Captain Jeune, the Second-in-Command, was also a Regular, but very young.  In mind and manner he was older than his years, and he knew his work as a military professional extremely well.  Some found him truculent, but he never displayed any truculence to me.

On my arrival I became Senior Subaltern of the Battery.  The three Junior Subalterns, Darrell, Leary and Winterton, provided a variety of companionship.  Darrell was a man of business, a most capable officer, a good Mess Secretary, and very easy to get on with.  Leary was a dark-haired Irishman, who had originated in the County Limerick.  He was a good mathematician, but in conversation was apt to be long-winded, and had a wonderful capacity for making a simple matter appear complex.  He had been, by turns, a civil engineer and an actor, and had a fine singing voice.  As an officer he was infinitely laborious and conscientious, but with a queer disconcerting streak of Irish unaccountability.  One never quite knew what he would do, if left alone in charge of anything.

Winterton was a good-looking boy, who would have gone up to Cambridge in 1915, if there had been no war.  Instead he enlisted in the Horse Artillery, became a Corporal, and went to the Dardanelles as a Despatch Rider.  Having spent several months in hospital at Malta and nearly died of dysentery, he came back to England and was given an Artillery Commission.  He was a gallant youth but just a little casual, with rather a music-hall mind, but good company, if one was not left alone with him too long.

There was also attached to the Battery at this time an Italian Artillery officer, whom I will call Manzoni, a Southerner, small and very dark.  He had taught himself to speak excellent English though he had never been in England.  He was an intelligent observer and an amusing companion, and we became great friends.

The personnel of the Battery was splendid, and I do not believe that in any other Battery the spirit of the men was better, nor the personal relations between officers and men on a sounder and healthier footing, than with us.

Some Battery Commanders proceed on the principle that even the most experienced N.C.O. cannot be trusted to perform the simplest duty, except under the eye of an officer, however junior.  The Battery in this case becomes helplessly dependent on the officers.  If they go out of action, so does the whole Battery.  Other Battery Commanders, of whom my new Major was one, proceed on the principle that as many N.C.O.’s as possible should be able to do an officer’s work, so that the Battery should be able to continue in action without any officers at all if necessary, and also be able to adapt itself readily to a sudden change from stagnant to open warfare.  This principle is universally applied in the French Artillery, where, apart from its evident wisdom, it has been necessitated by the great shortage of officers.  My own Major used to train all our best N.C.O.’s with this