Edward Carless (1859 – 1945) – British amateur poet

Found by Paul Simadas 

 “The Lady Tram-Conductor: A Working Man’s Tribute” written by Edward Carless in 1916

Strange things happen in time of war;

A lady now conducts the car!

In uniform, so smart and trim,

She’s stepp’d into the place of him

Who answered to his country’s call,

And left his home, his work, and all.

In this way she’s released a man,

Doing her “bit” as best she can;

And if the truth of her we tell,

We must confess she does it well.

She’ll punch your ticket, and will smile,

And this will do in easy style;

And as she goes around the car,

Will sweetly call out where you are;

You’re right with her, daylight or dark,

From Lawnswood unto Roundhay Park.

From Pudsey unto City Square;

Just board the car, and pay your fare,

Telling her where you want to be,

And she’ll remember, this you’ll see,

And be you working-man or toff,

At the right place will put you off.

Let us think of what she’s doing,

When we on the car are going;

To our work, or out for pleasure;

Let us give to her full measure;

For the useful part she’s playing;

And may no one hear us saying

Aught that would grieve, or would offend,

But rather be to her a friend.

Let each one bear him as a man,

Help these conductors all he can.

Our admiration they all earn;

And if a strange job we’ve to do,

Keep a good heart, and buckle to,

Remember those across the foam,

Fighting for country, and for home,

These lads face all; naught to they shirk;

Let’s put that spirit in our work;

It’s a big job we have to do,

Let’s pull together; we’ll pull through.

Written by Burley* resident Edward Carless and dated 12th February 1916, the poem was self-published as a simple leaflet, made available by the author at the price of one penny* from his home address of 8 Thornville Street, where he was listed in Kelly’s Directory of Leeds from 1917:

*Burley is an inner-city suburb located about 1 mile north-west of Leeds city centre in Yorkshire, UK.

The very first Leeds tram took its trial run to test the track on 2nd July 1911. 

Edward Carless was born in Bentham, Yorkshire in 1859 and worked in a local iron foundry.   In 1888 Edward married Annie Macrow.   He died in 1945.

* One British penny in 1917 had the purchasing power equivalent to roughly 38p (or £0.38) today. 

Sources:  The Austro-Hungerian Armee in the Great War 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/225340620927223

Artists of the First World War Facebook Group 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799/permalink/2277933356284490/

Find my Past. 

https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/media/moritz-ledeli-conductress-municipal-tramway-watercolour-191516

               A water colour painting by Austrian artist Moritz Ledellc (1856 – 1920) in 1915/16

Wilhelm Klemm (1881 – 1968) – German poet, publisher and doctor

Wilhelm was born in Leipzig on 15th May 1881. His parents were Rudolf Klemm (1853–1908), who owned and operated the Otto Klemm commission bookstore in Leipzig, and his wife Johanna Helene, nee Scharff (1855–1917).

Educated at the Thomasschule, Wilhelm went on to study medicine in order to become a physician. He studied at three German universities: Munich, Erlangen, and Kiel and completed his medical studies in 1905, before going to study chemistr at the University of Breslau.

 Like the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986), Wilhelm started writing poetry at a very early age and completed medical studies in 1905. However, he became a publisher when his father died, taking over his book business just 4 years after graduation.  

In 1915, while serving as a doctor with the German army in Flanders, Wilhelm  published his first volume of poetry entitled “Gloria! War Poems from the Field.”  An American review in 1916 named him as one of two “young artists who preferred emphasizing the realities of war to boasting their ‘Veterlandsliebe [Patriotism]’” and compared his work to Walt Whitman’s “Drum-taps”. His work also appeared in literary journals such as “Der Jugend” and “Simplicissimus” and later in Franz Pfermfert’s “Die Aktion”. Further published volumes were “Verse und Bilder” (1916), “Aufforderung” (1917), “Ergriffenheit“(1919), “Entfaltung” (1919), “Traumschutt” (1920) and “Verzauberte Ziele” (1921). His poems give a very realistic impression of war events and show how much he was affected by the war environment and the work he had to do at the front

“Battle on the Marne” (September 1914) 1917 by Wilhelm Klemm

Slowly the stones begin moving and speaking

The grasses freeze to green metal. The woods,

Deep dense hideouts, devour distant platoons.

The heavens, the chalk-white mystery, threaten to burst.

Two colossal hours roll out to two minutes.

The empty horizon expands upwards

My heart is as large as Germany and France together,

Bored through by all the bullets of the world.

The battery raises its lion voice

Six times out into the land. The shells howl.

Stillness. In the distance the infantry fire seethes,

For days, for weeks.

From: “Aufforderung”, first published 1917(Translated from the German by Penelope Monkhouse)

“Battle on the Marne” by Wilhelm Klemm describes the scene in September 1914; also a realistic depiction with apocalyptic traits. The freezing of the grass to “green metal” is a way of expressing the mass loss of life. Even nature has demon-like features. In the second part of the poem, he identifies with both countries – all suffer under the firing and shelling of the one huge lion of war.

After the war in 1921, Wilhelm took over his father-in-law's (Alfred Kröner) publishing firm - Alfred Kröner Verlag. He managed the publishing business until 1937, when the Nazi regime forced him to relinquish his position.

Wilhelm died on 23rd January 1968.

Source: Wilipedia

You can find out more about Penelope Monkhouse;s work on her website Behind their Lines - https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2018/01/at-front.html