Diary Entry - 17th May, 1917

As my Corporal shoeing smith could get no satisfaction from the Rest camp as to getting back our horses on the previous evening, I went myself at nine a.m. I was rather heated, as this man had waited four hours on the previous evening with a note from me asking to return 15 horses and had received no reply. On hunting round the camp, I found the OC, in an old dug out, along with three others, picking out our horses - Colonel Seymour, a dark Major and Captain Robinson Scott. The rest camp, as it was termed, was more like an overrun duck yard than anything else, or, as Colonel Beech said, like Rotten Row, the small paddocks wired off with barbed wire were as bare as your hand and beginning to puddle after the rain we had. Well, to get my horses, I had to ride on to Corps HQ and see the Commandant of the rest camp. Then, after telling some lies about having to move our WL, he eventually gave me leave to draw ten of our horses. When the horses went in, they were put there with the understanding that we could get them when we liked. The Colonel was down for lunch and seemed pleased with the Cook House and Harness Rooms, which we had put up. After lunch, he looked at four of our specimens from the rest camp and went on to Bray. Siggers came down that afternoon and Bellew goes up to the guns again.