Personally, I felt very proud because of the thirty-three thousand soldiers
on these boats only seventeen per cent. were born Canadians; five per cent.
Americans, and the other seventy-eight were made up of English, Irish and
Scotch residing in Canada at the outbreak of the war.

There were no exciting scenes on the way over, except when some wild and
woolly Canadian tried to jump overboard because of seasickness. We were a
long time crossing, because the fastest transport had to cut her speed down
to that of the slowest, and the voyage was anything but a pleasant one.
When we finally steamed into Plymouth, the gray-backs outnumbered the
soldiers by many thousands. The invasion of England!




CHAPTER II

IN THE OLD COUNTRY


We were the first of the British Colonial soldiers to come to the aid of
the Motherland. Judging from the wonderful reception given us, it was easy
to see that the people were very pleased at our coming, to put it mildly.

My first night on English soil I shall never forget. After three weeks on
ship coming over, we were all pretty stiff. The night we landed in England
we marched many miles, and as a result my feet were awfully sore. So, when
we finally arrived at Salisbury Plain and were immediately ordered to march
across the Plain another ten miles to Pond Farm, I knew I shouldn't be able
to do it, and confided my troubles to Bill and another fellow named