Mackintosh Trews

Ode To A Pair Of

During the wet winter fighting in Italy, Montgomery wrote to the War Office for a waterproof jacket and trousers. The Bishop of Southwark was at the time to visit the Eighth Army, and was entrusted with the suit.

With it went a “poem” which some wit in the W T ar Office had written. The first two verses: We’ve despatched pour la guerre, A mackintosh pair Of trousers and jacket, express; They are coming by air And are sent to you care Of the Bishop of Southwark, no less.

So wherever you go From Pescara to Po, Through mud and morasses and ditches, You undoubtedly ought To be braced by the thought That the Church has laid hands on your breeches. —From Montgomery’s “Memoirs”.