Source: File: Charles Wakefield, Mayor of London, amusing
the troops in 1916.jpg. [online] see an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wakefield,_1st_Viscount_Wakefield>
Accessed: 20 January 2016].
Situated on a
central London road,
At Bank Junction,
stood Mansion House
The home and
office of the Lord Mayor.
Something of an
experiment took
Place, in a
development of modernity -
With army officials
present to observe.
Tuesday 19
January 1916 ,city
Recruits were
watched by the city
People, as part
of the Derby Scheme.
Colonel Sir
Charles Wakefield,
The Lord Mayor
and Lady Mayoress,
Were to entertain a
number of recruits.
Along with these fresh city
recruits
Were Barbados and
Trinidad men,
Who had sworn in
the day before.
Within the saloon
of the Mansion
House a
gramophone was set ready,
And played out orders
to the men.
While the Derby
recruits were new,
The audience saw
how they followed
The initial drill, with attentive precision.
They marched obediently, to turn
Smartly, at the
scratchy disembodied
Voice that
emerged from the trumpet.
The organisation
of those recordings
Had been arranged
by Captain Rees,
Who ran the
Mansion House campaign.
Mayor, Mayoress,
and city people saw
How successful
modern technology,
Was apt to train
small bodies of soldiers.
Furthermore, if a
recruit so desired
To buy such a
disk, a man could have
Advantages to
practice his manoeuvres.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. A
Drill Experiment - Orders by
Gramophone. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 20 January 1916. P.7. Col.5. Available at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12108554/Daily-Telegraph-January-20-1916.html
[Accessed: 20 January 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 20 January 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1London
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