Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Poem ~ Tennis Player Shot - Wednesday, 24 February 1915

Source: File: Kenneth Powell.jpg, 2015. Remembrance Pte Kenneth Powell - Loker - 18/02/2015 www.wo1.be -GreatWar.Be. [online] Available at:<http://www.wo1.be/nl/jewaserbij/6954/remembrance-pte-kenneth-powell> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Source: File: Kenneth Powell Loker Churchyard, Belgium.jpg, 2015. Remembrance Pte Kenneth Powell - Loker - 18/02/2015 www.wo1.be -GreatWar.Be. [online] Available at:<http://www.wo1.be/nl/jewaserbij/6954/remembrance-pte-kenneth-powell> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].


For the Honorable Artillery Company, February
1915 was seen as a routine month to maintain
The trenches - one battalion soldier, who had
In peace time a great deal on the sports field
Private 1832, Kenneth Powell then aged 29.

Private Powell serving before as a Territorial
Leaving his father's company of leather factors
Joining with the Honorable Artillery Company
Early September at the front by months end.

Attending school of Rugby, Kenneth Powell's
Talent was hurdler and tennis player  - standing
At six foot, Powell Powell first found fame as an
Athlete at Cambridge inter-varsity match 1907.
To go onto play Wimbledon tennis championships
Between years1905 to 1911 - with a 1913 return.

As an all round sports man, he had competed
In hurdles, going onto become Captain of Rugby
For the school fifteen  - and over two years
He possessed the trophy of Victor Ludorum.

In his prowess as a hurdler Powell, the athlete,
Was found to make a record of 15 3.5 seconds
And played for English tennis at Olympic games.
Being Captain of Lawn Tennis and a Wimbledon
Player secured Kenneth Powell's sport career.

Powell, a member of the Cambridge University
Lawn Tennis Club, went to win 1908 single title
At the Queens Club - within that same year
In Sweden, He won at the Covered Court -
Championships to become a tennis Olympian.

A winner of matches, with tennis his main
Game, Powell as a left-handed player with great
Speed and agility, had a weakness of a back
Handed shot - while a volley ability was his best.

Serving with the battalion at Kemmel Private
Powell in February, his fifth month, was proving
Ordinary - a player of 135 matches to his name
Those games he won, outnumbered those lost.

With past sporting competitions gone - now Powell
Swapped racket for rifle - making duty, his watch
About the curving battlefield of the Ypres salient,
Within the now established stalemate situation.

Kenneth Powell, a left-handed tennis player, in role
As Private, fought at Ypres - stationed at Kemmel
Village on February 17 - an ordinary, dull day -
On the front line Private Powell was hit by a bullet,
Despite efforts he died the next day of wounds.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Famous Athlete Killed - K. Powell Dies of Wounds. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 Feb. P.12. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11421098/Daily-Telegraph-February-24-1915.html  [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Source: File: Kenneth Powell (tennis). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Powell_%28tennis%29> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 24 February 2015). 



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