Diary Entry - 14th December, 1915

A good fine morning with a frost, but still a bit sloppy. My day off duty and a really nice day to go into Béthune. At eleven, on going to the guns to see Kellagher, I run into General Sanders, the Colonel (Powell) and the Major and usual attendants in the rear. They have come round to see No. 4 gun with the raised platform. The General is very surprised that we have taken so much off the range by not changing our gun position, as when he made some rapid calculations he made it out that we would only be able to take off 150 yards by raising the gun a foot. However, after looking at the gun pit, he has to acknowledge that his workings must have been faulty and congratulates Kellagher on the job, which is really a fine effort. Today Nos 1, 3 and 4 guns have been raised and so we are safe as regards changing our position. At eleven twenty, as the Major tells me he will be unable to come to the wagon line and gives me some instructions to hand Griffith, I move off for Beuvry, with the groom in the rear. Arrive at wagon line and find Griffith wandering around the horses and rather ruffled - or appears to be. I deliver the messages and proceed to Béthune. I enquire in Béthune the way to the field cashier's office and finally ask an officer who is good enough to take me right to the door of the place. Just as we arrive there a man named Kingston who was at Ipswich appears on the scene and, being so glad to see someone I know, I shake him warmly by the hand as if I was a bosom friend of his. As a matter of fact I don't suppose I spoke more than twenty words to him before but one is so glad to see anyone one knows that they rush the person at once. He shows me the way to the 1st Corps cashier's office after we have partaken of something at a café. Then I asked myself to lunch with him. He takes me round to his billet, which is quite near. On entering the place, I am at once struck with the luxurious apartments consisting of a sitting-room with polished floor very nicely polished and most beautiful bedroom also completely furnished. The luxuries one receives in being posted to an ammunition column! We have a very nice lunch and at two I set out to hunt for 27 Rue St Louis Blanis, where Bee's Mess is, but, after asking some numbers of people, give it up as a bad job and return to the square, where I have arranged to meet the groom. It is about two fifteen by the clock as we ride out of the square. My first impressions of Béthune are much higher than I thought they would be when I journeyed through there in the fog. It looks a quite nice little town and the shops seem to be extraordinarily good. The streets are very windy and narrow – occasionally they open onto squares. The journey home is covered in about an hour and I should reckon the distance is little more than four miles. On arriving at the Mess, I am told that the O.C.'s birthday dinner is to be held tonight instead of tomorrow as there is to be a bit of a show on the 15th -Wednesday. The dinner goes off well and eight sit down at the table (Major Martin Powell,  Todd, Quiller Couch and Waldron of the 71s [in the margin in brackets at this point is a word, written in very small letters, that may possibly be 'pills']. The dinner was much the same as the one before and it was 12.45 am before we got to bed.