Impression sketch
for Woman Harbours Deserter - by Jamie.
39 miles West of
Central London,
In the market
town of Wokingham,
Police were
alerted of a possible
Deserter of a Canadian Contingent.
Saturday 11 March 1916, a source
Gave information that
an address
Was being
harboured a soldier -
Being Goodchild Road,
Wokingham.
The name of the
absentee soldier
Was Corporal
Frederick Shepherd.
Superintendent
Goddard and other
Officers
approached the address.
In the hours of
Saturday night
They knocked on
the house door -
Inside resident Eva
Brant, denied
To allow police any
admission.
Their attempts to
make a Police
Entry continued
for 45 minutes -
With the doors
barred, Eva Brant
Refused to listen
to the officers.
Inside Eva told
Frederick to hide,
As outside the
house, movements
By officers of
the law to gain access -
When Eva likely decided all was lost.
Motivated to
fight for the Canadian,
She turned up the
extinguished
Gas taps and
opened the house
Door - 'so find
the soldier,' she said.
With gas leaking,
Eva pulled out
A revolver onto Superintendent
Goddard, to say, with loaded gun,
One spark would
end them all.
The other officer
behind her went
To grab her arm,
as Goddard made
A move to disarm
her - in a struggle
Eva Brant was
forced to drop the gun.
With Eva Brant
arrested, Canadian
Corporal
Frederick Shepherd
Was soon
discovered, hiding
Behind a door -
the matter done.
Was it for love that
Eva might
Have caused an
explosion? so that
They all should die? Wokingham
Police Court detained both subjects.
Charged as
deserter the Canadian,
Corporal Shepherd
was handed
Over to Military
- as Eva Brant was
Charged £8 for
pointing a revolver.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Arrest
Of A Deserter. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 14 March 1916. P.10. Col.3. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12189288/Daily-Telegraph-March-14-1916.html
[Accessed: 14 March 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 14 March 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone
#worldwaroneremembered #WW1France
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