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

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

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Poem ~ Charlie Sorley: Officer of Poetry - Sunday, 17 January 1915

 

Source: File: Charles Hamilton Sorley in military uniform.jpg, 2015. Charles Sorley, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 January 1915. [online] Available at:<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sorley >[Accessed: 17 January 2015].

  

i  A Boy's Life

In Aberdeen of 1895 were born male twins,

William Ritchie Sorley and his elder brother,

Of some moments - Charles Hamilton Sorley. 

To Powis House, a mansion of the old town

Came this young family, with boys aged one -

A wild windy placed looking over the North

Sea - their home surrounded with fields,

Which were filled with the life of the wild -

And not so far away a station - for the boys

Led to mystery kingdoms down the tracks.

By age of five, now joined by a sister, the boys

Experienced another move - to Cambridge

Where their father was to become a university

Professor  - so the twins’ education began -

To centre on games of marching and singing.

Both in English and French - their sources,

Being the Pilgrims Progress and the Bible -

Along with ballads of Scott, Blake and bard

Of Shakespeare - all before a school career.

The older, Charlie Sorley, joined as a day boy,

At the King’s college choir school - happy

In everything - everywhere making adventures.

As twins, the boys looks and nature differed,

But a separation from his brother was uneasy;

For six weeks William fell ill with Scarlet Fever.

ii School Life

Aged 13 in 1908 Charlie gained a scholarship

With Marlborough College - separation again

Took him from William, then at another school.

Charlie by 1910 moved into the senior house,

Gaining delight in Alderley library - his resource.

This move Charlie had done with a friend

A boy who sadly, after a short illness, died.

Charlie was said to have taken this quietly.

With favoured runs across rain filled country,

He took solitary walks and to share in sports -

With iron views on right and wrong Charlie

Gave himself voluntary, for breaking of rules.

By December 1913 came yet another move

In education, with a scholarship for University

College Oxford – so Charlie agreed to leave

Marlborough early, an ending he would miss.

A habit for Charlie had been to write down

What was in his mind – early on this had been

In Forms of heroic verse, in a style of Scott –

The growing Charlie though, became reserved,

With his family knowing less of his activities.

  

Unknown to them he took part in a debating

Society  -making speeches and interactions

With the Malburian – the school magazine.

For a time his heroic verse tuned to shockers;

He told in dormitories within the dead of night.

Next in a move from lower to upper sixth,

Charlie gained leave to travel to Germany

First completing commitments to the Malburian

Preserving them for a family archive -Charlie

Sent batches of compositions to his mother,

On regular occasions, until June 1915.

iii  University Life

Now the twins were 19, when young Charlie,

On 20 January 1914, travelled away to Schmerin

In Mecklenberg – where he stayed with family

Of a lawyer – Charlie happily learned German,

And gained new friends  - with spring and April,

Charlie moved to Jena to become a university

Student - summer came in hot June, his family

Visited, for a stay in Jena and a tour of Thuringia.

During the Saturday evening of their weekend

Stay, Charlie led them through a town square -

Where men and women gathered about tables,

Under flared lights, with singing and drinking –

These people, who Charlie believed as having

Stupid expressions. The next day in climbing

A hill, they saw again such German habits.

They sat and looked across Jena - Charlie could

Not make out the German student who would

Spend two years in fighting, in folly drunkenness -

Only in the third year, did such students work -

To get though their exams - then with July 1914,

Came time for Charlie to trace his steps home.

A walking tour was planned, with a friend across

The Moselle valley, to join his brother William,

In Schwern  - in order to return home together

But this plan was never to happen - on Sunday

2 August, Charlie and friend were at Trier,

When suddenly arrested - to be placed in separate

Cells for a day – reasons for detainment given,

Due to their not wearing a hat – Charlie informed

The officer, such was a habit for people in Britain. 

Those long hours were relieved, by conversation,

With a soldier prisoner in the next cell - speaking

Through a knot hole while keeping awareness

Of the sentry – as tourists they were released,

And ordered to leave the country – so Charlie

Returned by way of Belgium – through Liege 

By train - as he drowsed on Monday afternoon,

Saw soldiers wearing waterloo hats on a platform.

By Brussels then Antwerp, Charlie shared

The problems of gaining passage homeward –

Finally to get aboard a boat, the British Consul

Had chartered - by 6 August Charlie made it home

Still hatless with a Jena beer mug and sandals.

  

iv Army Life

With hardly time to take any breath on 7 August,

Charlie applied to take an army commission,

With the university board of military studies –

Yet with nothing happening Charlie, in Oxford,

Made out another application to join up.

Charlie considered of joining as a private -

He believed to be 'the really heroic thing to do' -

When he found the Gazette displayed his name

For a new service battalion - the 7th Battalion

Of Suffolk Regiment - to be a second Lieutenant.

On that same day, came orders for him to report

At Churn, a training camp on the Berkshire Downs.

By third week of September he arrived At Shorncliffe

Situated above town of Folkstone - learning history

Of the 'Old Dozen' - his regiment with all its traditions.

Amid letters of 1915 - the date uncertain - yet written

In mid January - Lieutenant Charles Sorley wrote

From Shorncliffe, to say of alarming monotony,

Of his existence - how staleness affects the men

And officers alike - a reported lack of efficiency 

Meant they were unlikely to move for a time.

Days went swift but with nothing to show - living

For a future turned to the past - in habit of old men.

'War is chasm in time,' Charles defied the media's

Habit to claim 'war is ennobling purge' - only to cause

Unhappiness and lack of comforts - papers should

He felt, be muzzled - any illusion of war as splendour

Would need to be purged, after the end of the war.

Any leave was in abeyance, despite the inactivity -

He felt for his friend, with Oriel men mostly in khaki.

Charles made envy with his advantage of working

With his brain - his own felt stagnant - even any will

To learn French was absent - his mind stayed shut.

by Jamie Mann

 Anon., 1919. The Letters of Charles Sorley with a Chapter on Biography.

 Cambridge University Press.  Chapter 1 Biographical.

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Poem ~ Girl Escapes Austria - Friday, 15 January 1915

One day in Sidcup on Longlands Road,
With some time into a war situation,

Came a knock on a door - which opened

To find a Miss B. Fleury being greeted

Unexpectedly by her relatives - tired,

And slightly dishevelled from an enforced

And dangerous journey across Europe.

Having worked and lived in Warsaw,

Miss Fleury had then been a companion

To a Hungarian family - in the summer

Months of 1914, the family travelled out

To Lovrana - an Austrian seaside resort.

With August’s holiday declaration of a war

Situation, found her writing home halted.

Lovrana - in the summer of 1914 - 

‘A veritable dream of beauty’ opened

Like a flower in the warmth of holidays –

War announced descending like a shroud,

Falling over the resort, making for panic.

Her employer’s husband had stayed

In Warsaw with his son – leaving his wife

And Miss Fluery stranded in Lovrana.

Unable to leave the hotel, the two women

Saw the other guests start to flee, as men

Called from service to join with the army. 

At the final closing of the hotel they found

Temporary refuge in a small town house.

Her employer now struggling for money

Miss Fleury decided on a option to return

Home – they parted within the confusion

Of wars events - forced by haste to leave

Miss Fleury, in apprehension of a journey,

Set off by way of Fiume to Buda Poeth,

And onto Miskolez - a place of discovery,
She found as being the ‘filthiest of towns.’

The fact of degradation was all about

And the state of roads could not claim

Such a status – with many preparations

For war going on all about Miss Fleury

Was able to move about – to gain basic

Lodging in a Jewish quarter - the house's

Courtyard daily filled by poultry, cats,

Dogs and children in ‘insanitary confusion’-

Then a cholera epidemic broke out.

From her window she saw men begin

Building coffins – The yard was now filled

With these - the boxes painted drab black

Left to dry by bright sunshine – soon carts

And hearses made tracks under her window.

Back to her rooms from a day's walking

on streets - where she had experienced

Daily calls of insults for her nationality –

Then, Miss Fleury fell under an illness.

The owner of the house abruptly informed

Miss Fleury ‘There was no room for invalids’

Prompting Miss Fleury to leave the grim

Situation – By messages she made contact

Of English Governess-companions in Vienna. 

Keen to leave, she travelled by Buda-Pesth.

Starting her journey by train Miss Fleury

Came into the company of women, drinking

And smoking – as five unruly Austrian men,

Began a persecution of her – the train pulling

Into the Vienna station the five tried to relieve

Her of her valise - in German she called out

To a Railway Official - her valise was secured.

Miss Fleury’s troubles were not quite over by

Her accidently revealing a British Flag within

Her possession - the resulting possibility

Of a violent street altercation she avoided -

A curfew had fallen over any British found

In Vienna – Being banned from public places

Between eight a.m. and eight p.m. all English

Words were also rigidly forbidden.

After this stay in Vienna, Miss Fleury then

Continued onto Lausanne, Geneva, Paris

And reaching Boulogne – with the last stage

To ‘Dear London and home,’ in time for tea.

Her Hungarian employers, Miss Fleury learned

That along with his son, the father had joined

To fight the war on the Allied side.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Across Europe – Plucky Girls Journey. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 Jan. P.3. Col.7. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11345835/Daily-Telegraph-January-15-1915.html[Accessed: 15 January 2015].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 15 January  2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11345835/Daily-Telegraph-January-15-1915.html

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

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Poem ~ Julian Grenfell: Born for War - Sunday, 3 January 1915

Source: File: Julian Grenfell.jpg, 2015. Portrait of British soldier poet Julian Grenfell (1888-1915). Photo dated to 1915 due to presence of DSO ribbon on uniform, which was awarded in 1914 and formally announced in the London Gazette on 1 January 1915. 5 January 1915. [online] (updated 1 January 2015) Available at:< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Grenfell>[Accessed: 5 January 2015].

Julian Henry Francis Grenfell -

The first son of Lord Desborough -

To be born 1888 – followed by

His younger brother, by two years,

Billy Grenfell - they were as twins,

In shared energetic company. 

Julian, educated at Summerfields,

Eton and Oxford - developed a depth

Of beliefs, that came from traditions

Of a home life – Religion linked to his

Love of sport and activity - God as his

Belief - came to him in a thunderstorm. 

1906 and Julian reached over six foot.

As brothers their passions paralleled -  

For life and their strong held beliefs -

1910 Oxford ended for Julian Grenfell; 

As horizons formed the haze of travel.

With Billy entering law, Julian felt a pull

Of the army - to serve time in India

With the Royal Dragoons – India,

Where in the rains made 'grass grow,

As fast as a horse galloping.' 

1911 arrived and South Africa called

The regiment - at first he was dismayed

In a call to a barren place - but then

Fondness grew for Grenfell, for the open

Veld and loved company of greyhounds,

Horses and sports of boxing and polo.

1914 and July brought the rumours

Of potential war - the army’s purpose

To fight might have meant being kept

In South Africa, or sent to in Egypt -

The captain desired a return to Britain 

Wanting to 'throw stones at Germans.'

For him, such optimism of war stirred

Up failing beliefs in the 'Mother Country,'

And the 'Old Flag’ whose 'Imperial Idea,'

Had a tendency to waver in peace time.

With his return to the home country,

In September, saw Grenfell’s regiment

On Salisbury Plain - After two days

Home leave, October took the Royals

On the fifth, making leave for France -

Captain Grenfell felt all perfectly 'bird.'

Billy too, by then took a commission

In Rifle Brigade as Second Lieutenant.

To wait for post exams, was less than

What might be glorious - for both, war

Seemed like life – as brothers though,

War had started to lose their friends.

From Flanders the captain’s letters

Came of how, in fierce fights, the men

Go straight in - and how he feels so fit

And at his happiest - Claims of liking it

Though can lead to careless dangers-

As war can equally be a total ‘beast.’

Confusion may come from not knowing

Their own front - with troops on the flank

Or behind and firing on their own men -

Four officers paused, talked and laughed,

Upon a road, when a dozen shots made

Them dive into a door-to fall over each other.

With refuge in nearest dirt-filled outhouse

Still laughing - one man exclaimed

'I have a bullet through my best Sandon

Twillette breeches' - to realise in two days,

The bullet had also gone through him too.

By then Grenfell, a Cavalryman, found

The redundancy of his profession they had

Become merely infantry – to man the trench

System – words sent home gave honesty,

Admitting to lack of washing for over a week,

While his boots remained on over two weeks.

'Best fun' was cooking in morning before

A start and hot food in the dark - armed

With daytime cold rations - all suited his

Stolidity and barbarity - with contradictory

Love for a man, when trying to kill him.

Grenfell noted noises of shelling is hard

To describe - as they can be heard coming

From a distance - their noise imitated

In expectation, by the infantry members -

Such shellfire explodes upwards in force.

  

One time a shell blew him off his horse,

Yet he kept a cigarette solidly in his mouth.

Another time in capture of Germans,

He felt hatred in thought of the English

Dead - He scowled, as others jeered

At the officer, who saluted as he passed –

Despite his capture the man was proud -

To make Grenfell self ashamed.

Another time he took on an escapade,

Back and forth to the enemy trenches -

In concern against the German sniper

Menace - Captain Grenfell had requested

Often to go and have a shot back at them.

Finally given leave to do so, he disputed

Of orders to take a section - so went

Out alone - He crawled a yard a minute,

On the sodden clay earth, out to the right,

Where Germans were nearest to them –

Waiting - hearing nothing –

Then suddenly, Germans talking,

One head Lifted, but awkwardly

He could not shoot - so crawled

Closer to their parapet – a thrill

Filled him – again a head lifted

A German laughing - Grenfell fired.

The man crumpled - others whispered,

Frightened, not understanding how…

Heart thumping, Grenfell crawled back.

The afternoon saw him take another go -

This time the trench remained empty -

With an hour passed, nobody appeared.

The third time, the day after at dawn,

Grenfell crawled out and discovered

The same trench quiet - then a blasé

Noisy German appeared from woods.

With him at twenty five yards he fired,

The German dropped, without a sound.

Nothing - then a noise of twenty more

As they halted, Grenfell picked the officer,

And fired at him between the shoulders.

He went down and Grenfell at a galloping

Crawl, left with a message that the enemy

Was then in the process of massing.

Came the Germans in close formation,

To within almost ten yards - the British

Gunners started and mowed them down.

The act of Grenfell’s stalking was frowned

On – that it was likely he would be called

To face the General, regarding such action.

Grenfell argued in losing two officers a day

To snipers, it was needed to be rid of threat -

Adding that habits of taking such a venture,

Had been taken up as 'popular amusement.’

The fact of a daring chance, led to Grenfell’s

Mention in dispatches - as December's leave

Came, Grenfell was to wear his D.S.O ribbon.

Now prepared with the experience of fighting,

An officer’s poetic talents were yet to compose

Those lines of experience - of going into battle.

by Jamie Mann.

Meynell, V., 1917(?). Julian Grenfell. Reprinted from The Dublin Review 

Burns and Gates, 28, Orchard Street, London. W.

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