the 18th Bn was Lord Henry Scott, former commanding officer of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Scots, in the Special Reserve. The 20th and 21st Battalions were camped at Ashtead and at Leatherhead in Surrey during the winter of October 1914–March 1915 while the others stayed at Epsom. From 10 December the four battalions constituted 118th Brigade in 39th Division of K5, but when the K5 divisions were reorganised on 27 April 1915 the brigade was transferred to 33rd (formerly 40th) Division and was renumbered 98th Brigade. By 26 June 1915 the brigade had concentrated at Clipstone Camp in Nottinghamshire and on 1 July the battalions were formally taken over by the WO. All the infantry of the division were concentrated at Clipstone by 13 July and on 3 August they moved to Salisbury Plain for final battle training, with 98th Bde at Tidworth Camp. Western Front 98th Brigade landed in France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in November 1915, but 18th and 20th Bns were immediately detached on 27 November to join 19th Bde, which had been transferred into 33rd Division to exchange experience (see above). After only a short period learning the routines of trench warfare the 18th, 19th and 21st Battalions were all transferred to GHQ Troops on 27 February 1916 and disbanded on 24 April, when the majority of their personnel were commissioned as officers (see above). The remaining battalion, 20th (3rd Public Schools), continued serving in 19th Bde. Captain Robert Graves of 2nd Bn Royal Welch Fusiliers, also in 19th Bde, was highly critical of the battalion: 'Their training had been continually interrupted by the large withdrawal of men needed to officer other regiments. The only men left, in fact, appeared to be those unfitted to hold commissions; or even to make good private soldiers'. He claimed that the remaining battalion 'proved a constant embarrassment to the brigade'. One night he visited the front line when an apparent German raiding party was detected: after a flare and a few machine gun rounds had been fired over their heads the 'raiders' surrendered and turned out to be a large patrol from the public schools battalion that had been wandering aimlessly in No man's land.After conscription was introduced in 1916 the special character (good or bad) of the Pals battalions was diluted as the war went on. Somme In early July 1916, 33rd Division was