Poem ~ Boys Lost On Thames - Tuesday, 31 August 1915

Impression sketch of The Cornwall Training Ship - by Jamie. See original at:http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/TSCornwall/

A mid nineteenth century scheme,

Had set out to create for Roman

Catholic boys - a Ship Reformatory.

This had begun with acquisition

Of Merseyside vessels, naval hulk,

Akbar and the warship Clarence.

Such boats attempting to reform

The boys housed on the vessels,

Had a chequered history - including

The 1887 Akbar mutiny - In Captain's

Absence boys refused to work,

Arming selves and stealing stores.

While some escaped to be caught,

Sentenced ringleaders received

Had labour - the fate of the Clarence

Being more serious - the original

Boat succumbed to intentional fire,

By boys who received penal servitude.

The sister ship Royal William,

Taking the same name, suffered

With a boys mutiny turning to riots.

Some years later having same end,

As boys saved rags and flammable

Liquids, setting boat alight, to sink.

Despite such events and outcomes

Another reformatory school ship

Was proposed, to result in an old

Frigate’s donation - The Cornwall

Fitted out with donations moored

In Pufleet, Essex on river Thames.

As with predecessors the boat could

Accommodate a large number of boys,

Who were under detentions - being

In operation for some sixty years

Only to witness a disastrous fate - this

Time with a large loss of young lives.

The morning of Monday 30 August,

Saw Mr Frederick Lane - experienced

Old Naval Petty Officer - in charge

Of 26 boys -They had left at 10 a.m.

On cutter Alert, for instructional tasks,

Returning during a strong current.

From a distance of 300 yards off

The Essex Shore and on the London

Side of the Cornwall - at 600 yards,

The cutter Alert was hit by a tug -

A witness of event was an officer

Of the Police PC Smith, being on duty.

Giving the time of 11.55 a.m. told

How he saw the cutter progress

Down the river, close to the shore -

Then turned to river's centre to pass

Before a tug, to collide with another

Tug which had been moving up stream.

The Alert was struck on port bows -

The cutter being dragged broadside

To the tugs starboard, the sails fell

To the tugs bow - to be pulled nearly

Eighty yards by the tug - finally

The sails ripped and the cutter sank.

From the Cornwall, Captain Steele

Stated how the cutter appeared

To be at a standstill, in the water -

When a gust of wind caught her

Sails - another viewpoint stated

The cutters return to Garrison Pier.

At some 300 yards from shore,

A towing tug was seen at a 100

Yards to head towards them -

Two boys on look out, reported

Fact to Mr Lane who steering,

Shouted to tug to alter course.

All twenty-six boys were sat

At the bottom of the boat,

When cutter was struck

Amidships - slicing through

The oars and tackle, cutting

Down the mast and her sails.

It was believed that all the boys

Knew how to swim; that prior

To departure Mr Lane had asked

If any could not - but none had

Admitted to fact - once the Alert

Was hit two tugs came to assist.

During any training sessions,

The Cornwall had a dedicated

Lookout, so as the collision

Happened small boats also

Hurried to assistance - Mr Lane

Told the boys to await orders.

Boy Potter beside Mr Lane

Was instructed to dive when

The boat began to sink - boys

Told how their instructor was

Hit by mast on the head to be

Caught in ropes, as Alert sunk.

Various survivors confirmed

That no one appeared to be

On tug's deck, except one man

At the wheel - six boys were

Saved from drowning by two

Tugs, the Empress and Florence.

Captain Steele told how they

Were like a family, when on ship.

Usually the boys remain aboard

For five years, yet with two years

Good conduct gave them release,

Allowing them new freedoms.

They followed old boys progress;

Many of them had gone into

The army, or to train for the navy,

Or careers as merchant marines -

The organization was proud to say

How 400 were then serving in army.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Boating Disaster on the Thames - Collision with Tug - Loss of 17 Lives - Training-Ship Boys Fate. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 31 August. P.9. Col 5. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11815075/Daily-Telegraph-August-31-1915.html [Accessed: 31 August 2015].

Source: File: Children's Homes. Reformatory School Ship 'Cornwall', Purfleet, Essex

[online] Available at: <http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/TSCornwall/> [Accessed: 31 August 2015]

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 31 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11815075/Daily-Telegraph-August-31-1915.html

 http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Ministers Son Blinded - Monday, 30 August 1915

Portrait of MacKenzie in Cairo. MacKenzie, Clutha. Scrapbooks, 1917 - 1947. [online] Auckland War Memorial Museum Library.  Available at: <http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C49530> [Accessed 31 August  2015]

To Note: Clutha Mackenzie, who became activist for blind, was also the author of a novel The Tale of a Trooper Novel (1921) is a first-hand account in novel form of World War I.  Available as an ebook from: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26548

A true New Zealander born in Balclutha,

The seventh youngest son

Of Thomas Mackenzie and Ida Nantes -

The boy given name of his

Birthplace - Clutha Nantes Mackenzie.

A lover of the outdoor life, his education

Was made at Otago

And Waitaki Boys High Schools - days

Of youth spent about

The Southern waters of New Zealand.

In a hankering to join navy, Clutha

Had spent time

On a defence ship, Lady Roberts,

And another vessel -

The lighthouse steamer Hinemoa.

Clutha though took another route,

As an agricultural cadet;

On a Experimental Farm of Weraroa -

To move to the Ruakura

Farm of Instruction, Waikato region.

Life seemed to be set in working

On farms - with time

As labourer loading the ships

In Wellington, over

Ten weeks during a waterfront strike.

The following year Clutha worked

On a sheep farm -

When outbreak of war saw an eager

Clutha to sign into

Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment.

At the age of 17, in 1912, Clutha

had seen his father, 

Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish born

Move from politician,

To be prime minister of New Zealand.

While no one realised his identity,

As son of the eighteen

Prime minster of New Zealand,

Clutha was posted out

To Egypt, with the Rifles Regiment.

Trooper Mackenzie in Gallipoli,

Took part in final

Attempts to take the peninsula,

In August offensive -

Which was known as Sari Bair.

A dominating ridge of ground,

On peninsula heights -

Formation was drawn up of a plan;

With landings on 6 August

At Suvla Bay, alongside attacks.

Land progress in the north would

Take the high ground,

To join up with the other troops -

At Suvla Bay Trooper

Clutha Mackenzie took his place.

It was at this stage when fate

Took a blow - a British

Shell fell short to burst too close.

The act of concussion,

Forced out both Cluthe's eyes.

Ten days after the campaign's

Start, young Mackenzie

Arrived in Alexandria's Victoria

College Hospital, amid

A ward of many injured men.

The soldier made no attempt

To give his identity,

Until a High Commissioner

Cable arrived, to ask

About well being of C.Mackenzie.

The realisation was then made -

He was the son

Of New Zealand’s representative

In London - Soon

Arrangements sent him to England.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. High Commissioner's Son - Blinded at the Dardanelles. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 August. P.7. Col 6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11815052/Daily-Telegraph-August-30-1915.html [Accessed: 30 August 2015].

Source: File: Story: Mackenzie, Clutha Nantes [online] Available at: <http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4m17/mackenzie-clutha-nantes> [Accessed: 30 August 2015]

Source: File: Battle of Sari Bair From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sari_Bair> [Accessed: 30 August 2015]

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 30 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html

 http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Escapees Make For Orme - Sunday, 29 August 1915

Impression sketch of three German escapees, hoping to signal submarine - by Jamie. 

With almost six months passed,

From a spring escape for detainees

Of Germany - being fellows Andler

And Leben - came renewed attempts.

With Wales chosen as a place,

That might fox captured Germans,

Two more officers’ believed

They might escape Llansannan confines.

Their ambitious plan being to meet

Up with a German submarine rescue,

Off the Great Orme - a limestone

Headland on the North Welsh coast.

The prisoner's objective, where a

Serpent shape mass dips into the sea -

Close to the town of Llandudno -

At a twenty distance miles to freedom.

Amid the first interned at Dyffryn Aled,

Lieutenant-Commander Hermann Tholens -

Acting in the battle of Heligoland -

Had been caught by a British Destroyer.

Commander of the sunken cruiser
Mainz, Tholens been drifting an hour

In the cold North Sea, rescued

And taken to Chathams Naval Hospital.

During captivity in North Wales he was

Joined by Captain Heinrich von Henning;

Both schemed with their cell mate,

Captain Wolff-Dietrich Baron von Helldorf.

Long in the planning, the idea had begun

During a prisoner exchange, in December

1914 - then a message reached the

Commander in Chief of German Submarines.

The submarine was to rendezvous

Off North Wales, by the Great Orme, to meet

Helldorf, Henning and Tholens - a final

Date and confirmation made by coded letters.

Mid August saw the planned operation

happen, as the three men managed to prize

Open the bared windows - sounds

Being drowned by a prisoner's gramophone.

In steps of Andler and Leben, the three
Germans easily avoided sentries and lights,

To stroll as civilians out the front

Gates - walking through the night to Llandudno.

Soon after dawn they passed

A training field of Tommy soldiers taking drill -

Yet to be missed at morning

Roll call, hungry escapees purchased a cafe meal.

At sea, submarine U38, under

Command of Max Valentiner, had left base,

Wilhelmshaven on 4 August -

To reach west coast of Scotland and Ireland.

On way Targeting merchant ships

In the Irish Seas, before silently reaching

Point 50 miles off the Orme -

On 13 August 1915, in the cool evening air.

Having hidden for the day

Of 14 August the Germans at dusk,

Emerged, to reach Ormes

Lighthouse and edge a way down cliffs.

The U38 edged closer

Into land, to expect a signal - but

Unable to reach the beach,

The escapees failed in their task.

The plan was still possible,

As the arrangements were for three

Nights - when submarine

Would approach the allotted position.

Back in the hide of brambles,

The three German officers sought

To sleep for the day - until

Another dusk attempt made success.

At the foot of the Orme,

They used a torch in a circular

Continual wave - but no

Reply came from the dark waters.

In a final attempt, in gathering

Driftwood, the men built a fire - waving

A burning log to make signals

In darkness; yet still no submarine came.

Disappointed, the three

Believed that the vessel would not

Then come - in reality

The submarine lay at a short distance.

A limestone buttress had

Blocked their views of each other -

Now the officers decided

Not to wait, instead to leave Llandudno.

The three escapees split

Up to make seperate ways to London -

Walking off alone, Tholens

Bought cigarettes finding rest in a cafe.

After coffee and cake,

Tholens walked onto Tudno Hotel,

To be seen by a police

Constable, who asked for his identity.

For reasons of dejection

And hunger, maybe, he declared

Himself as a German

Escapee, requesting he be arrested.

Then Llandudno went

Into lock-down, as a search was taken

To find the other two -

Believing them to be at the railway station.

Their descriptions did

Not match any man at the station -

Next at Colwyn Bay,

Was decision to halt the London train.

The searched train

Gave no result  - in fact the two

Were still in Llandudno,

trying to gain a car at Silver Motors.

The idea quickly failed

As the staff attempted to engage

In conversations -

The men left, still in Llandudno.

The day faded into rainy

Evening when a cab driver, on way

To get a fare, stopped by

Two soaking men on North Parade.

Alfred Davies asked them

If they needed a cab - on climbing in

They asked in broken

English, to be taken to 'the colonel.'

Obligingly, he drove them

To Gloddaeth Street and headquarters

Of the London Welsh

Battalion - where they were arrested.

27 August saw the three

Escapees in Military Court, Chester Castle.

Captain Tholens in guilty

Plea, stating indignity of being handcuffed.

More suited to dangerous

Criminals, this degraded an officer of war -

Additionally Captain Henning,

Who had also surrendered, admitted guilt.

Henning told that his being

Guarded against escape, by an officer

In company of three soldiers

With fixed bayonets was quite enough.

He shared belief that

Also being cuffed, should not be done

To an army or navy officer;

That rules of English army were wrong.

Lastly Officer Helldorff,

In his plea of guilt, also had decided

To give himself up, knowing

The impossibility to escape England.

All three shared complaints

Of being transported in handcuffs -

To reinforce fact that they,

As officers, had duty to try an escape.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Trial of German Officers - Escape from Prisoners' Camp. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 August. P.8. Col 6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html [Accessed: 29 August 2015].

Source: File: The Home Front Museum. The Great (Orme) Escape! [online] Available at: <https://homefrontmuseum.wordpress.com/tag/ww1/> [Accessed: 29 August 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 29 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html

 http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Driven to Suicide - Saturday, 28 August 1915

Impression sketch of Lieutenant Ervin Henry Cameron - by Jamie. See original at:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51639809

An Irish Officer, a Lieutenant Of 3^rd Battalion

Of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, was son

Of a city analyst Charles Cameron - born

With registered name of Ervin Henry Cameron;

His mother Lucie Mac Namara Cameron.

Initially Ewan Cameron joined army

As a private, to be promoted to Lieutenant,

By 1915 became involved with recruitment

Rallying - only to meet his death 27 August

1915, on a train carriage in Ireland.

Found with a single shot to the head,

On a Dublin and South East Railway carriage,

Between stations of Greystones and Newcastle -

His death occurring from a self-inflicted

Single bullet, causing shock and hemorrhage.

The belief had been that Lieutenant

Cameron had become distressed by loss

Of friends on the frontline – sadly his parents

Had also lost a son some time before,

Drowned on a fishing lake near Athlone.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Lieutenant Shot on a Train. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 August. P.4. Col 3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html [Accessed: 28 August 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 28 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html

 http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Red Cross Reactions - Friday, 27 August 1915

An Impression sketch of French Red Cross advert by Jamie - based on an original image that can be viewed at: http://www.thenostalgiashop.co.uk/The-French-Red-Cross-1915-Original-advert-%28ref-AD855%29/1250.htm

With words prompted in reaction,

To those of published Grace Ellison -

Made out by Cecely Arden Baillie-Hamilton,

Infirmiere Diplomee, of French Red Cross-

In opposition to the lady journalist's

Published inaccuracies of Red Cross.

This had occurred in article series,

And to one issued on 23 August 1915,

With a ‘sweeping indictment’, being made

Against French Red Cross nurses

To start in underhand compliments.

Ellison states how ladies of Red

Cross, being volunteer mothers

At the front, whose nursing science

Being little more than applying bandages -

Their status not allowing nursing

Of diseases, left to orderlies roles.

Cecely Arden Baillie-Hamilton,

Challenged reporter Grace Ellison,

Who knew nothing of basic methods

And the rules of Croix Rouge de France,

With the training disciplines

And tested nursing abilities.

Infirmiere Diplomee tells how

The gaining of Diplome Simple

Has to be gained from school institutes -

In Paris or elsewhere - being equal

To probationer of an English

Hospital over many long hours.

The student then goes through

Varied numbers of technical exams, 

To qualify for Diplome Superieur, while

Infirmiere Major is very complex process.

Furthermore, service is taken

In military and public hospitals.

The implication of timidity,

By single or married nurses,

Reluctant to any infectious diseases,

Is perfectly ungrounded without evidence.

No hospital from war’s start, with

Such illness has seen them present.

On the rare occasion Miss Ellison

Suggests with soldiers have been

In hands of trained orderlies - pressures

Had prevented nursing detachments

From surgical hospitals, in needs

Of the Red Cross presence.

Cecely Arden Baillie-Hamilton,

Riled in reaction, told how trained

Nurse from any class or married status,

Had no fear as at Dunkirk - where typhoid

And diphtheria patients were

Looked after over many months.

'Abject devoted and courageous'

Women are the main words given by

This Infirmiere Diplomee, who face great

Daily tasks - which highlights assumptions

From Grace Ellison, whose belief

For women's suffrage held contradictions.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. French Red Cross – Its Training and Work. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 27 August. P.11. Col 4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812538/Daily-Telegraph-August-27-1915.html  [Accessed: 27 August 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 27 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812538/Daily-Telegraph-August-27-1915.html

 http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1France