VALIANT MEN OF LONDON.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16081, 22 April 1924, Page 6

VALIANT MEN OF LONDON.

STORY OF THE -17th division. “'i’lie 47th (London) Division. 19J419," edited by Mr A. H. Maude., with a foreword by Lord Esher, is a booh which no Londoner who loves his city should overlook, and no soldier of the 47th should fail to buy” (says the “Daily Mail”). Jt tells in worthy fashion the thrilling history of the London Territorials and of the battalions recruited in Fleet street from newspaper workers of all kinds and classes. Jt is admirably illustrated and accompanied by excellent maps. The 46th (North .Midland) and 47th. as Lord Esher says in his preface, ‘were the two first Territorial Divisions to fight in France. No divisions throughout the whole war have a more brilliant record." The 4bth took part in the storming of the Hindenbnrg Line, one of.the greatest feats ever achieved in the record of a war. The 47th was m almost every battle from Festubert onwards and always distinguished itself. And at the outset it was cruelly handicapped with antii|imted artillery. To crown everything, the allowance of ammunition for the 47th artillery was only three rounds per gun per day. it was the 18th Battalion of this famous division which started in the battle of Loos “kicking a football in front of them’’ —an exploit which has become legendary, though it has at the same divested the attention from the solid work done by the division in that battle. The Jmndoners were never given the credit they deserved. Some amusing tales are toid of (I.H.Q. fussiness. In the great agony of the First Somme the division fought heroically, with a loss of 4500. On that striken field, for the burial of these valiant London dead, the “famous ‘Padre’s Flag’” was used which last year was dedicated and placed above the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, after years of close association with the life of our soldiers in the battle-line. One of the greatest days on record of the 47th was in the Berman counter-

attack after First Cambrai, in 1917, wheu its men saved the British front and received Lord Haig’s special thanks for their “magnificent defence” Though exposed throughout the day (he wrote) to the repeated assaults of superior forces, they beat off all attacks with the heaviest losses to the enemy and by their gallant and steady conduct contributed very largely to the security of the divisions engaged on the whole front of attack. It has often been said that the Londoner and the city-dweller is a degenerate creature, comparing unfavourably with th countryman in stamina and endurance. In the light of the remarkable evidence contained in this volumne that theory will have to lie abandoned. Tried by the most terrible test the metal of the London men rang true. Long may their eitv remember with solemn pride, the noble part which thev clayed.