Constant calls for returns and reports. The people here are very friendly and easy to get on with. Men very energetic; good thing. Had a bath this evening, second since arrival. Water very scarce. Field Day tomorrow: rather a nuisance the day before we move.

Footnote

‘Returns and reports’. Almost everything in a unit was enumerated or recorded—its strength, casualties, sick, stores expended, daily activities etc. Most of this work was compiled by the Adjutant and Quartermaster.

The field exercises conducted in mid-October were the last training events before 36^th (Ulster) Division began the routine of life in and out of the trenches. Although the format of the exercises was not representative of the activities that would be conducted by the units of the Division over the next three years, they did allow Major General Nugent to get a feel for the level of training and discipline of the Division’s infantry. He was not wholly impressed, which resulted in the removal of a number of officers in the autumn of 1915.