PREFACE
Mostof these poems were written at the Front, and appeared in theFifth Gloucester Gazette—the first paper ever published from the trenches.
The author was then a Lance-Corporal in the 5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, and as such gained the Distinguished Conduct Medal in August, 1915.
The award appears as follows in theLondon Gazette—
F. W. Harvey.—“For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the 3rd-4th August, 1915, near Hebuterne, when, with a patrol, he and another Non-Commissioned Officer went out to reconnoitre in the direction of a suspected listening post. In advancing they encountered the hostile post evidently covering a working party in the rear. Corporal Knight at once shot one of the enemy, and, with Lance-Corporal Harvey, rushed the post, shooting two others, and assistance arriving the enemy fled. Lance-Corporal Harvey pursued, felling one of the retreating Germans with a bludgeon. He seized him, but finding his revolver empty and the enemy having opened fire, he was called back by Corporal Knight, and the prisoner escaped. Three Germans were killed and their rifles and a Mauser pistol were brought in. The patrol had no loss.”
F. W. Harvey.—“For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the 3rd-4th August, 1915, near Hebuterne, when, with a patrol, he and another Non-Commissioned Officer went out to reconnoitre in the direction of a suspected listening post. In advancing they encountered the hostile post evidently covering a working party in the rear. Corporal Knight at once shot one of the enemy, and, with Lance-Corporal Harvey, rushed the post, shooting two others, and assistance arriving the enemy fled. Lance-Corporal Harvey pursued, felling one of the retreating Germans with a bludgeon. He seized him, but finding his revolver empty and the enemy having opened fire, he was called back by Corporal Knight, and the prisoner escaped. Three Germans were killed and their rifles and a Mauser pistol were brought in. The patrol had no loss.”
F. W. Harvey.—“For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the 3rd-4th August, 1915, near Hebuterne, when, with a patrol, he and another Non-Commissioned Officer went out to reconnoitre in the direction of a suspected listening post. In advancing they encountered the hostile post evidently covering a working party in the rear. Corporal Knight at once shot one of the enemy, and, with Lance-Corporal Harvey, rushed the post, shooting two others, and assistance arriving the enemy fled. Lance-Corporal Harvey pursued, felling one of the retreating Germans with a bludgeon. He seized him, but finding his revolver empty and the enemy having opened fire, he was called back by Corporal Knight, and the prisoner escaped. Three Germans were killed and their rifles and a Mauser pistol were brought in. The patrol had no loss.”
The poems are written by a soldier and reflect a soldier’s outlook. Mud, blood and khaki are rather conspicuously absent. They are, in fact, the last things a soldier wishes to think or talk about.
What he does think of is his home.
Bishop Frodsham, preaching in Gloucester Cathedral, after visiting the Troops in France, quoted the following poem in a passage which admirably expresses the feelings of most of our fighting men.
“To suppose that these men enjoy the fighting would be sheer nonsense. The soldier does not want to go on killing and maiming Germans or Turks. He wants to get the dreadful war finished, so that he can get back to England again. But he wants the matter fought to a finish because he has seen in the villages and towns of France what German domination means. It has made him think furiously, as the French say. Many regiments and ships’ companies while away the impracticable hours by publishing little newspapers.
“TheFifth Gloucester Gazetteis one of these journals. We are proud of the courage and the gaiety these little papers show. We laugh at their quips and jokes: then suddenly we find that the corners of our mouths are quiveringand the tears are gathering in our eyes. We see that the boys are thinking about England below their gaiety. One young poet lifts the veil in this exquisite little rondeau—
“‘If we return, will England beJust England still to you and me—The place where we must earn our bread?We who have walked among the dead,And watched the smile of agony,And seen the price of liberty,Which we have taken carelesslyFrom other hands. Nay, we shall dread:If we return,Dread lest we hold blood-guiltilyThe thing that men have died to free.Our English fields shall blossom redIn all the blood that has been shed,By men whose guardians are we,If we return.’”
“‘If we return, will England beJust England still to you and me—The place where we must earn our bread?We who have walked among the dead,And watched the smile of agony,And seen the price of liberty,Which we have taken carelesslyFrom other hands. Nay, we shall dread:If we return,Dread lest we hold blood-guiltilyThe thing that men have died to free.Our English fields shall blossom redIn all the blood that has been shed,By men whose guardians are we,If we return.’”
“‘If we return, will England be
Just England still to you and me—
The place where we must earn our bread?
We who have walked among the dead,
And watched the smile of agony,
And seen the price of liberty,
Which we have taken carelessly
From other hands. Nay, we shall dread:
If we return,
Dread lest we hold blood-guiltily
The thing that men have died to free.
Our English fields shall blossom red
In all the blood that has been shed,
By men whose guardians are we,
If we return.’”
That is perhaps the keynote of a book which the author has dedicated to all dead and living comrades who have loved England.
J. H. Collett, C.M.G., ColonelCommanding the Fifth Battalion of theGloucestershire Regiment in France.