Organisations > Roll of honour of Caxton House Printing Office, Dundee

Ernest Lews Gil landers
remain in comfortable safety when so many others had
gone to risk their lives in defence of home and country.
At last Ernest Gillanders made his final decision,
and on 7th June 1915 he went, alone, to the recruiting
office and enlisted in the British Army. In the Scots
Guards, our premier infantry force, Ernest elected
to serve, for as a boy the Guards had claimed his
admiration, and now no other form of service would
satisfy him.
Quiet and modest as he was when he stood at his
counter in the Cowgate, the Celtic fire was pulsing
in his veins, and it appears to us now that our foes,
the Germans, made a tremendous, fatal blunder in their
worldly calculations when by unjust and unrighteous
course of action they called forth such lads as Ernest
Gillanders to confront them on the field of battle.
At Caterham Barracks, Surrey, Ernest was trained
for service. It was a stern experience this training
of the Guards, for the men were hardened with work
and drill and discipline until their bodies and their
spirits became as strong as steel. Of the softening
sentiments of human kindliness and sympathy there
was little to be found in the atmosphere of Caterham.
Ernest suffered much during these months, but he
endured heroically until he passed as a finished
guardsman.
He wrote to us several times from Caterham, and
we may extract some sentences from his letters.
"17th June 1915. — L Coy., Eoom 29, Scots Guards,
Tin Town, Caterham. — Dear Mr. Mathew, — As you will
see from my address, I am in the Guards at the long
last. The life here is quite different from anything I
ever went through, and there is no getting away from
the fact that it is hard work. We have to scrub floors,
beds, tables, and heaps of other things. We go to bed
at 9.15, to be asleep by 9.30 ; we must not smoke
nor talk after 9.30. Some days we have to be up at
29