The Reserve Line was about the best trench in the sector.  It was deep, well traversed, and had many good dug-outs.  It also contained our cook-houses and dumps.  The light railway from Vermelles, on which came rations and “R.E. material,” ran along behind it, so that Company Quartermaster Serjeants could deliver their rations to the reserve platoon of their Company, and there was no fear of a carrying party from another Company “pinching” some of the rum.  Westwards from this trench ran three communication trenches, all in good condition, Bart’s Alley, Left Boyau and Quarry Alley, all leading to the Vermelles broad gauge railway line, whose hedges concealed Sussex trench.  Here, in some very elegant, but not very shell-proof dug-outs, lived Battalion Headquarters.  The officers’ bedrooms, and the Mess were on one side, the offices on the other.  Here, Corporal Lincoln and Pte.  Allbright, the Orderly Room clerks, took it in turn to look after the papers, keep the fire alight and generally make a happy home out of a crazy shanty with a wobbly roof and a door facing the Boche.  Many would have preferred to go elsewhere in case of shelling, but these two never left their papers, though more than once the roof came perilously near being whisked off by some whizz-bang.  Philosopher James Lincoln was particularly imperturbable, as he sat surrounded by pipes and beautifully-sharpened pencils, discussing the weather and the crops with any who chanced to pass by.

Further down this same trench Serjeant Archer and “Buller” Clarke looked after the bombs, not quite such a popular weapon now-a-days, and the Pioneers under Serjeant Waterfield and L/Cpl.  Wakefield had their home next door.  Here also was Serjeant Wilbur and that very hard working body of men the Signallers, “strafed” by everybody when telephones went wrong, and seldom praised during months and months without a mishap.  Then came Serjeant Major Lovett in a small dug-out by himself, and near him Serjeant Bennett and the Regimental Police; the latter in trenches became general handy men, carrying rations, acting as gas sentries, and doing all the odd jobs.  Round the corner a large dug-out with two entrances provided the Canteen with a home large enough to contain, when it was procurable, a barrel or two of beer.  L/Cpls.  Hubbard and Collins and the runners lived wherever they could find an empty shelter, and as usual spent most of their time carrying messages or showing visitors round the lines.

There was one other trench, Railway Alley.  This, like its namesake to “Hill 70,” was of enormous length.  It started at Cambrin, passed the Factory and Factory Dug-outs, and, following the Annequin-Haisnes Railway to its junction with the Vermelles Line, acted as dividing line between the two halves of the Brigade Sector.  From the left Battalion Headquarters to the front line, an often much battered part of it, it belonged to the left sector.  Our Headquarters had a private trench running to it, “Kensington Walk,” deep and completely covered with brushwood by way of camouflage.