Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 213
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 213]
106
command of the three remaining double-companies. One of them, Concannon, a very scholarly Irish-Australian schoolteacher, had the best command of fluent flowery English speech that I have ever heard. In his cups he would sometimes deliver a dissertation to a fascinated small audience, on a most obscene subject, with which one might be disgusted, but would find it impossible not to be charmed by his eloquence. Once when our prim Lt-Colonel Braund had bitterly complained to his Captains about the indecent language he was hearing around the camp, "Con" called his new company to attention the next morning. "Gentlemen" he said, "the Commanding Officer of this Battalion considers that there is too much use of the sanguinary and copulative adjectives among his men", and in a louder voice, "It must cease at once".
On the eve of our departure from Mena Camp, the Battalion held a sports meeting on the Mena House Hotel golf course. A ring was marked out with flags and three big marquees were erected to serve beer and refreshments to the officers, sergeants and other ranks, respectively. The programme of events included foot races, high and broad jumping, obstacle races and an officer's donkey race, but beer-drinking seemed to be the main competitive event, probably because it was a very hot dusty day. I was easily winning the donkey race but the sergeants diverted me and my steed into their marquee, and proceeded to pour a bottle of beer down the donkey's throat. I managed to rejoin the race only in time to run a bad second place. A good time was had by all, and some of the soldiers became too drunk to march the mile back to our lines, so our horsed-transport was turned out to bring them home, and limbers went rattling past with pairs of legs hanging over the tailboards. One pair of young officers rode on camels right in among the tents, a caper that our commanding officer did not regard with any enthusiasm or equanimity.
A week afterwards, on 4th of April, we marched to Cairo, entrained for Alexandria, and together with a sister battalion, the 3rd, embarked on the SS "Derfflinger". The next day was occupied in loading cases of dry rations, bundles of sandbags