Robert Palmer (1888 – 1916) – British soldier poet

The Honorable Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer, called Bobby by his family, was born on 26th September 1888 at 20 Arlington Street, London, UK.  He was the second son of William Waldegrave James Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne, KG, GCMG and Warden of Winchester College, and his wife, Maud Beatrice, the Countess of Selborne, nee Cecil, of Blackmoor, Liss, Hants. Robert was educated at Winchester College and University College, Oxford University.

Robert joined the 6th Battalion Hampshire Regiment - his county Territorial battalion - and went with them to India in October 1914. The following August he left Agra with a draft to reinforce the 4th Battalion of the Hampshires and took part with them in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the garrison at Kut-el-Amara.   By then a Captain, Robert was wounded during the Battle of Umm-El-Hannal, Mesopotamia on 21st January 1916 and died in a Turkish Prisoner of War camp. He is remembered on the Basra Memorial, reference:

Panel 21 and 63.  Robert is also commemorated at Winchester College by the altar piece in Chapel, erected in his memory and the memory of Lieutenant Wilmot Babington Parker-Smith, who died of wounds on 12 September 1915. Palmer's parents paid for the "Mother" figure, which was dedicated in 1923 by HRH The Prince of Wales.

His parents had Robert’s war letters and poems privately published in 1916 as “Letters from Mesopotamia: from Robert Palmer”.

This poem by Robert Palmer was published in 5 WW1 anthologies.

 

How long, O Lord, how long, before the flood

Of crimson-welling carnage shall abate?

From sodden plains in West and East the blood

Of kindly men streams up in mists of hate

Polluting Thy clear air: and nations great

In reputation of the arts that bind

The world with hopes of Heaven, sink to the state

Of brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind

Gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind,

Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long

Shall Satan in high places lead the blind

To battle for the passions of the strong?

Oh, touch thy children's hearts, that they may know

Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest foe.

Sources:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17584/17584-h/17584-h.htm  p. 44

Catherine Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A  Bibliogrpahy” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) pp. 248 – 249

https://www.winchestercollegeatwar.com/RollofHonour.aspx?RecID=374&TableName=ta_wwifactfile