Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 15 direction. At four-thirty we were all pretty tired and glad to march the two miles back to camp. It was a very hot day and the sun shone all the time. Friday we paraded on the field at nine-thirty with the other four companies in the district, and stayed there all day, each company bringing a haversack lunch. Luckily it was another nice day and apart from the excessive heat we were at least spared the rain which one usually expects inthis country. In the morning the Parade Sergeant-Major put the men through their paces and in the afternoon We had a dress rehearsal with the officers in their positions. We had a colonel from the Camerons on the field whose battalion had already been through this sort of inspection and he gave some very useful hints. At five, we dismissed and all the companies returned. The band was out twenty- three strong and was practicing the General Salute and some pieces for the march past. Friday night everybody retired early. Saturday morning reveille was at seven-thirty and there were no parades in the morning until eleven when I had the one hundred and twenty turned out in their dress for the next day just to make a final check up on hair cuts, battle dress and the web equipment. The men were to parade just in battle dress and anklets with their respira- tors and tin helmets slung, so the business of checking up on their dress was not too difficult. In the afternoon most of the company were taken to a nearby town to watch sheep dog trials, which are quite famous in this part of the country. The trials take place in a large field. The shepherd and his dog stand at one end while three sheep are let loose at the other end. It is the job of the dog to herd these sheep through two fences with a very small opening and then herd them into a pen. After that they are let out again and he has to separate one from the other two which is quite a difficult job. The shepherd stands in the same place all the time and whistles directions to the dog. It is really wonderful to watch the intelligence of these dogs in

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14 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD I J . . Contnbutions y at EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS HOME I-Written by Lieut. Andrew Fleming I am late this week because we have been exceptionally busy. We had an inspection on Sunday and spent most of last week getting ready for it with the result that by Mon- day when the inspection was over I had all the monthly re- turns and war diary for August still to do. Then the Major is sick again and I have just that much more to do. You see when he is on the job he runs into town every morning and deposits the canteen money in the bank, gets the mail and does all the odd jobs so that when he is away I have to do all that and it takes up a couple of hours every morning. Anyway last week we shut down the Mill on Wednes- day night and did not start her again until Monday morn- ing. Thursday we picked one hundred and twenty men from the company and took them to a nearby soccer field and began to brush up their foot drill and marching for the coming inspection. Naturally a great many of them were rather rusty and we broke them up into small squads for the morning. In the afternoon we went through the whole ceremonial drill as it was to be done on the inspec- tion on Sunday. We took great pains in making the men wheel without bulging when in column of threes by placing three stakes in the ground at the point where they changed

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16 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD the way they herd these dumb sheep. That lasted all afternoon and we all retired early as reveille was at five- thirty the next morning. Again it had been a beautiful day, but a little cooler and we all prayed for a favourable Sunday. At last Sunday arrivedg at eighty-thirty We moved off all in one big convoy and arrived at the point of inspection. The inspection took from ten till half past eleven and need- less to say most of the time was spent standing very still. We lined up in close column of companies with the officers in review order with our company in front which meant I was in a vunerable spot where it was rather unwise to make a mistake. We waited from 1010 when the District Commander took over from his Adjutant till 1035 standing at ease with a lot of big shots walking around eyeing us while awaiting the Inspecting Officer. After the salute, he proceeded to inspect the companies one by one and it was live past eleven before he was finished, then the officers were lined up and presented to him. After that there was the march past with No. 2 Company leading and the officers marched on the left flank. That was all. We then got back in the trucks and it was after one when we arrived back for lunch. We were all very hungry as we had break- fast at six. The day was beautiful and not too hot. We were inspected on a beautiful estate and all in all it was a marvellous day with the whole inspection going off with- out the slightest hitch. Naturally I was rather nervous, but all the right com- mands seemed to come at the right time and quite a few people have congratulated me on my effort so I could not have done too badly. If Il i 8 Q Later As the King and Queen have now left Balmoral Castle, according to the papers, it can now be told that it was they who inspected us a week ago today. In my last letter I gave a fairly detailed description of the ceremony, but the