“D” Company occupied a large building, a convent which had been deserted, near the “C” Company Headquarters. The men had had many a worse billet, even when out of the line.
The shelling became more frequent as time went on, and casualties occurred to several civilians. On the 3rd of November the civilians were ordered to evacuate Froyennes. Hitherto they had simply been advised to go, and told that transport would be lent to them to help them remove their belongings. But it now became necessary to compel them to go, and on the night of the 3rd a fleet of motor ambulances and other transport took them all to a place of safety in Lille. It was a pathetic sight to see the poor old creatures from “B” Company’s convent being loaded into ambulances, for they had accepted the situation in the cellar so calmly and philosophically, and they were now loath to leave what had been their home for so many years. It was almost a self-supporting convent, for in the gardens vegetables of all kinds were grown. Many fowls and rabbits were also kept, and the Mother Superior on her departure presented these to “B” Company. Roast fowl in the front line was a luxury which surprised the oldest soldier in the Company.
It should not be thought, however, that life at Froyennes was free from the horrors of war for, the Civil Service Rifles lost one killed and ten wounded in the five days spent there. After the assurance from the people of Lille that the war was over, this was regarded as a heavy casualty list. Of these casualties, Private G. A. Watson, “B” Company, who was killed on the 2nd of November, proved to be the last man of the 1st Civil Service Rifles who was killed in action.
The Battalion was relieved on the 4th of November, and marched to reserve billets in the village of Cornet, just off the main road, and half-way between Tournai and Lille.
Froyennes had been described as a village of convents and châteaux. Cornet can only be described as a village of hovels and mud, but the squalor of this wretched place was forgotten in the excitement caused by the news that the war was now “all over bar shouting,” and that the signing of the terms of the Armistice was expected daily.
The Bulgars, the Austrians and the Turks had already accepted terms, but these had caused no excitement. The only terms that mattered to the troops in France were those to be imposed on the Bosches. A big sweepstake was organised in the Battalion at Cornet on the hour at which the Armistice terms to Germany would be signed. But before the prize was won the military situation in the immediate vicinity had undergone a change, and the Civil Service Rifles were pursuing the enemy in open warfare once more.