nstructions for the Toronto Corps to go into
training at Long Branch were also given and I was instructed that
whilst at Long Branch I would have to officiate as Brigadier. On the
17th of August the 48th Highlanders paraded at the Armories and,
headed by the pipers playing "We will take the High Road," they
marched to the Union Station and entrained for Long Branch Camp.

Long Branch is located about twelve miles west of the City of Toronto.
Here there is an excellent Rifle Range and ample accommodation for
four or five thousand men. Major Sweny, a Canadian officer in the
British Army, who was attached to the Canadian instructional staff,
and Major Dixon, acted as Brigade staff officers, and very soon the
camp was in running order.

The first night the Battalion spent in camp there was a terrible
thunder-storm, one of the worst in years. It was our first night on
active service and no doubt many wondered if this presaged the future
of the "Red Watch" in Flanders.

There was not much sleep for the Commanding Officer that night. What
with the terrific storm which lit up the landscape as light as day,
and the newly-acquired responsibility of drilling and disciplining a
battalion of raw troops for the war, the outlook spelt much hard work.
Drilling a Battalion of Militia once a week was fun compared with such
work, for besides the foot and arm drill there was the field training,
and worst of all, the training of the men and non-commissioned
officers in the duties of a soldier in quarters and in the field. The
material was of the very best quality, comprising college men,
business men, and men associated with the industrial life of the
country. The responsibility of its form and future rested on its
commanding officer. The officers and non-commissioned officers had to
be trained from the beginning. In the British army the tradition of
the duties of officers and non-commissioned officers,--the interior
economy of the regiment--descends from generation to generation as
unwritten laws or rules. Certain things are done in a certain way,
often differently from other corps, in memory of some event in the
history of the regiment. We had no standing orders and no regimental
traditions. In a regular regiment a non-com. learns how to "carry on"
his work from practical experience and seeing other non-coms. doing
their work. Long before he becomes a "duty" non-com., he knows what to
do. In our case these duties would have to be taugh