Friday 29th December 1916: From our Correspondent in the Field
Your
correspondent has spoken with the adjutant of the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire
Regiment, today, which has returned to billets after a tour in the front line
at Cuinchy over Christmas. It is fair to say that the adjutant, though keeping
control of himself admirable, was very angry.
The Town
Major is the officer in charge of any town under British Army occupation.
Apparently the Town Majors of Beuvry and le Quesnoy do not know their jobs very
well. Yesterday B Company and half the Battalion Headquarters were billeted in
a former girls’ school at Beuvry. The Town Major then tried to evict them,
claiming that the billets were intended for the 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent
Regiment of 95th Brigade. Meanwhile C and D Company officers at le Quesnoy were
forced to turn out to other and worse billets to make room for officers of the
Machine Gun Corps.
This
confusion was compounded in Beuvry where the Staff Captains of 15th and 13th
Infantry Brigades had seen the Town Major and arranged for the former girls’
school to be retained by the Battalion until 1st January. This decision was
then reversed by the 30th Division and the men had to turn out, again into much
worse billets.
Baths had
been allotted at le Qusenoy, but they were closed at midday and no others were allotted.
Finally the Battalion were turned out from another billet so that it could be
given to 13th Company, Machine Gun Corps who, as with the officers’ billets,
have been given preferential treatment. The adjutant did not state the unit to
which the Town Major of le Quesnoy belongs but we hazard a guess that it might
be a unit which is largely equipped with automatic weapons.
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