LEAVES FROM A FIELD NOTE-BOOK
BY
J. H. MORGAN
LATE HOME OFFICE COMMISSIONER WITH THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
"And my delights were with the sons of men."
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
1916
TO
Lieut.-General Sir C.F.N. MACREADY, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
ADJUTANT-GENERAL TO THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
PREFACE
This book is an unofficial outcome of the writer's experiences duringthe five months he was attached to the General Headquarters Staff asHome Office Commissioner with the British Expeditionary Force. Hisofficial duties during that period involved daily visits to theheadquarters of almost every Corps, Division, and Brigade in the Field,and took him on one or two occasions to the batteries and into thetrenches. They necessarily involved a familiar and domestic acquaintancewith the work of two of the great departments of the Staff at G.H.Q. Somuch of these experiences of the work of the Staff and of the life ofthe Army in the field as it appears discreet to record is here set down.The writer desires to express his acknowledgments to his friends, MajorE.A. Wallinger, Major F.C.T. Ewald, D.S.O., and Captain W.A. Wallinger,for their kindness in reading the proofs of some one or more of thechapters in this book. Nor would his acknowledgments be complete[Pg viii]without some word of thanks to that brilliant soldier, Colonel E.D.Swinton, D.S.O., with whom he was closely associated during thedischarge of the official duties at G.H.Q. of which this book is theunofficial outcome. Most of these chapters originally appeared in thepages of the Nineteenth Century and After, under the title to whichthe book owes its name, and the writer desires to express hisobligations to the Editor, Mr. Wray Skilbeck, for his kind permission torepublish them. Similar acknowledgments are due to the Editor ofBlackwood's Magazine for permission to reprint the short story,"Stokes's Act," and to the Editor of the Westminster Gazette in whosehospitable pages some of the shorter sketches appeared—sometimesanonymously.
The reader will observe that many of these sketches appear in the formof what, to borrow a French term, is called the conte. The writer hasadopted that form of literary expression as the most efficacious way ofsuppressing his own personality; the obtrusion of which, in the form of"Reminiscences," would, he feels, be altogether disproportionate andimpertinent in view of the magnitude and poignancy of the great eventsamid which it was his privilege to live and move. Moreover, his ownduties were neither spirited nor glorious. But the characters pourtrayedand the[Pg ix] events narrated in these pages are true in substance and infact. The writer has not had the will, even if he had had the power, to"improve" the occasions; the reality was too poignant for that."Stokes's Act" and "The Coming of the Hun" are therefore "true"storie