upward was soon dashed by his
appointment to a Supply Column. This "grocery work," as he
characterised it, was most distasteful to him; he thought of throwing
up his commission and trying to enlist as a private, but finally
decided to seek a commission in the Royal Field Artillery. After two
unhappy months in the Supply Column he was appointed in command of an
ammunition working-party at an advanced railhead in the Somme
battlefield. How he enjoyed this work his letters will show. It
involved, however, the hanging up of his application for transfer to
the R.F.A. In October, 1916, he was appointed Requisitioning Officer
to the 2nd Cavalry Brigade. He rejoiced at his escape from the
inglorious, albeit necessary, work of the Supply Column, and was soon
at home with his new comrades.

As time went on, it became more and more evident that our cavalry
would not have much opportunity in the War. The enforced inaction
preyed upon Paul's spirits, and in December he determined to do his
utmost to exchange into a unit in the front line. In his application
for transfer he put his preferences in this order: 1st, Infantry; 2nd,
M.G.C., heavies; 3rd, Artillery. The authorities, realising that his
extreme short sight disqualified him for the Infantry, assigned him to
the Tank Corps, which he joined on February 13, 1917.

Paul's delight at the change of employment was unbounded. His letters
from the time he joined the Tank Corps sing with happiness. Having
pushed all obstacles aside in order to walk the sacrificial road, he
found great gladness in breasting its steeps. A singular change is
discernible in his letters in the last seven months of his life. No
longer was there any reference in them to political affairs at home or
to international events. He who used to follow the progress of the
world with so much intentness had not a word to say about the change
in the Premiership of Great Britain, or any comment to offer on such
momentous events as the overthrow of the Tsardom in Russia, and the
entry into the war of the United States of America. He was either too
absorbed in his new duties to continue his old habit of observation
and comment, or else his gaze was now turned otherwhere, and he was
following the gleam.

A few weeks before his death I wrote to him suggesting that, as he was
then twenty-one, a joint banking account in his name and my own might
now be transferred to him so that he would have the money under his
own contr