Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

Lieutenant-Colonel Kinjack (to give him his new rank) exceeded all our expectations. He was the personification of military efficiency. Personal charm was not his strong point, and he made no pretension to it. He was aggressive and blatant, but he knew his job, and for that we respected him and were grateful. His predecessor had departed in his Brigadier's cap without saying goodbye to anyone. For that we were less grateful; but as Dottrell said, "He'd had Brigadier on the brain ever since he came back off leave, and now he'd never be satisfied till he'd got a Division and another decoration to go with it. " Dottrell had just got his D. S. O., so he had no cause to feel jealous, even if he had been capable of that feeling, which he wasn't. His only complaint was that they didn't make his "acting rank" permanent. He aired that grievance several evenings a week, especially when he had got back late with the ration party, and his reference to the "permanent" Quartermaster (at Army Headquarters) were far from flattering.

Colonel Kinjack stopped one night in Morlancourt, and on the following afternoon I guided him up to the Line, going by the shortcut across the open country and the half-dug and feebly wired reserve trench which, we hoped, would never be utilized. The new C. O. had inspected the Transport in the morning without active disapproval, but he was less pleased when our appearance on the ridge (half a mile behind the front line) attracted a few shells, none of which exploded near us. This was considered quite a good joke in the battalion, and I was often reminded afterwards of how I'd got Kinjack welcomed with whizzbangs.