ders. When he came to
command the 149th Infantry Brigade at the end of September 1917 he had
already won the D.S.O. and Bar. To this he subsequently added another
Bar during the German offensive in March 1918. He was said to be a
typical Northumbrian. A leader, gallant and war-wise, of whom
Northumberland is justly proud.

When we left the line at Cherisy we had a good idea what our
destination was to be. But first of all we moved a short way back in
the direction of Miraumont. The 149th Infantry Brigade was quartered
at Courcelles-le-Comte, a shattered village in the area vacated by the
Germans after the battle on the Somme. Here we stayed for about ten
days, and the battalions resumed training their men for offensive
operations. One field day was particularly remarkable for a
demonstration by the Air Squadron stationed at Moyenneville. We
commenced operations before dawn, and I was in charge of the messages
at a spot representing battle H.Q. Just before I left at the
conclusion of the operations, about 9 A.M., an aeroplane swooped down
over our improvised H.Q. and left a message saying 'Expect a report at
B.H.Q. in an hour's time.' We returned to B.H.Q. and, sure enough,
about 9.40 A.M. an aeroplane again swooped down and dropped a small
packet. On opening it I was amazed to find a roll of about a dozen
photographs, taken about an hour before, of the final position reached
by the Infantry during the sham attack. How they managed to develop
and print these photographs in the short space of time is almost a
mystery. But I imagine they must have had some electrical machine for
drying the negatives and prints. During this short stay out of the
line I paid two visits to the old Somme battlefield. The first in
company with Capt. H. Liddell, who had for some time been acting as
Assistant-Brigade-Major. We rode to Grevillers and went on from there
on foot to Hexham Road and Eaucourt L'Abbaye. I had visited the
ground before with Lieut. Odell in June, when we were staying at
Monchy-au-Bois. A good deal of salvage had been done since then, and
there were fewer dead men lying about. But the scene of the fighting
at Hook Sap and round the Butte of Warlencourt was still littered with
helmets, rifles, and broken equipment of all sorts. Of course by this
time the trenches had largely fallen in and were covered with rough
rank herbage. But the wire belts and the duck-board tracks were still
there. When we approached the entrance to