Source: File: Quartermaster-Sergeant Rabjohn, with his wife and Daughter Mary.jpg, 2015. The Daily Telegraph Tuesday February 23 1915. [online] Available at:<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11421049/Daily-Telegraph-February-23-1915.html> [Accessed: 23 February 2015].
52 miles from London Colchester,
Being one of the
oldest British towns,
Witnessed some
slight excitement
During one
ordinary evening.
The Essex town
was settling down,
About the
Artillery Barracks,
And along the
length of Butt End
Road - a home to
Quartermaster-
Sergeant Rabjohn
and his family.
Sitting down to
supper with his wife,
When they
experienced an explosion
At the rear of
the house - the door
To the kitchen
was blown through -
As about crashed
building material.
In the slight commotion
Sergeant
Rabjohn ran to
the hall and upstairs
Where the landing
was blown in -
Then into the
bedroom where their
Son, of one year
and ten months,
Laying under the
shattered ceiling,
Was to be found
soundly sleeping.
A bomb had fallen
into the rear
Garden, leaving a
crater five foot
Wide - the thrown
up earth had
Rained down on
outbuildings
And house windows
of another
street. Shrapnel had
been thrown
250 yards and in
bricks of a house.
As shrapnel had
snapped the gas
Mantel in their
sitting room, while
Those houses next
had windows
Smashed - Outside
was heard
The gentle hum of
a plane flying
Away in the
direction of Harwich.
With calm
dominating, the only
Thrill was when
boys emerged
In gangs,
marching and singing
To sound of 'The
Campbells
are coming' - the
Germans
Are coming, they
are they are.'
That evening,
about 8.40,
A German Craft
was spotted
Over Mark's Tey, six
miles away -
Another bomb fell
into a garden,
Causing damage to
cottages
Before turning
towards the coast.
A bomb had fallen
on Braintree,
But this shell did
not explode,
As these items
were given to the
Military, described as being
Conical in shape
and a yard long.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Baby's
Escape. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 22 Feb. P.9. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11421036/Daily-Telegraph-February-22-1915.html
[Accessed: 22 February 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 22 February 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Colchester
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