Frank Percival Dixon (1898 – 1918) – Canadian WW1 soldier poet

 

With thanks to Steve Glover,  Historian and PR Officer of Barrie Legion, Canada, and Frank's Great Niece, Carol Ogaranko, for their help and to Dr Connie Ruzich for posting Frank's poem "Cigarettes" on Twitter.

Frank Percival Dixon was born in Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada on 16th April 1898.  His parents were William John Dixon and his Ellen Mary Dixon, nee Cole. Frank Dixon was the fourth child born to William John and Ellen Mary, who were married in Shoal Lake in 1888. Frank and his siblings were educated at the local public school in Elkhorn.  Before the First World War, Frank served with the 12th Manitoba Dragoons.

Frank enlisted on 21st December 1916 as a Gunner in the Canadian Field Artillery.  He went to France with the 10th Brigade, CEF and transferred to a Signalling Corps.  Frank was mortally wounded on 29th August 1918 during the Second Battle of Arras (26 August – 3 September 1918) and died from his wounds. He was buried in LIGNY-ST. FLOCHEL BRITISH CEMETERY, Pas de Calais, France, Grave Reference:  II. F. 10.

Ligny-St.Flochel is a village about 6.5 kilometres east of St.Pol on the main road to Arras. The distance from Ligny-St. Flochel to Arras is approximately 24 kilometres. The Ligny-St.Flochel British Cemetery is situated to the south of the village on the east side of the road to the village of Averdoingt.

Frank’s mother, Ellen Mary Dixon, published Frank’s poems in 1937 in a book entitled, “War-Time Memories in Verse” – there were 40 pages and it was privately printed. 

 Frank's poem “Cigarettes” was included in a book edited by Barry Callaghan and Bruce Meyer. They collected a number of poems soldiers had written during WW1 and published a book in 2001 called, “We Wasn’t Pals.” When a singer Jon Brooks saw this poem in their book, he appreciate it so much he set it to music and produced a CD.

NOTE: Tobacco was considered to be a very important part of keeping up the morale of troops in the trenches and so was included in ration packs supplied by the military to the troops - 2oz of tobacco per day.tobacco.  on the home front, funds were established to “send smokes to the boys”, eventually sending 16 billion cigarettes as part of relief by the war’s end.

Frank's poems have recently been republished and this came about when I saw Connie Ruzich's post about Frank P. Dixon’s poems – “Cigarettes” – on Twitter and began to try to find out more about him.  My research led me to The Brandon Legionnaire Newsletter – 2 April 2021

https://www.brandonlegion.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-Legionnaire-April.pdf

That brought me to the Barrie Legion 147 Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/legion147  

The Legion mentioned that they were hoping to reprint Frank’s poetry collection.   I sent them a message regarding a reprint and that brought me into contact with Steve Glover, Barrie Legion Branch Historian, who, in turn put me in touch with Frank’s Great-niece.

With grateful thanks to Dr Connie Ruzich who posted the poem "Cigarettes" on Twitter, to Steve Glover, the Historian of the Barrie Legion Branch for putting me in touch with Carol Ogaranko - Frank’s Great niece and for additional information about Frank and the Dixon family - and to Carol and her family for allowing us to reproduce Frank’s collection of poems and sending us the poems, photos and information about Frank.

Lucy London, 16th April 2023