Source: File: Theodore
Botrel.jpg, 2015. Du Temps des Cerises Aux Feuilles
Mortes. 5 January 1915. [online]
(updated 1 January 2015) Available at:<http://www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/index.html >[Accessed: 5 January 2015].
By 1915 known as the Bard of the Armies,
By 1915 known as the Bard of the Armies,
Theodore Botrel was a patriot of
causes
Of France, against Germany - having
tried
To join the army in France and
Belgium,
His age was against him - so with his
talents
He composed and performed patriotic
songs.
Described as ballad singer and
Homeric
Minstral, Botrel was touring the
front lines,
Singing patriotic numbers to all
soldiers,
In hospitals, trench and bivouac
camps –
With war office authority to enter
all bases.
Botrel set to perform in a Dunkirk
hospital
During 30 December - the singer was
ready,
Being on the verge of starting an
initial note -
When with great crashing sounds,
bombs
Dropped by enemy planes fell at second
Intervals, close by outside, in the
courtyard.
The windows of wards instantly
shattered -
With a grazing piece of glass
brushed Botrel’s
Forehead. Quite how they reacted was
not said,
But from the conversation the singer
stood
Calmly, making hardly a flinch at the
breeze.
A wounded patient cried out ‘What is
it?’
The ballad singer calmly smiled and
replied,
‘They are striking for the curtain
to rise.’
Unlike English theatres - curtains of Paris
Theatres are thumped up - Botrel
added,
That on the third strike he would make a start.
As promised the third crash of a
bomb
Dropped - now more at a distance - Botrel
Began without signs of tremor in his
voice;
An incident of a stiff upper French lip, stood
Theodore Botrel 'Chansonnier des Armées.'
Theodore Botrel 'Chansonnier des Armées.'
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Brave Ballad Singer. The
Daily Telegraph, [online] 5 Jan. p.4. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11322317/Daily-Telegraph-January-5-1915.html
[Accessed: 5 January 2015].
Source:
File: Théodore Botrel Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available
at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_Botrel> Accessed: 5 January 2015].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago -
Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 5 January 2015).
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