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Updated: June 11, 2025
On August 25 the Battalion, and with it the rest of the Brigade, moved back from Goldfish Château to Query Camp, near Brandhoek. The weather, which had been fairly fine for several weeks, now again broke in thunderstorms and rain. Trees were blown down along the main road to Ypres. The clouds hung low or raced before the wind, so that no aeroplane nor kite-balloon could mount the sky.
Train left Lumbres at 10 a.m. Went through St. Omer, Hazebrouck, and Poperinghe. We got out at Brandhoek, about two miles beyond Poperinghe nearly at Vlamertinghe. Marched to Query Camp. Remained here in tents during the afternoon. The arrangements concerning us seem very vague. Divisional Staff do not appear to have given very definite orders to General Stockwell.
It then entrained at Eecke for Wizernes, near St. Omer, and marched to billets at Acquin. A stay of about a fortnight there was occupied in the use of an exceptionally good training area. A return was then made to the former front line, and detraining again at Brandhoek, the Battalion went this time to another hut camp known as Toronto.
Detraining at Brandhoek, the Ten Hundred marched to Brake Camp, a rambling collection of huts built in a wood near the main road running between Poperinghe and Ypres, within a short distance of Vlamertynghe. It was "Pop!" Unchanged, grim and grey, visited day and night by bomb and shell with the ceaseless activity of that Belgian area.
He had had a very hard time in the Salient, and in a few days he was back in hospital with influenza. The 50th Division were holding the line in front of Passchendaele Village and a little to the south. Only one brigade was in the line at a time another remaining in support around Ypres and the other back at rest about Brandhoek.
Humfrey, by a curious coincidence, turned out though I did not know it until many months after to be the brother-in-law of my school-friend William Lindop! Never shall I forget that summer evening near Brandhoek. Roake, effervescing as always with droll wit, and Humfrey, with his natural cheerfulness and affability, made me at home in their little hut at once.
It has been a point of honour with us to fire off all our guns as soon as possible after the New Year came in. On the evening of January 1 we were relieved and moved back to Brandhoek. On January 3 the Division was taken farther back for a rest, and the Brigade marched to the district about Watou on the French border.
In the midst of all these conflicting rumours and views the Normans marched to Godewaersvelde and entrained there for a return to Brandhoek. At Red Rose Camp they prepared for another lengthy period in the Line, about the second week in March moved up to another camp in a shelled area.
When in reserve the Battalion was stationed at "B" Camp at Brandhoek, on the Poperinghe-Ypres Road. Here the officers and men were accommodated in very comfortable wooden huts, from which Poperinghe, with its shops and cafes, could easily be reached. Attention should be directed to the rigorous sanitary measures which obtained in this Corps, chiefly due to the insistence of the Corps Commander.
On Boxing Day a Christmas dinner was provided, consisting of turkeys, puddings, port wine, beer, etc., the orderly work being done by the N.C.O.'s, and the carving by the officers. From Brandhoek the Battalion moved by 'bus to the Steenvoorde area, where it was accommodated in very scattered billets for about ten days, during which it was training and resting.
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