pounders with a view to making a
demonstration by fire to hold the enemy in front of us." Amusing
reading in 1919!

The Division continued to hold a quiet but very extended front till
the end of May, receiving a succession of units from new Divisions to
serve their apprenticeship to trench warfare.

Amongst our visitors, during this period, were units of the 9th
Division, and some of those who have read Ian Hay's _The First Hundred
Thousand_ will have recognized in it a description of a part of the
trenches of the 19th Infantry Brigade.

During this period the four brigades each received a fifth Territorial
Battalion--the Queen's Westminsters joining on the 11th November and
being allotted to the 18th Infantry Brigade; the 5th Scottish Rifles,
who went to the 19th Infantry Brigade, joining on the 19th November;
the 2nd Battalion London Regiment joining the 17th Infantry Brigade in
February, and the 5th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment the
16th Infantry Brigade on the 15th of that month. The 38th Field
Company left the Division on the 9th April, and on the 21st December
1914 the 1st London Field Company, later the 509th, began its long
connection with the 6th Division. The Division lost its squadron of
the 19th Hussars, receiving in its place "C" squadron of the
Northamptonshire Yeomanry.

It was during the sojourn in Armentieres that the "Fancies,"
without mention of whom no history of the Division would be complete,
came into being. With the "Follies," the 4th Division troupe, formed a
few weeks before them, also in Armentieres, they were the forerunners
of the Divisional theatrical troupes which subsequently became
universal.

At Armentieres also took place the first 6th Divisional Horse Show, a
highly successful two-day show--the first of its kind held in the
B.E.F.

On the 27th May 1915 began the relief of the Division by the 27th
Division, and on the following days its move northwards to join the
newly formed VI Corps. Major-Gen. Sir John Keir left on the 27th to
take up command of the new corps, taking with him--as B.G.,
R.A.--Brig.-Gen. W. H. L. Paget.

Major-Gen. W. N. Congreve, V.C., from the 18th Infantry Brigade,
succeeded Sir John Keir in command of the Division; Brig.-Gen.
Humphreys taking the appointment of C.R.A.

CHAPTER V

YPRES SALIENT

1915-16

On the night of the 31st May/1st June the Division took over its new
front in the Ypres Salient, commencing its long tour in