Usual work. Drew rations. Busy all day. Stayed in at night. Received word from home that Ernie had taken the King’s 1/-­¹.

1. ‘Taking the King’s shilling’ was an 18th/19th century expression meaning ‘enlisting in the Army (or Navy)’ – completing the contract by accepting a token payment; by 1915, a semi-­jocular expression except in boys’ adventure stories. ↩