Diary Entry - 22nd July, 1916

Reveille at three forty. I got them going at stables, grooming well, but, while I was at the top of the lines, someone started for water and, before I could get to the stream, they were rushing in and out like a jostling crowd at a railway station, the result being that no horses got any water. I saw that ours of the 48th got some all right, and let the others look after themselves. It was again a very warm summer day and, after getting through Beauval, about five kilometres from bivouac, and halting, we had to march across an undulating plain, with no sign of water on it. The cavalry were in a small village by the wayside and had a good watering place, so I halted and watered there. The horses were so thirsty that they almost knocked over the trough. Before getting to Villers for lunch, we halted after a steep hill, to rest the horses, and an APM came along and moved us, as he said two divisions were to march along that route. So we moved on, getting onto a smaller road through Villers, halting just outside, watering in the town and lunching for more than an hour. We were now only 20 kilometres from Amiens and, after lunch, it was in view to the south, until we reached Longueau. Longueau was reached at five and there I had to get orders from the RTO. Buxton had left orders there and we were to go on to Vecquemont, to join our units (reporting to the town major first). We found the whole division bivouacked in the valley of the Somme, just outside the town, and I was very glad to arrive there at seven thirty. I must add that, before starting, it was reported that Driver Morgan had not reported back. He belonged to our battery too. He had borrowed a bike the night before from Bates for five minutes and had never returned. Well, as we were just moving off, it being six, I made a search of the village, eventually reporting the matter to the RTO.