War Illustrated Article–February 20, 1915

Our Own Photographer among the Sportsmen:

The guard of the Sportsmen’s Battalion at the entrance to the camp at Hornchurch. It is changed every twenty-four hours, and members retire into the hut in the background for meals in turn.

Pioneers of the engineering section at work. Inset above: Adjutant Lieut. Inglis. Orderlies in the vicinity of the cookhouse, about to covey “tucker” to their comrades.

Thursday at Hornchurch is looked forward to as keenly as Friday (pay day), for it is the day when the ever-popular “War Illustrated” arrives. Inset in the above photograph are Major Richey, D.S.O. (left), and Lieut-Col. Gibbons (right), of the Sportsmen’s Battalion.

Some Scenes at Hornchurch Training Camp

Instructor-Sergeant Cummings, holder of the world’s one mile walk championship (see in centre), with squad of recruits that he maintains is the finest he has ever trained. Inset on left and right: 2nd Lieut. H. A. Taylor and 2nd. Lieut. V. Hayes.

Preliminary hostilities at Hornchurch. Sportsmen pose for their photograph after snowball bombardment at one of their huts.

Lieut. Dr. Walter Hill, chief medical officer to the Sportsmen’s Battalion, with “Taxi,” the Cruft’s winner mascot of the regiment.

Sportsmen seated on a tree that fell, smashing a hut but, fortunately, without injuring any occupants.

The huts at Horncurch, which accommodate each fifty men. Inset: Lieut. Philip Suckling, first recruit to the battalion, who has served in Zululand.