TRIBUTE TO COLDSTREAM GUARDS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2419, 26 March 1915, Page 8

TRIBUTE TO COLDSTREAM GUARDS

A.letter.sont home by a Bolton boldier mentions a. tribute paid to the splendid work of the Coldstream Guards by Brigadier-General the Earl of Cavan in the following communication to the officer commanding the regiment:— "I should like to put on record tho fact that for these last four weeks, October 26 to November 20, they have held their line intact under hardships' and strain that it is impossible to describe. Since October 31, when I was ordered off to protect the right of the British line with . the ■ Grenadier and Irish Guards, the two battalions'of the Coldstreams (sccond and third, with tho first temporarily attached to the third) hav« been undor Colonel Porcira, as Colonel Fielding was wounded. It is not too much to say that the whole safety of tho line has depended on their staunchness, and truly, worthily have they held it (their trenches being on a hill, full of water above their knees) for 23 days. The galo of about November 2 cleared- the wood in which they woro of every particle of cover, the trees having been all pierced through b.y shrapnel, and bullets. Hand grenades thrown at them were on one occasion, when they did not explode, picked up and hurled back again. Thev finally rejoined tho brigade on the right flank of this part of the British line on November 17 in as good heart aB the day they loft England. lam more proud to bo their brigadier than any words could possibly express, and I owe to them undoubtedly, -with their comradcs of the Grenadier and tho Irish Guards,, the satisfaction of handing over our line to the French intact and unconquered."