readily accepted. He then supervised the raising of his battalion. Three of his eight companies were drawn from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, but the other five came mainly from central Victoria. He took particular care over the selection of officers. The newly formed battalion marched from Victoria Barracks to the training camp at Broadmeadows, Victoria, on 19 August. Elliott believed that Australians would take readily to military discipline if the reasons for it were properly explained. McCay was disturbed at the numbers of men without prior militia training that were being enlisted, but some of the battalion's recruiting area had no militia units. Instead, Elliott relied on the quality of the militia's officers and non-commissioned officers to produce well-trained soldiers. On 18 October, the 7th Battalion entrained for Port Melbourne, where it boarded the SS Hororata for England. While it was en route, the destination was changed to Egypt. In Egypt, the battalion was re-organised, changing over to the new establishment of four companies instead of eight, and McNicoll left to take over command of the 6th Infantry Battalion. Elliott established a mystique as a larger than life personality, and his idiosyncrasies drew intense devotion and loyalty from his men. He acquired the nickname "Pompey" after the famous football player Fred "Pompey" Elliott, who played 209 games for Carlton and Melbourne. Throughout the war, he was accompanied by a black charger, called "Darkie", who (with subtle encouragement) would spot the smallest irregularities in the men. Years later, his men were still convinced that it was the horse who had noticed the errors their commander had berated them for. For the landing at Anzac on 25 April 1915, the 6th and 7th Battalions travelled from Lemnos in the . The plan called for the troops to be landed by tows—wooden rowboats towed by a powered craft; but when the ship came under fire with no sign of the tows that were to take the troops ashore, the ship's master decided that the 7th Battalion must proceed ashore in the ship's rowboats. Elliott was strongly opposed to this, as the men would have to row a long way, and the battalion would become disorganised from the start, but had to give way. Elliott went in the fifth boat. When his boat and the one following were about from shore, they were met by a steam pinnace, which towed them to Anzac