One day in Sidcup on Longlands Road,
With some time into a war situation,
With some time into a war situation,
Came a knock on a door - which opened
To find a Miss B. Fleury being greeted
Unexpectedly by her relatives -
tired,
And slightly dishevelled from an
enforced
And dangerous journey across Europe.
Having worked and lived in Warsaw,
Miss Fleury had then been a companion
To a Hungarian family - in the
summer
Months of 1914, the family
travelled out
To Lovrana - an Austrian seaside
resort.
With August’s holiday declaration of a war
Situation, found her writing home
halted.
Lovrana - in the summer of 1914 -
‘A veritable dream of beauty’ opened
Like a flower in the warmth of holidays
–
War announced descending like a
shroud,
Falling over the resort, making for
panic.
Her employer’s husband had stayed
In Warsaw with his son – leaving his wife
And Miss Fluery stranded in Lovrana.
Unable to leave the hotel, the two women
Saw the other guests start to flee, as
men
Called from service to join with the
army.
At the final closing of the hotel they
found
Temporary refuge in a small town house.
Her employer now struggling for
money
Miss Fleury decided on a option to
return
Home – they parted within the
confusion
Of wars events - forced by haste to leave
Miss Fleury, in apprehension of a
journey,
Set off by way of Fiume to Buda
Poeth,
And onto Miskolez - a place of discovery,
She found as being the ‘filthiest of towns.’
She found as being the ‘filthiest of towns.’
The fact of degradation was all
about
And the state of roads could not claim
Such a status – with many preparations
For war going on all about Miss
Fleury
Was able to move about – to gain basic
Lodging in a Jewish quarter - the
house's
Courtyard daily filled by poultry,
cats,
Dogs and children in ‘insanitary
confusion’-
Then a cholera epidemic broke out.
From her window she saw men begin
From her window she saw men begin
Building coffins – The yard was now
filled
With these - the boxes painted drab black
Left to dry by bright sunshine –
soon carts
And hearses made tracks under her
window.
Back to her rooms from a day's walking
on streets - where she had
experienced
Daily calls of insults for her
nationality –
Then, Miss Fleury fell under an
illness.
The owner of the house abruptly
informed
Miss Fleury ‘There was no room for
invalids’
Prompting Miss Fleury to leave the grim
Situation – By messages she
made contact
Of English Governess-companions in
Vienna.
Keen to leave, she travelled by
Buda-Pesth.
Starting her journey by train Miss Fleury
Starting her journey by train Miss Fleury
Came into the company of women,
drinking
And smoking – as five unruly
Austrian men,
Began a persecution of her – the
train pulling
Into the Vienna station the five
tried to relieve
Her of her valise - in German she
called out
To a Railway Official - her valise was
secured.
Miss Fleury’s troubles were not quite
over by
Her accidently revealing a British
Flag within
Her possession - the resulting
possibility
Of a violent street altercation she
avoided -
A curfew had fallen over any British
found
In Vienna – Being banned from
public places
Between eight a.m. and eight p.m.
all English
Words were also rigidly forbidden.
After this stay in Vienna, Miss
Fleury then
Continued onto Lausanne, Geneva,
Paris
And reaching Boulogne – with the
last stage
To ‘Dear London and home,’ in time
for tea.
Her Hungarian employers, Miss Fleury
learned
That along with his son, the father
had joined
To fight the war on the Allied side.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Across Europe – Plucky
Girls Journey. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 Jan. P.3. Col.7.
Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11345835/Daily-Telegraph-January-15-1915.html[Accessed:
15 January 2015].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago -
Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 15 January
2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar
#WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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