Poem ~ Prisoners Of The Easter Rising - Friday, 12 May 1916

Source: File: A sketch of inside the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin Ireland. (National Museum of Ireland) [online] See an original image at: <http://hubpages.com/education/1916-Easter-Rising-Sean-McDermott-executed-Kilmainham-Jail-Arbour-Hill-Stoneybatter-Dublin-Irish-history-Ireland> [Accessed: 12 May 2016]

Within the Irish Easter Monday rising, 

Came a tale of a Royal Fusiliers officer -

The Lieutenant was captured by rebels,

And held prisoner in the General Post

Office - After being searched for arms

His hands were bound by telephone wire.

Over the following days the Lieutenant

Observed how the insurgents consisted

Of various trade experts; electricians

Engineers and an explosive expert from

Germany - an elaborate method was set

To ensure the prisoners did not move.

Kept down into the cellar the prisoners

Were blocked in by boxes, amid stores

Of dynamite, cordite, gelignite including

Guncotton - a light was left on to reveal

One box of gelignite, set up with fuses -

Bombs were placed about the cellar.

Within this setting the rebels situated

Their prisoners - left to debate their

Fate, as rats in a trap - all together

They kept calling out, until a rebel

Appeared to say 'its alright boys' -

By then the GPO was well on fire.

Taking them to a yard at this buildings

Rear down into a corridor, emerging

In a room where they faced a woman,

Dressed like a man - she stood, waving  

A revolver at them - along with threats

She spat at English lieutenant's face.

After a short time the prisoners were

Led outside - they were to be used

As a protective screen in order for

Rebels to escape - pushed to front
Of prisoners stood the Lieutenant,

With a private of the Dublin Fusiliers.

Ahead of them, at some 150 yards,

Were watching English troops who

Manned a machine gun - a rebel

Held a gun to his head; in promise

To fire, unless he ran - taking to his

Feet the officer was shot at ten yards.

The English Lieutenant fell forwards

In the street, wounded in the thigh.

The officer looked about to see

Behind him, how the rebel unload

A gun into the Dublin Fusiliers head.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Officers Escape - Help From A Rebel. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 May 1916. P.11. Col.2. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12209758/Daily-Telegraph-May-8-1916.html>  [Accessed: 12 May 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 12 May 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12209758/Daily-Telegraph-May-8-1916.html

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

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Poem ~ Driven to Suicide - Saturday, 28 August 1915

Impression sketch of Lieutenant Ervin Henry Cameron - by Jamie. See original at:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51639809

An Irish Officer, a Lieutenant Of 3^rd Battalion

Of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, was son

Of a city analyst Charles Cameron - born

With registered name of Ervin Henry Cameron;

His mother Lucie Mac Namara Cameron.

Initially Ewan Cameron joined army

As a private, to be promoted to Lieutenant,

By 1915 became involved with recruitment

Rallying - only to meet his death 27 August

1915, on a train carriage in Ireland.

Found with a single shot to the head,

On a Dublin and South East Railway carriage,

Between stations of Greystones and Newcastle -

His death occurring from a self-inflicted

Single bullet, causing shock and hemorrhage.

The belief had been that Lieutenant

Cameron had become distressed by loss

Of friends on the frontline – sadly his parents

Had also lost a son some time before,

Drowned on a fishing lake near Athlone.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Lieutenant Shot on a Train. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 August. P.4. Col 3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html [Accessed: 28 August 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 28 August 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11812558/Daily-Telegraph-August-28-1915.html

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

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Poem ~ Two Sons, Two Mothers - Saturday , 6 March 1915

Impression of Lieutenant Harold Boyd by Jamie

see original image at http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/memorials/113-boyd-cousins.html

Sketch of marble grave at La Haute-Maison 

see original image at http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/memorials/113-boyd-cousins.html

An English woman and Irish woman,

That had no prior connection -

Were to become united in their loss,

And grief for loss of their sons.

Lieutenant Boyd and Private Cousins

Of the Inniskillings Fusiliers -

An Irish Infantry Regiment in France,

Called up at fighting’s start.

The two were part of the Inniskillings

Team to form an outpost line,

About the Ferme de la Grande Lodge -

That evening of 7 September,

In an encounter of a sudden Uhlan force,

Bravely they fought away.

Regrouped, they believed no more enemy

Were close by, when -

About 1,200 yards distant two batteries

Opened up fire, so that

The Innikillings  undertook into the attack -

A fierce fight ensued.

Lieutenant Harold Boyd, hit by shrapnel,

Fell unconscious -

Along with him Private 8490 Cousins fell.

Both were carried away,

To a farmhouse, Le Ferme Des Arceries

Lieutenant Boyd and

Private Cousins died with 25 wounded men,

After the attack.

Mrs Constance Boyd of Hertfordshire,

Wrote to Mrs Mary Cousins

Of Lurgan, Ireland, at their shared loss -

To say how she heard

From officers who knew them - being

Sergeant Poots,

Colonel Wilding, Colonel Wilcox,

Captain Yardley,

And Corporal Williams - who all told

How their sons

Were both buried, that same night,

By a farmhouse -

In corner of a field - a colonel, a captain,

Adjudant and a doctor,

Were in attendance. Mrs Boyd went on

To tell Mrs Cousins of visit,

By a family friend, a clergyman, to see

The place was a good

Plot - her husband being quite unable

To make any visit.

Knowing how Mrs Cousins, shared

A desire to know

About her son, that letter had told

Her of that place.

In meeting the commune’s Mayor,

The Clergyman

Visited the home of the farmer

And his wife.

The grave was seen well preserved,

In a dry space, with

Planted evergreens at each corner,

And fresh flowers -

A Laurel wreath lay on the mound.

Penciled on a rough cross,

Put there by the regiment, words stated

'Sacred to memory

To both Lieutenant Boyd and Private

Cousins, A company,

2nd Inniskillings, both killed in action

September 7 1914.'

A French plaque also rested there, to read

'A nox Courageaux

Freres d'armes Anglaise des habitants

De la Haute Maison.'

Mrs Boyd explained of her intentions

To visit the shared grave.

How that, until they did so, wire netting

Covered the ground.

A written guarantee from the local Mayor

Promised the grave

Was theirs - to be in care of the commune

For all of time.

A oak cross had been commissioned with

Both their son’s names -

This had been placed on the grave - then

The clergyman spoke,

Gathering a collection of people about,

Reading quiet prayers

And dedicating the ground - now that

The place was protected,

Mrs Boyd said they should give gratitude -

Compared to how

Other fallen, often had little cover or that

Families had no idea,

Of where loved ones finally lay - their plan

Being to go in spring,

To place a marble memorial to both her son

And Private James Cousins.

Epilogue – Battalion Diary

It is in that small place 30 km from Paris

At Ferme des Arceries,

La Haute-Maison where a private memorial

In marble, still stands.

For men on a September day of 1914

A clearer account

Told how on 7 September 89 ranks along

With a 2^nd Lieutenant

Harold Alexander Boyd - in reinforcements

Of Inniskilling Battalion -

By evening's task to find enemy outposts -

Moved into a position.

About Le Grand Loge farm, when enemy fire

Came from a wood -

Close by – a twenty minute skirmish

Then ensued.

During this the two casualties occurred,

Which Corporal Foots

Noted in the task, to find village outpost.

On the right of a road

Stood a row of apple trees - to the left

Was open plain.

At 1200 yards were woods and shrubs

From which came

Sudden gun and rifle fire – in surprise

They returned

Shots, but had no shelter from shells,

Or own artillery.

The officers were trying to work out

Range to enemy -

By doing so, exposing their selves.

One such officer

Lieutenant Boyd, stood beside one

Ripe apple tree,

When a nearby shell struck him

With shrapnel,

To be killed instantly - and nearby

Private cousins

Was also hit  –  all night the unit stayed

Until morning,

Then the enemy retired – today those

Two men lay,

Not so far away at one field's edge,

Below white marble.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. The Lonely Grave - Mother's Pathetic Letter. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 6 Mar. p.7. Col.3. Available online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11447717/Daily-Telegraph-March-6-1915.html [Accessed: 6 March 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 6 March 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11447717/Daily-Telegraph-March-6-1915.html

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

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Poem ~ Night Fighting on the Aisne - Tuesday, 29 September 1914

From a Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers,

A Lance-corporal recounts a night attack

On the Aisne. After a hard day in the trenches

The men were tired and wet to the skin.

So in order to dry out tunics they lit fires.

All at once came flashing firing along the line,

And like ‘mad-men’ Germans rushed

Forward, from out of the darkness.

The Fusiliers fought back in shirtsleeves.

Close proximity made hand-to-hand combat,

Very hard work, in employment of bayonets.

In darkness the enemy, supported by cavalry

Who charged in force to run them down.

The Fusiliers held them off, until support

Of infantry and allied cavalry arrived,

And succeeded in driving them away.

During the fight a competition occurred,

Between Lancer regiment and Battalion,

As to who could get at the Germans first.

Despite the Irish Battalion lack of horses,

They won in the end - running at German

Hordes with trained shouting and bayonets.

Then the Lancers followed and the Germans,

Were cleared away from their front line.

Worse was still to follow for the French.

The Germans, back in strength, had massed,

Across a front position, where they faced

A mass of French infantry, who now advanced.

In the night, at the double, made for the enemy,

But suddenly German batteries opened up,

From the shelter of woods - letting loose

With shrapnel showers and machine guns.

The long French line wavered and contracted.

This corporal saw the worst sight with sounds,

Of shells slicing through the close packed

French ranks - Men went down like grass,

Under a scythe - a hundred fell and more

Until the mass opened up in extended order.

The French still rushed at the enemy guns,

Despite at each step under heavy attack,

By relentless German cavalry and infantry

Until finally the French silenced the guns.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. Battle Stories - Fight with Bayonets - Silencing the Guns. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 29 September. p.5. Col.4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11124060/Daily-Telegraph-September-29-1914.html [Accessed: 29th September 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 29th September 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11124060/Daily-Telegraph-September-29-1914.html

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

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