The Mounted Rifles

I was first mobilized at Amherst with the 22nd Battalion. That’s those French fellows, and we got along beautifully with them, we never had any trouble. But we left Amherst, we were in the car barns, in Amherst, that’s where we were within bunks that were made up for us. Then we went to Valcartier. We went to Valcartier, as early as they got the snow off the ground. We were out there and we were in tents. But we were in Valcartier, and we left Valcartier for England in around June 1915 and we went over on a cattle boat. We had 425 horses in our battalion, our regiment then, it was. But, the doctor who examined me was a bit of an itchy-fingered fellow. He was getting two bucks a head for enlisting fellows, you see. He was the guy that was going to put me in the 25th Battalion, which is a Nova Scotia battalion, or in the 6th Mounted Rifles, which was being made up at that time. But he said, “I think you should go in that Mounted outfit.” He said, “That sounds a lot better.” I said, “It sounds better to me too, doctor. That’ll be cavalry.” He says, “Yes.” I said, “That’s for me.” So he put me in the Mounted Rifles, that’s how the decision was made. You’re in the hands of fate at that time and you go along. But he made out my attestation paper, or whatever they want to call it. He made that out showing that I was a real good horseman. He had to put some merit down somewhere. Sure, I knew quite a bit about horses. I was, that’s where you are in the lap of fate all the time. But that kept me in good stead. We got on the boat to go to England, the name of the boat, it was a German ship called the Hershel. The Hershel was a cattle boat and we had enough accommodation on it to take our regiment too. So, before we sailed out of Quebec, I was sent for to the orderly room and the adjutant there told me to go and report to this cabin where there was a man who was in charge of all these horses that were on. We knew then we had 425 horses, because he told me. So, he said, “They have to be taken care of.” So he said, “I just picked your attestation paper out.” He said, “Sounded pretty good to me. You’ve got a lot of experience with horses.” Little did he know, but anyway, I went and saw him, this fellow. He was a pretty good vet. He was a civilian veterinary man, and he was in charge of those horses, delivering them to the British when we got to England, if we got there. But there were no submarine scare on at that time.