Impression
sketch of refugees from Belgium - by Jamie.
When war had
begun, only a year
Before, many
British had fled
The Belgium
capital - others
Though remained
behind -
Trapped by German
occupation.
British presence formed
a colony
Within Brussels -
an English
Church in the
capital had
Seen a Sunday
attendance,
Of a hundred
regular people.
Demand on a Brussel's
charity
To assist the
colony grew;
Helping those
British short
Of means, due to
the war -
With 200
receiving monies.
A Telegraph
correspondent,
Within neutral
Rotterdam
Met Thursday 12
August,
French and
British freed
From a German held
Belgium.
Negotiations made
by Embassy
Of America had
succeeded -
A mix of children,
women
And men to leave
Brussels,
Having been there
for a year.
Two English women
from Liege,
Plus Sixty women,
along with
three men over military
age,
Children and
twelve French
Nuns from
Courtrai, all made free.
Amid the List of English
Ladies
Were named twenty
English
And four Belgium
children -
One American
woman to make
Her way towards
Dorking, Surrey.
To greet them all
at the Dutch
Border, the
Correspondent
Met a 14 year old
London boy,
Who had been in Antwerp
Taken captive and
made to work.
For six weeks,
young Marlow
Was made to carry
German
Dispatches -
and finally
Three English
named nuns,
Headed home to Thorton-Heath.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915 English
Ladies - Released From Belgium. The
Daily Telegraph, [online] 13 August. P.8. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11788177/Daily-Telegraph-August-13-1915.html
[Accessed: 13 August 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 13 August 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Belgium
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