Poem ~ Captain John Armstrong: Z Company - Sunday, 28 January 1917

Source: File: Northumberland Fusiliers Cap Badge. See an original image at: <http://www.centenarynews.com/article?id=3291> [Accessed 28 January 2017]

Amid the columned lists of casualties,

Four officers died from their wounds;

Lieutenant Allan Annand, Lieutenants'

Alfred Norman Headley, Hugh Godfrey

Godfrey De Lisle Bush and Captain

John Armstrong joined the roll of honour.

North east of England, on the banks 

Of River Wansbeck, lay the market

Town of Morpeth - 4 Alexander Road,

Home of one Morpethian family; two
Brothers John and Edwin being sons of

Councilor Isaac and Rachel Armstrong. 

John Armstrong had schooled locally

At Morpeth Grammer, then Armstrong

College - after second-class honours

He gained teachers certificate in 1913 -
John was a sportsman in the cricket

XI along with the school football team.

After 1913's failure for the Creighton

Challenge Cup, he won this by 1914 -

A young man readied for war, already

A colour sergeant in school cadets -

Also to be in Morpeth Boys Brigade -

In rank of Lieutenant when war broke.

At Armstrong college John Armstrong,

From Officer training Corps applied

For commission, by December 1914 to be

With Northumberland Fusiliers - praised

By head of grammar school as athlete,

Mentally able for the power of leadership.

In 1915 a posting took John to Gallipoli -

With the following year, July 1916 saw

Him in France and promotion came within

Seven months, by October to Captain -

Active fighting into winter months saw this

Officer wounded on 10 January 1917.

Edwin Armstrong, John's younger

Brother had been in Grenadier Guards

Since 1915 – Also wounded Edwin

Was then in hospital, at the time when

His brother John succumbed and

Died within 6 days, from his wounds.

From the war office a wire home told

Parents, who read the army's regret,

To say Captain J. N. Armstrong had

Been wounded, on 10 January 1917

With Z Company - 16 January, army 

Council sent sympathy for their loss.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. Roll of Honour. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 26 January 1917. P.4. Col.4. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214129/Daily-Telegraph-January-23-1917.html> [Accessed: 26 January 2017].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 26 January 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214129/Daily-Telegraph-January-23-1917.html

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