only a month before being transferred to the Macedonian front, where it served for the rest of the war. In the Battle of Doiran in April 1917, Herring served as an artillery observer, directing artillery fire in support of the 22nd Division's attack from a front line observation post on Pip Ridge. There was a furious artillery duel. Twenty minutes after Captain Thomas Winwood took Herring's place as forward observer, the observation post took a direct hit from an enemy shell, killing Winwood. Herring succeeded Winwood as battery captain, and was promoted to acting captain in April 1917. For his "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" under heavy shellfire, Herring received an immediate award of the Military Cross. After three years' service, Herring was granted three weeks' leave in Australia in October 1917. He returned to Maryborough, where he met Mary Ranken Lyle, the daughter of the mathematical physicist Thomas Lyle, then a medical student at the University of Melbourne, on New Year's Day 1918. The two became constant companions and agreed to correspond regularly. Herring departed for Salonika in February, returning to duty there in March 1918, and was promoted to acting major on 24 October 1918 on assuming command of B Battery, 99th Field Artillery Brigade. For his service as a battery commander, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He reverted to lieutenant on ceasing to command the battery on 22 January 1919. Between the wars When the war ended, Herring wished to return to Australia and see Mary before resuming his studies at the University of Oxford in October 1919. Mary wrote back pointing out the impracticality of this idea; though she would be disappointed not to see him, he should remain in England and complete his course at Oxford first. The university had awarded him a wartime Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1915; the Rhodes Scholarship Trust allowed him to resume his scholarship, and he studied for a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree. Since it had been five years since he had been awarded his BA, he was entitled to a MA as well, and graduated with both degrees in July 1920. After a holiday in Britain and France with his sister Kathleen, he arrived back in Melbourne on 26 November 1920. Herring was admitted to practice in Victoria as a barrister and solicitor on 1 March 1921 and signed the roll of