Henry Lamont Simpson (1897 – 1918) – British soldier poet

Henry Lamont Simpson was one of the WW1 poets included in a commemorative exhibition held in 2018 

Born on 5th June 1897 at Crosby-on-Eden, Carlisle, Cumberland, UK (now Cumbria), Henry’s parents were Henry Colbeck Simpson, a tailor, and his wife, Margaret Jane Simpson, née Quirk.

Henry was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and won a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

However, instead of going to university, Henry was commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in June 1917. He was posted to the Western Front and took part in the Battle of Ypres in August 1917.  

Henry was killed by a sniper's bullet on 29th August 1918, while the Battalion was in front line trenches at Strazeele, near Hazebrouck. He is commemorated on the VIS-EN-ARTOIS MEMORIAL in VIS-EN-ARTOIS MILITARY CEMETERY, HAUCOURT, Pas de Calais; Reference Panel 5 and 6.

Here is one of Henry's poems:

“I cursed each tune” by Henry Lamont Simpson

I cursed each tune 

Of night-dim wood 

And Naiad's stream,

By that mad moon 

Asearch for blood 

And the waxen gleam 

Clearing the Battlefields
Mary Riter Hamilton

Of dead faces 

Under the trees 

In the trampled grass,

Till the bloody traces 

Of the agonies 

Of night-time pass. 

Henry’s WW1 poetry collection “Moods and tenses” was published in 1919 by Erskine Macdonald, London.

The poems of a soldier who died in World War One have been turned into a song called Remembrance Day - see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-29975817