end of the South African War.
Of the fighting in that campaign, the 2nd Battalion had had its full
share. At first it formed part of General Wauchope's Highland Brigade
and fought with traditional stubbornness at Magersfontein and
Paadeburg, and later on identified its name with many of the captures
and some of the hardest marches of that campaign.

On the mobilisation of the Indian Corps, the 2nd Battalion formed part
of a Brigade of the ----th Division and landed in France early in
October 1914, and were in the trenches holding part of the line near
Festubert before the end of the month. At no time, except in the early
months of 1916 in Mesopotamia, was the Battalion so severely tried as
in these first two months in France. The conditions certainly were
comfortable neither to mind or body. The trenches were knee deep in
mud and water, and were without dug-outs or shelters; the enemy were
in great numbers and combined their aggressive tactics with the use of
trench mortars and grenades, weapons of which we had neither knowledge
nor training; of rest for man or officer there was little, yet no
yard of trench entrusted to the Battalion was ever lost either in
France or Mesopotamia. With the spring came better times, and at Neuve
Chappelle a fine victory was won at small cost, but on the 9th of May
the Battalion suffered heavily in making an attack from the Orchard in
front of the Rue-de-Bois. Often and with pleasure have we in the Iraq
looked back on that summer spent in Picardy. Scouts and snipers,
machine gunners and bombers, we all have different memories of those
stirring days as the battalion moved from month to month along the
trenches from Givenchy Hill to Northward of Laventie; and of the days
of rest in billets behind Bethune, Richebourg and the Rue de Paradis;
memories of close comradeship, of well-loved friends, of most noble
deeds and of lives freely given for King and Country. But the day we
recall now and shall ever recall as the red letter day of the year is
the 21st of September. Five battalions of the Regiment joined that day
in the battle of Loos, and though separated in the line, at one in
spirit, all five battalions swept forward regardless of loss, driving
the enemy from their trenches, captured line after line of the
position and penetrated deep into the German defences.

The 2nd and 4th Battalions had attacked together from Fauguissart and,
in reaching the Moulin de Pictre, an advance of two mile