Poem ~ Tennis Player Shot - Wednesday, 24 February 1915

Source: File: Kenneth Powell.jpg, 2015. Remembrance Pte Kenneth Powell - Loker - 18/02/2015 www.wo1.be -GreatWar.Be. [online] Available at:<http://www.wo1.be/nl/jewaserbij/6954/remembrance-pte-kenneth-powell> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Source: File: Kenneth Powell Loker Churchyard, Belgium.jpg, 2015. Remembrance Pte Kenneth Powell - Loker - 18/02/2015 www.wo1.be -GreatWar.Be. [online] Available at:<http://www.wo1.be/nl/jewaserbij/6954/remembrance-pte-kenneth-powell> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

For the Honorable Artillery Company, February

1915 was seen as a routine month to maintain

The trenches - one battalion soldier, who had

In peace time a great deal on the sports field

Private 1832, Kenneth Powell then aged 29.

Private Powell serving before as a Territorial

Leaving his father's company of leather factors

Joining with the Honorable Artillery Company

Early September at the front by months end.

Attending school of Rugby, Kenneth Powell's

Talent was hurdler and tennis player  - standing

At six foot, Powell Powell first found fame as an

Athlete at Cambridge inter-varsity match 1907.

To go onto play Wimbledon tennis championships

Between years1905 to 1911 - with a 1913 return.

As an all round sports man, he had competed

In hurdles, going onto become Captain of Rugby

For the school fifteen  - and over two years

He possessed the trophy of Victor Ludorum.

In his prowess as a hurdler Powell, the athlete,

Was found to make a record of 15 3.5 seconds

And played for English tennis at Olympic games.

Being Captain of Lawn Tennis and a Wimbledon

Player secured Kenneth Powell's sport career.

Powell, a member of the Cambridge University

Lawn Tennis Club, went to win 1908 single title

At the Queens Club - within that same year

In Sweden, He won at the Covered Court -

Championships to become a tennis Olympian.

A winner of matches, with tennis his main

Game, Powell as a left-handed player with great

Speed and agility, had a weakness of a back

Handed shot - while a volley ability was his best.

Serving with the battalion at Kemmel Private

Powell in February, his fifth month, was proving

Ordinary - a player of 135 matches to his name

Those games he won, outnumbered those lost.

With past sporting competitions gone - now Powell

Swapped racket for rifle - making duty, his watch

About the curving battlefield of the Ypres salient,

Within the now established stalemate situation.

Kenneth Powell, a left-handed tennis player, in role

As Private, fought at Ypres - stationed at Kemmel

Village on February 17 - an ordinary, dull day -

On the front line Private Powell was hit by a bullet,

Despite efforts he died the next day of wounds.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Famous Athlete Killed - K. Powell Dies of Wounds. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 Feb. P.12. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11421098/Daily-Telegraph-February-24-1915.html  [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Source: File: Kenneth Powell (tennis). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Powell_%28tennis%29> [Accessed: 24 February 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 24 February 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11421098/Daily-Telegraph-February-24-1915.html

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

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Poem ~ Duty of a German Dog - Friday, 19 February 1915

Source: File: A Dog leaping.jpg, 2015. A dog jumps over a first world war trench, in which German soldiers are pictured in fighting position. Photograph: Berliner Verlag/Archiv/dpa/Corbis. [online] Available at:<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/first-world-war-trench-warfare-letters-editor-archive-1915> [Accessed: 19 February 2015].

Living in Ardwick, a friend heard

From his friend at the front,

Private H. Clayford - how he had

Experienced war's effect,

With the employment of animals,

In the dangers of the front line.

Within the Lancashire Fusiliers,

Private Clayford had talked

To a sentry, who informed him

Of his belief, how Germans

Had in their service trained dogs.

In January, Private Clayford

Found himself on duty,

Within the ruins of a house –

Due to its situation between

The trench lines the shell had

Became an advance post.

Within the walls of the ruined

House, they made six port-hole

Sized openings, with a sentry

At each - to prevent enemy

Ability to make surprise attacks.

Within the January night, around

11.30 p.m., a sentry fired -

The others quizzed what he had

Shot at – Private Clayford joined

Him, asking what was the target?

He replied that it was a dog.

Adding he had ‘blown it in two.’

With the others informed, quiet

Returned - until within 30 minutes

Another shot rang out -

Private Clayford asked again

What he was shooting at -

His reply was the dog again.

He claimed that while the dog

Was cut in two, the front half

Had carried on moving –

Wriggling from the centre

Of the road, moving to within

Two feet of the port-hole.

As the living dog came nearer,

He noted how it had clenched

What he felt to be a message

Between its teeth  - Adding

Further, that he saw a German

Reach out to take the paper.

Private Clayford asked if either

The dog or the German were hit

The sentry said he had missed.

Private Clayford said 'hard Lines.’

Noting how the dog had carried

Out a task, although it had died

He walked off, thinking hard.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: A Highly trained Dog. The Guardian. From the archive, 19 February 1915: Letters from the front give a glimpse of trench warfare. Private H Clayford, Lancashire Fusiliers, writing to an Ardwick friend, passes on a remarkable dog story. [online] Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/first-world-war-trench-warfare-letters-editor-archive-1915> Accessed: 19 February 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 19 February 2015). 

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

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