Michael and the London Scottish Regiment

[Nicholas]

Both Dennis Mackail and E. V. Lucas mention that Michael joined the London Scottish Regiment (a territorial unit) as a private in March or April 1921.  The London Scottish archivist has just informed me that Michael attended a regimental camp on Wimbledon Common "a few days" before he died.
This suggests that Michael was not taking his degree studies very seriously, and that he might have been  thinking of a career in the army, like his uncle Guy, after he had finished at Oxford.  JMB's complete silence on this matter may be a sign of his disapproval.

At Eton Michael had applied for a commission in the Scots Guards, which he did not take up  due to the sudden end of the war.  There is a big social gap between a Guards' officer and a private in a territorial regiment and I wonder what Michael was thinking.  Lucas said that Michael  joined the Scottish as a joke, but this was surely how he presented it to others, not what he really felt.  Did anyone, including JMB, really understand Michael?
 

[Nicholas]

A soldier may not be the idea of Michael that people wish to have, but the characterisation given by Barrie in "Courage", "Neil and Tintinnabulum" and "The Boy David" has never seemed fully real  to me as  by May 1921 Michael was no longer a boy but a young man. 

Around this time of course there were a number of literary figures who followed a military or near military career.  Apart from the war poets like Owen, Graves and Brooke there were Winston Curchill, George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, T.E. Lawrence, Saint-Exupery and no doubt many others.  Here's old soldier W.S. Gilbert's thoughts on the command structure:

In enterprise of martial kind
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind
(He found it less exciting).

The London Scottish archive has some photos of this period and I hope to look at them before Cristmas, to see if Michael appears in any.

[Nicholas]

From The London Scottish Regimental Gazette, June 1921, p.78:
_______________________________________________________________________
Deaths

We regret to have  to announce the death of Private M. L. Davies of the 14th Batt. London Defence Corps.  Mr. Davies was an adopted son of Sir James Barrie, and was an undergraduate of Christ Church, Oxford.  He with Mr. R. E. V. Buxton were unfortunately drowned near Sandford bathing pool on the Thames near Oxford.  He was only 21 years of age and left Wimbledon Camp a few days before the sad event to attend an examination.

"This world is but the rugged road
Which leads us to the bright abode
Of peace above;
So let us choose the narrow way
Which leads no traveller's foot astray
From realms of love."
J. Manrique (translated by Longfellow)
_______________________________________________________________________

There are some photographs of the Wimbledon Camp and an easter church parade in Reigate but Michael does not obviously appear in any of them.
Michael's name is not on the Regimental Roll or in the Book of Enlistments, which suggests he was detached from the Oxford University OTC.