Mobilization Orders had been thoroughly thought out and the general
outline made known to all ranks, so that no time was lost in getting a
move on. At Blairgowrie we were billeted in a school, and would have
been very comfortable if we had been older campaigners, in spite of
the fact that our horses were about half a mile away, up a steep hill,
in a field which looked as if it had been especially selected so that
we might trample to pieces a heavy clover crop, and at the same time
be as far as possible from any possible watering place for the
horses. It meant also about as stiff a hill as possible up which to
cart all our forage from the station below. Here our adjutant, Captain
M.E. Lindsay, who knew the whole business of regimental interior
economy from A to Z, started to get things into proper form and to see
that orderly officers, orderly sergeants, and orderly corporals
performed as many of their proper duties as, with their inexperience,
could be fitted into the twenty-four hours. By the end of three days
order was beginning to spring out of chaos, and the adjutant never did
a better bit of work--and that is saying a great deal--than he did in
hunting all and sundry during those first few days.

A depot for recruiting was formed at Kirkcaldy and men quickly swelled
our reinforcements there. After a few days at Blairgowrie, the
Regiment entrained for the Brigade Concentration at Huntingdon; but as
it was found there was insufficient space for a whole brigade, we were
moved to St Ives, about six miles off, where there was a splendid
common for drilling and good billets for the men. Very strenuous
training occupied our two months there, and the expectation of going
abroad at a moment's notice kept us up to concert pitch. An inspection
by H.M. the King of the whole Brigade on the common at Huntingdon, and
another by Sir Ian Hamilton, helped to confirm our expectations,
and when we suddenly got orders one Sunday at midnight that we were to