My First World War Exhibtion project is in loving memory of my maternal Grandfather, who was an Old Contemptible. That is to say, he was a professional soldier and among the first to go to France when war broke out in 1914. Having joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1905 as a Boy Soldier at the age of 16, Grandfather was a Sergeant by August 1914. By then he was married with two children. In November 1914 Grandfather was commissioned as an officer - so great were the losses of officers in the early days of the conflict.
Grandfather died when I was four years old but I still remember the little house in which my Mother's parents lived. I used to stand underneath a large, black and white framed print of the painting entitled "Goodbye Old Man" by Fortunino Matania (1881 – 1963) – an Italian-born artist who worked in Britain and became an official war artist in WW1. I wondered what had happened to the horse. It was not until I began seriously researching WW1 for an exhibition of female poets in 2012 that I discovered what that painting was in fact about.
In April 2023, a lady called Linda Woodfine Michelini contacted me via my weblog Fascinating Facts of the Great War to tell me that my post about the poet Percy Haselden was incorrect. I posted the information - found for me by Historian Debbie Cameron* on Fascinating Facts on 12th October 2014 - before I began researching male WW1 poets - hoping to find out more about Percy. Linda is one of the researchers for the Liverpool Pals in the First World War. To find out more about the Liverpool Pals, please visit their website http://liverpoolpals.com
Linda explained to me that the poet I was looking for was born Percy Haselden Evans in Wallasey, Wirral, whereas the Liverpool Pal Percy Haselden was born in Liverpool. It was through Linda's message and my ensuing research into Percy Haselden Evans the poet that I disvovered a WW1 anthology I had not come across previously - “English Poetry of the First World War” Edited by Maurice Hussey (Longmans, London, 1967). And that is where I discovered the poet Mackenzie Bell and found this poignant poem.
For my post about Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell (1856 – 1930) please see
See http://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2023/05/henry-thomas-mackenzie-bell-1856-1930.html
“Good-bye, Old Man”
Good-bye, old man, I seem to see
The meadow where, how happily,
You grazed, at first, a happy foal
Harmless in happiness. The whole
Green country-side had scarce another
Creature more joyous – gladsome brother
To streams, and winds and soaring-birds.
Then, later, would that halting words
Of mine, could paint my Nellie’s ride
With laughing eyse, and legs astride,
Her first ride on your friendly back.
E’en now I see yon woodland track,
Soft with the fallen russet leaves.
Alack! Alack! My poor heart grieves
To quit you, tortured. By what right
Are you m ade victim in a fight
It is not yours to comprehend?
Yea; men are hard; some day, good friend
May we judge differently; and think,
May we judge differently; and shrink
From torture given without appeal,
For me, I know not, yet can feel.
Goodbye, old man, may Death come soon
For you, I crave that only boon –
And, yet another would I seek;
May no dog scent afar your sleek
And well-kept flesh before you die;
And with his hot and famished breath,
Pollute you in the pangs of death.
From “English Poetry of the First World War” Edited by Maurice Hussey (Longmans, London, 1967). Pp 45 – 46
* Historian Debbie Cameron researches WW1 and has Facebook Pages and a Weblog
https://historicalclues.blogspot.com/2022/01/a-family-at-war-and-beyond.html?fbclid=IwAR0HwllMT7VZlloljHWqsuSnb4Jc-L17iHmNGINaun2L7eVTrjDWOhEwAxA
Debbie's Group Remembering British Women in WW1 – The Home Front and Overseas
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/
RBL Women’s WW1 Remembrance Badge
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1767775906637896/
https://fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.com/2014/10/percy-haselden-liverpool-poet-1895-1916.html
