Alexander Gordon, a Fisherman
At Grimsby, confessed to having
The German name of Aucherbach.
A married, he was charged with
Failing to register as an alien enemy.
Chief Constable Mr John Stirling,
Grimsby Police, spoke, knowing
Of this man’s ability to be deceiving.
Alexander Gordon, said his father
Had been a lecturer at Edinburgh
And Aberdeen Universities.
Previously Mr Gordon had been
In London and passed a medical
Degree - practising as a German
Doctor, but had been struck off.
A fluent English speaker Mr Gordon
Went to Lowestoft to enroll
As a steward on a mine sweeper –
For reasons when serving at sea,
His behaviours’ became suspicious
Mr Gordon was detained in custody.
Another officer, Detective Inspector
Dixon, of Grimsby Police, provided fact
Mr Gordon had a wife and two children,
And how he encountered the prisoner
In 1906 - having been born
in Berlin
And once served In the British Army.
The prisoner told how he truly believed
How his father was a Scottish professor
Yet the stipendiary magistrate believed
That the evidence showed Him as German
How his fluent English made him dangerous
The outcome of the sentence was Mr Gordon
Sentenced to three months hard labour.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. The Alien Peril – Spy on Mine Sweeper. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 7 Nov. p.5. Col.5. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11208721/Daily-Telegraph-November-7-1914.html
[Accessed: 7 November 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 7 November 2014).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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