Poem ~ A Lost Lad in War Time - Tuesday, 15 December 1914

A series of sad circumstances,

Led a lad of 15 to a Police station.

Here he confessed, since September

Having no regular home and by then

Had not had a bed for over a week.

Walter Bradshaw, of a school age,

Found himself charged with lack

Of any subsistence and wandering.

Walter, a gentlemanly looking boy

And well spoken, then told his story.

Having gained a grammar school

Scholarship, he was nearing end

Of his schooling, when his father

Died – his mother had also died

Some time before - without relatives

He became destitute and had been

Forced to leave the grammar school.

In gaining labour with a butcher,

Who had agreed to keep him -

But with war, the butcher failed,

And he was again on the streets.

As his clothes became shabby,

He could not find any employ,

And no one would take him in.

Mr Charles Lee, the magistrate,

Found the plucky boy admirable,

In his struggling against all odds -

Declared he would take an interest

In him and help find suitable work.

Meanwhile the Court Missionary,

Was asked to take care of him.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. School Boy Struggles. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 Dec. p.3. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11285856/Daily-Telegraph-December-15-1914.html [Accessed: 15 December 2014].

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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11285856/Daily-Telegraph-December-15-1914.html

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

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Poem ~ A Cat, Irish Tommy and Praying Drivers - Tuesday, 15 December 1914

A chap writes to a Glasgow chum,

From his post with the Company

Of Artillery Infantry - His intention,

In his address, is to give a picture,

Of the ‘lighter sides of War.’

In his very first experiences

Of manning frontline trenches,

He noted how the company arrived

In pitch darkness - with need to peer

About, to see where they were –

All about them weird eerie noises,

And strange moving lights.

As our chap stumbled towards

The corporal, with intentions

Of asking him for information,

An unearthly wild wail blew up -

As If from the very ground.

A chill passed into his blood.

And he grasped the Corporal’s

Hands ‘Heavens,’ he uttered,

Shakily asking. ‘What was that?’

‘You’re standing on a cat.’

The chap found the poor thing

Under foot – in recovering

From the boot, the cat remained

About the trench and company,

For quite some time in the day.

After hours of daylight,

Once again in darkness,

A German attack to the left

Made them 'man trench!’

Then orders ‘sights at zero, fire low.’

In excited quaking, waiting -

When our chap saw a shape

Moving over the edge, feeling

Its' way about in front of him -

With bayonet ready he sprang

Forward to face that same cat.

Our chap met an Irish Tommy,

To hear experience of fierce

Action - Describing a hell of flying

Bullets and bursting shelling -

Out of some12 men, not one man

Didn’t gain something –

Tim, his brother shot in stomach,

And Jack Summers in the head.

The Irish man went to the wagon

Finding two drivers, whose bravery

Had turned to praying – in wagon

They faced each other, hands folded,

Ducking as shells came over -

Still they prayed – hearing them say

‘Oh God, put a German

Onto the Sergeant Major –

Oh God put a German onto him

Soon’ - having their way, in some part;

The Sergeant-major was shortly hit,

With a wound to his buttocks.

In moving elsewhere nearer the line

Of fire, his morning’s work was done,

Digging sleeping huts - scooping

Out a hole and roofing it over - clean

But lacking much comfort - our chap

Chooses to sleep soundly on a pigsty.

Our chap out of shellfire range,

Awaiting a return in the next two days,

Was still able to see bursts of light,

Not so far away -

In the night it is a pretty sight -

As are shells firing at planes in the day -

A point of flame forms a compact cloud,

To remain hanging mistily in the sky.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. London Territorials in the Firing Line – With the H.A.C – Lighter Side of War. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 Dec. p.12. Col.7. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11285856/Daily-Telegraph-December-15-1914.html [Accessed: 15 December 2014].

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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11285856/Daily-Telegraph-December-15-1914.html

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

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered