HLI Chronicle 1921 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

68
HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE.
and also are sending a draft to Egypt to the
2nd Battalion. Nothing like variety these
days. All our Irish doings will be chronicled
in due course.
A. O. B.
SERGEANTS' MESS NOTES.
ALTHOUGH the period elapsing since the last
issue has been exciting the excitement has not
extended to the Mess. Almost all the members
have been on strike duty at various places
round the Oapital. Owing to mobilization we
have again come in touch with many old friends.
They all seem to be'doing well in their respective
occupations, but a good few would like
to be back again.
The erstwhile Harry Diamond renewed
acquaintance with comrades whose friendship
he had formed during less peaceful times,
and his anecdotes of the Western and Cork
Fronts kept us from wearying whilst in his
company.
The mobilization brought the Mess up to
about eighty members, On the first day we
had some Marines including Happy Harry of
" Bubbles" . fame on "A" deck of the
Te~ttonic.
We are again normal except that Stockey
is away on detachment with the result that
the musical spasms are not so frequent.
Of course, his understudy obliges now and
again but the piano not being a Royal or an
Oliver his records are few, but in the meantime
he is studying No. 3 of Henry's Studies so
some day we shall be independent of the
" Professor."
Our entertainments have been very limited
owing to the strike, but we arranged a Wllist
drive. Mrs. Leggate managed to win first
prize, a love1y handbag (suitable for the
East). Sgt. Gutteridge added to his long list
of trophies by annexing a wrist watch, the
result of being the winning gent. On going
to claim his prize he was quite surprised to
find it was not a set of razors. The event
was quite a success, an enjoyable evening being
spent, Stockey's Paste Sandwiches deserving
special mention.
Our next item' was a billiard match with
the Sergeant's Mess of our neighbours, the
KD,G.'s. We again proved successful and
won by 2 points in 600 up. R.M.S. Goldie,
O.Q.M.S. )iackie, O.Q.M.S. Mills, Sergts.
Brackenridge, W ooldridge and Stockey deserve
great credit for carrying out this operation
successfully, but, I am sure that mobilization
saved us from getting beaten in the next match,
evidently they have scoured all the antique
shops in Edinburgh in the hope of getting a
table similar to ours for the purpose of
practising for Der Tag.
I hope I shall be excused for lapsing into
a foreign language, but a few hours before
compiling these notes I had the mortifying
experience of listening to a three hours
triangular conversation between Robert Potter,
Sandy, and Dick Richards, one could by
listening attentively pick up a few words of
their mother tongue now and again. Such
phrases as "Same again, Mac," "What
are you for, Fred?" and such words as
Bodega, Rutherford's, Fairly'S, and Dumbiedykes
being often mentioned, so evidently
it was not a musical composition they were
discussing. .
The Battalion had some impromptu sports.
Tommy Simpson, who is now built for speed,
once again being prominent in the prize line,
taking advantage of the absence of Brack (not
Alan Breck) he handsomely won the sergeant's
race.
An event worth recording was the visit paid
to the }Iess by Major-General Stockwell. We
were all pleased to see him looking so well.
Sergeant Chisholm was re-introduced to him
in the middle of the square, evidently the
Highland chieftain has been the hero of some
anecdotes in other places than Craiglockhart,
because the General was all smiles whilst
talking to him.
While mentioning a past 0.0. of the Battalion,
I have much pleasure in saying that
we have a beautiful· Ram's Head placed