17th September 1918 Tuesday

Little Sleep, Return of the Lost Patrol, the Arrival of Lt. Col. Henderson and a Bolo Arrested

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“I wandered along to the middle Teogra village about 4 a.m. (17.9.18), and found that Wood and Co. had established themselves in a clean, and nice-looking house near the church. He had secured two rooms. The large one I managed to get four beds into, and used as a hospital. The smaller one I used as my own bedroom, and consulting room.

I got back to H.Q. just before eight o’clock to find that Lt. Col. Henderson had just arrived to take over command of the force. He is a Black Watch man, and struck me at the time as being a gentleman. I had some bully beef, biscuits, and tea breakfast, and then set about getting my little hospital in trim. I admitted two Russian soldiers both suffering from Phthisis, and pretty bad at that too.

Col. Henderson brought with him one hundred Russian troops. They are all ex-Russian officers, serving in a British cadet corps, which Col. Henderson has been training at Tundra. A Russian doctor came with them too.

During the afternoon the thirteen missing marines turned up. They stated that they only left Seletskoe at 11.30 this morning, and got an awful shock when they discovered that we had all gone. They also stated that they had seen no Bolos, and had heard no shooting all night. Nor had they heard Merchant calling them. Which proves what I have always thought that Merchant is an accomplished liar, and has a yellow streak in him. The men were able to cross the river all right on the debris of the bridge.

Three small boys also arrived from Seletskoe during the day, and told us that the Bolsheviks had not come into the village. One of the boys was the son of a Bolshevik organiser in Seletskoe and had obviously been sent to find out where we were, and what we were going to do. We kept them as hostages, and later on in the evening the father turned up to look for them and was promptly arrested.

During the day the Russian cadets relieved the Royal Scots, and Americans at the bridge. McNair arrived at night. I got to bed early, and slept like a log.”

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