendered assistance of
incalculable valueand although of recent years, owing to his multifarious duties,
we had not seen quite so much of him, he was always ready to place his unbounded
influence freely and unreservedly at our disposal. His death creates a vacancy that
it will be difficult to fill.
Open, debonair, restlessly energetic, and large-hearted, the end of the Great
War found Lord Burnham occupying a unique status among the public men of his
time. Without being in the first flight of politicians, for he never held office, he had
achieved, by indefatigable industry, by strict moderation of speech, and by his known
willingness to be of service in any good or national cause, the position of being one
of those to whom the Government turned almost instinctively when they required a
good chairman for a Committee of Inquiry or a painstaking member of a Commission
charged with the duty of tackling a difficult problem and presenting a workable report.
Again, no one did more to cement more closely a mutual friendship between Great
Britain, France and Belgium. Indeed, he was one of those men who helped to make
the whole mechanism of the State and of society move smoothly.
For long he was the acknowledged head of the British Press, and even after
he relinquished his newspaper, he remained a wise counsellor and friend to all
journalists. No good cause went without his support, and the amount of work he