Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Noel Butler

Lieutenant Colonel Butler joined the Huntingdonshire Volunteer Force as a Captain in 1900 and in January 1909 was promoted to a Major in the recently formed 5th (Territorial) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. He gained promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the 5th battalion between the 20th January 1912 and 25th January 1915, at which time he resigned his commisison due to a serious bout of influenza.

After his recovery, Lieutenant Colonel Butler returned to the Regiment and was posted to France following the British army's losses in 1916. He commanded the 1st Battalion on the Western Front between December 1916 and May 1917 at which time he was attached to the 11th Essex.

Captain Ernesto V. Andreini

Whilst the battalion were still in England in 1914, Ernesto was their Transport Officer who was seemingly capable of procuring absolutely anything, regardless of how unusual or bizarre the item was! This even involved "requisitioning" a coal lorry and fitting it onto their transport train despite the dimensions insisting it could not be achieved, although he apparently neglected to inform the owner he was taking it. The "rather short gentleman with the twinkling eyes" relinquished his transport duties on his own request to the young 2/Lt Miskin whilst still in England. During the the 15th August 1915 battle Ernesto was posted missing but turned up several days later suffering from severe sunstroke, having been out in no-man's land for several days. He moved to the RAF in 1916 and survived the war but not much information seems to be available on him, despite him being such an obvious character. He is also shown in the 1915 photographs here.