[Footnote 7: R. B. B. Jones. Born, 1897. Killed, May 21st,
1916. In the shooting VII, 1913-14; captain of gymnasium,
1914. Lieutenant, Loyal North Lancashires. His heroic bravery
on the Vimy Ridge recognised by bestowal of a posthumous
V.C.]

_June 16th, 1916._

I have had another fit of the blues over this wretched transfer.
Why should it be given to all the fellows I know to be in the
thick of real fighting--a life which anyone should be proud to
live--while to me, aged twenty, standing six feet, about forty
inches round the chest, Rugby footballer, swimmer, fluent French
speaker, and Balliol scholar, it is given to load up rations?
Loathing this Supply work, I have already applied for a transfer
to the Horse Transport Section. Oh! that I had only obeyed the
dictates of my own conscience and enlisted in the H.A.C. at the
start of the war, instead of staying on at school to get a
paltry scholarship which the odds are 10 to 1 on my never being
able to use! What I pray for is a job in which the following
elements are constantly present: (1) hard work; (2) real brain
work, employing, if possible, my knowledge of languages; (3)
constant danger, or, at least, the constant chance of it; (4) if
possible, horses to ride. For such a job I would willingly give
ten years of my life.

_June 22nd, 1916._

I am glad to say that I'm not finding my new job so absolutely
hopeless as I expected. It is in many ways not at all
uninteresting to be attached to a Supply Column. After a long
time with men whose one interest in life is horses, I now find
myself with men who eat, drink, live and breathe motors. My
experience has already taught me that England has a splendid
system of mechanical transport. Our column numbers no fewer than
150 lorries, 6 motor-cars, and 20 motor-bikes, and about 600
personnel, not to speak of a big travelling workshop and two or
three break-down lorries. When you consider that this is merely
the means of supplying one single division, you will faintly
realise what a part mechanical transport plays in this war. There
is no horse-train to a cavalry division, and the lorries deliver
rations direct to the regimental quartermaste