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Updated: July 6, 2025
It would not do for all company commanders to go over the top at once: the future has to be considered. One more reminiscence before I close this chapter. It was at Watou that fat Joye used to come into the tent and get me to talk to him about the war. I remember him coming in to see us the last night at Watou and saying to me that we would both have nice "Blighties" in the leg in a few days.
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.
My diary tells the story of these last days until I packed it up with my kit which I handed in when we reached our concentration area in front of the Café Belge on the right of the Vlamertinghe-Ypres road on July 29. "July 25th. "We marched off from Watou at 9.30 p.m. We got along very slowly; the North Lancs in front kept halting. However, it was a nice cool evening.
Having served for two years abroad I applied for a month's leave it was a privilege granted to Staff Officers who needed a rest. My leave warrant reached me on January 5, and next day I left Watou and entrained at Poperinghe for Boulogne. When I returned to Ypres on February 8, 1918, I found that some very drastic changes had taken place in the grouping of battalions.
I replied that I hoped so. Things turned out exactly as Joye forecast: about ten days later I met him on the grand staircase in Worsley Hall! He afterwards won the D.S.O. and Bar, Belgian Ordre de la Couronne and Belgian Croix de Guerre. On the evening of July 25 the 164 Brigade marched back from the Watou area to the camps behind Ypres; we went to Query Camp.
"I had my wound dressed here and also had an anti-tetanous inoculation put into me. I did not like it! "Then Francis and I got into a motor-ambulance and were motored away, through Poperinghe, to Watou. We passed what I assumed to be Nugent's 36th Division coming up in motor-lorries to relieve the 55th Division.
"For the last fortnight the artillery had been preparing the way for us, raids had been taking place, and conflicts in the air had been of frequent occurrence; the Royal Engineers had been constructing roads and other means of advance; miniature railways were running up to the front line; and the road from Watou, through Poperinghe and Vlamertinghe, to Ypres was simply thronged with transport.
I intend to deal with him and give him the telling-off which his impudence and his treason are asking for after the battle. I hope to have more leisure then! So au revoir!" These days at Watou, while being days full of work, were not unpleasant.
On August 2nd we were relieved and marched back to our transport lines. There all preparations had been made for us and everybody enjoyed a good hot meal. The same evening we were taken back in buses to the Watou area." Thus writes the official chronicler in the Lancashire Fusiliers' Annual.
At Watou we were taken to the 10th C.C.S. We had our wounds dressed again there and then had tea. Then we got on to a hospital train which was standing in the siding. Who should join us in the saloon on this train but Gaulter, of the King's Own! He, too, had got one in the leg! The question which interested us most on the way back was whether we would get to 'Blighty. The train went very slowly.
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