by Major W.S.N. Toller, while Captain C. Bland became skipper of "A"
Company.

During this same tour, the Brigade suffered its first serious disaster,
when the enemy mined and blew up trench "E1 left," held at the time by
the 5th Lincolnshire Regiment. This regiment had many casualties, and
the trench was of course destroyed, while several men were buried or
half-buried in the débris, where they became a mark for German snipers.
To rescue one of these, Lieut. Gosling, R.E., who was working in the G
trenches, went across to E1, and with the utmost gallantry worked his
way to the mine crater. Finding a soldier half buried, he started to dig
him out, and had just completed his task when he fell to a sniper's
bullet and was killed outright. As at this time the Royal Engineers'
Tunnelling Companies were not sufficient to cover the whole British
front, none had been allotted to this, which was generally considered a
quiet sector. Gen. Clifford, therefore, decided to have his own Brigade
Tunnellers, and a company was at once formed, under Lieut. A.G. Moore,
to which we contributed 24 men, coalminers by profession. Lieut. Moore
soon got to work and, so well did the "amateurs" perform this new task,
that within a few days galleries had been started, and we were already
in touch with the Boche underground. In an incredibly short space of
time, thanks very largely to the personal efforts of Lieut. Moore, who
spent hours every day down below within a few feet of the enemy's
miners, two German mine-shafts and their occupants were blown in by a
"camouflet," and both E1 left and E1 right were completely protected
from further mining attacks by a defensive gallery along their front.
For this Lieut. Moore was awarded a very well deserved Military Cross.

[Illustration: R.S.M. R.E. Small, D.C.M.]