My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyexperiences, air and the trenches. I was still moved in some degree by the strangedesire to have all experience of this extraordinary and, as we believed, unique event.Duty and inclination therefore to some extent coincided. It was a sad fact that therewas no longer any difficulty in getting to the front with the 16th Lancers.First, I had to face a medical board to be pronounced fit again for war service. It wassomething of an ordeal, as the outcome was a bit dubious. Fortunately there was notmuch walking to be done, and they looked at everything except my leg. I calculatedthat there would not be all that walking in the trenches either, as it was mostly anaffair of sitting tight—shooting and being shot at—and I had a reasonable hope thatmy condition would progressively improve. I was right at first about the walking, ason my return to the Curragh we were nearly always on horseback, and this was alsothe case when I rejoined the regiment and found them at first behind the lines andwith the horses.Before long, in the early autumn of 1915, I was ordered to go in a troopship to Francewith a draft under the command of another 16th Lancer who was an old friend. Wedid not know, of course, where we would land, but to our happiness found ourselvesgoing up the Seine and through the beautiful Norman country; it was my first peacefulpanorama of the France I have come to love so much. We disembarked at Rouen, butI was either too hurried or too ignorant on that occasion to see the cathedral or theother glories. From Rouen we went by train to our destination, also unknown, and bysome skill of staff work came under shell-fire at a town near the front line—Bethune,if I remember rightly. This exercise seemed to us redundant, as the regiment at thattime was quite a long way back—near Hazebrouk, again if I remember rightly.There we had the usual warm welcome, and found some old friends of the first days atthe Curragh. Colonel Eccles was commanding the regiment, and the Adjutant wasLord Holmpatrick, who had the curious Christian name for an Irishman of Hans; hewas one of the best-looking men I have ever seen and was extremely efficient. Mysquadron was commanded by a distinguished and kindly Indian Army officer by nameFraser, who had been attached to us. He was distinguished because he had beendecorated for his part in the famous charge of the 9th Lancers when a Grenfell wonthe V.C. I was given as charger a fine hunter, supplemented by a polo pony whichwas useful for riding around the countryside trying to chase hares until they wereexhausted; a sport and a dinner. Life for the moment was agreeable. I was put incharge of the squadron mess, but soon sacked for doing us too well; the fare wasappreciated but the bills were not.These tranquil and happy days did not last long. An order came that all officers whohad no experience of the trenches should be attached for a period to infantry. I had toreport to a Welsh battalion, composed largely of ex-miners. They were good troops,but they had been in the line a long time, suffering heavy losses, and were generallyfeeling they had had more than enough of that war. Men were suffering a good dealfrom what was called trench-foot, a form of frostbite aggravated by damp and causedby standing around too long in cold water.Prevention was regarded by high authority as better than cure, but not all the men tookthe same view. The orders were to seize every occasion to leave the trench and dostamping exercises to promote circulation of blood in the feet. This could only be58 of 424