Many officers were joining us. Since war had been declared, E.G.
Langdale, R.C.L. Mould, C.R. Knighton, S.R. Pullinger, C.H. Wollaston,
G.W. Allen, J.D. Hills, and R. Ward-Jackson had all been added to our
strength. Later came D.B. Petch, R.B. Farrer, and J. Wyndham Tomson, of
whom Petch was straight from school, and he, with the last two named,
served a fortnight in France before being gazetted. Their further
careers can be followed in later chapters with the exception, perhaps,
of Hills, who himself writes those chapters. As his service is a
combination of details, many of which are typical of the young officer
who fought in the early days of the war, for general information we
narrate so much. John David Hills, though not 20, had already seen six
years' service in his school O.T.C., including one year as a Cadet
Officer. He surrendered his Oxford Scholarship and what that might have
meant in order to join up at once. He passed through the battalion from
end to end, occupying at various times every possible place: signalling
officer, intelligence officer, platoon commander, company commander,
adjutant, 2nd in command, and finished up in command of what was called
"the cadre." For some time, too, he was attached to the brigade staff,
and when we add that he excelled in every position separately and
distinctly, and won the admiration and love of all, we may spare him
further embarrassment and let the honours he has won speak for him.

Clothing was a lasting trouble. We were now wearing out our first suits,
and from time to time there confronted us statements that sounded rather
like weather reports, for example--"No trousers to-day; tunics
plentiful." Then the question arose as to whether a man should wear a
vest, and, if so, might he have two, one on the man, the other at the
wash. Patient endurance was rewarded by an answer in the affirmative to
the first part of the question, but the correspondence over the second
portion has only just reached the armistice stage.