The Amateur Army

By Patrick MacGill

Patrick MacGill (24 December 1889 – November 1963) was an Irish journalist, poet and novelist, known as "The Navvy Poet" because he had worked as a navvy before he began writing. This work is a collection of essays describing an Irish enlisted man's experience of the training leading up to his departure to fight in the first world war. (Excerpt from Goodreads)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9783958647091

Patrick MacGill

Patrick MacGill, ‘the Navvy Poet’ was born in Donegal in 1889 and died in Florida in 1963. He wrote a number of bestselling books (many of which are semi-autobiographical), including, Moleskin Joe, The Rat-pit and The Great Push, as well as a number of poetry collections.

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death.

CHAPTER II

Rations and Sick Parade

It has been said that an army moves upon its stomach, and, as if in confirmation of this, the soldier is exhorted in an official pamphlet Never to start on a march with an empty stomach. To a hungry rifleman the question of his rations is a matter of vital importance. For the first few weeks our food was cooked up and served out on the parade ground, or in the various gutter-fringed sheds standing in the vicinity of our headquarters. The men were discontented with the rations, and rumour had it that the troops stationed in a neighbouring village rioted and hundreds had been placed under