Item 04: Walter Bruce Rainsford diary, 3 January 1917-31 December 1917 - Page 47

[Page 47]

on a 5 days instructional stunt – A & B Sections of our Ambulance went out to. Instead of having to march the 28 kilometres to our destination, we were taken in big buses and went through Arques, skirted St Omer, through Wizernes & Halines to Lumbres on the river Aa. On Tuesday and today the battalions of the Brigade have gone through various battle practices and our stretcher bearers went with them. The tent sub-divisions are running an evacuation station for the clearing of the Brigade sick. We are all billetted in Lumbres and very comfortable too. We are allowed to find our own billets & two of us have struck a very decent little joint where we are very comfortable – the owner of the house is a French railway employee and lives there with his wife and three small children. The most comfortable quarters I have had since being on leave in U. King.

Lumbres is a very pretty village situated in a fertile valley with the river running through it. There are very few troops here and the place is not too bad. It is wonderful what a difference a