Exhibition of Poetry Written by Schoolchildren in WW1

The latest in a series of commemorative exhibitions about the poetry of The First World War to go on display at The Wilfred Owen Story in Argyle Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, features poetry written by schoolchildren during the conflict.  The exhibition was opened on Saturday, 17^th March 2018.  At the same time, a bust of Wilfred Owen sculpted by Anthony Padgett was unveiled.  Poets featured include the girl who went on to use the pen-name Temple Lane, the boy who went on to use the pen-name George Orwell, the girl whose husband founded the publishing company Faber & Faber, Alec Waugh, brother of Evelyn, J.R. Ackerley and a boy who went on to become Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth.

The Wilfred Owen Story was devised and opened in 2010 by Merseyside singer-songwriter Dean Johnson, a former pupil of the Birkenhead Institute where Wilfred Owen was educated. 

Entry to The Wilfred Owen Story is free and you will find the WOS at 34 Argyle Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 6AE.  The WOS is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 noon until 2 pm but it is advisable to telephone first - 07903 337995 as the WOS is run entirely by volunteers http://www.wilfredowenstory.com/

Panels from previous WW1 poetry exhibitions held at the WOS, including that featuring some of the poets involved in the Battles of Messines (Mesen), Passchendaele and after in 1917, Poets of the Battle of Arras in 1917, Poets of the Somme 1916, Female Poets of the First World War, Inspirational Women of World War One and Fascinating Facts of the Great War, are available to view on file at The Wilfred Owen Story.  Other exhibitions are planned.

Photo taken by Janet Holmes of the WOS and The Rathbone Studio.

T.P. Cameron Wilson (1888 - 1918) - British

Theodore Percival Cameron Wilson was born in Paignton, Devon on 25^th April 1888. 

His parents were Theodore Cameron Wilson, Vicar of Christ Church in Paignton, and his wife Annie Fredeline Wilson, nee Smith.  T.P.’s siblings were Christopher, b. 1883, Mary, b. 1885, Alice, b. 1889, John, b. 1890 and Charles, b. 1899.   The family moved to Little Eaton in Derbyshire, where T.P.’s father became rector of Little Eaton Parish Church St. Paul’s.  Charles and Mary also became writers – Mary wrote under the name of Marjorie Wilson.

After studying at Oxford, T.P. left without a degree in 1907 and became a primary school teacher at Mount Arlington preparatory boarding school in Hindhead, Surrey.  One of his pupils was the son of the poet Harold Monro, who founded the Poetry Bookshop in London and encouraged aspiring poets.  T.P. and Harold became friends. T.P.’s novel “The Friendly Enemy” was published in 1913.

In August 1914, T.P. enlisted as a Second Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. Transferred to the Sherwood Foresters, T.P. was a Captain at the time of his death on the Western Front during the German Spring Offensive on 23^rd March 1918 at Hermies, France.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and on the lynch gate at St. Paul’s Church, Little Eaton, Derbyshire. 

“Magpies in Picardy” was published by the Poetry Bookshop, London, with an introduction by Harold Monro, in 1919.

The full text of those poems, some of which, including T.P.’s most famous poem, “Magpies in Picardy”, were published in “The Westminster Gazette” “The English Review” and “Poetry and Drama”.  His poems were included in 12 WW1 poetry anthologies.

"Still"

STILL though chaos 
Works on the ancient plan; 
Two things have changed not 
Since first the world began. 
The beauty of the wild green earth 
And the bravery of man.

T.P. Cameron Wilson's collection is available as a download: http://www.archive.org/stream/magpiesinpicardy00wils/magpiesinpicardy00wils_djvu.txt

Colin Mitchell (1890 - 1918) - British

COLIN MITCHELL was killed on 21^st March 1918.

Colin featured in the Somme Poets exhibition held at The Wilfred Owen Story in 2016 but we could not find a photograph of him.  Now we have – with many thanks to Catherine Avak.  There is a book of the Somme exhibition for those unable to visit the exhibition.  Details are on www.poshupnorth.com

Born in Mere in Wiltshire in September 1890, Colin was the youngest of eight children – six boys and two girls. Colin’s father, John Thomas Mitchell was a farmer, and his mother was Emma Jane Mitchell, nee Parsons.

Colin was educated at Shaftesbury Grammar School as a boarder. While there, he won a prize fo...r English Literature. He was interested in amateur dramatics and music and on leaving school became a bank clerk.

Colin joined the 8th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade during the First World War and was killed in action on 22nd March 1918. The 8th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade (together with the 7th and 9th battalions) was part of the 41st Brigade of the 14th (Light) Division of XV Corps which saw action at Ypres and on The Somme. At the time of his death, Colin was a Sergeant. Colin is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in Ovillers-la-Boiselle, France and in Mere Cemetery in Wiltshire.

Colin’s poetry collection was entitled ‘Trampled Clay’ and was published in 1917 by Erskine Macdonald, London.

He also had a poem included in ‘The Malory Verse Book’ edited by Editha Jenkinson and published by Erskine Macdonald in 1919.

Source: Catherine W. Reilly, ‘English Poetry of the First World RememberiWar: A Bibliography’ (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978.

Additional Information kindly supplied by Mere Museum and Historical Society.

 HOOGE: (JULY 31st 1915)

Hooge! More damned than Sodom and more bloody,

‘Twas there we faced the flames of liquid fire.

Hooge! That shambles where the flames swept ruddy:

A spume of heat and hate and omens dire;

A vision of a concrete hell from whence

Emerged satanic forms, or so it seemed

To us who, helpless, saw them hasten hence.

Scarce understood we if we waked or dreamed.

 

“Stand To! Stand To! The Wurtembergers come!”

Shouting vile English oaths with gutter zest.

And boastful threats to kill they voice, while some,

In uniforms of grey and scarlet dressed,

Wear flame-projectors strapped upon their backs.

How face a wall of flame? Impossible!

 

“Back, boys! Give way a little; take the tracks

That lead to yonder wood, and there we’ll fill

Such trenches as are dug, and face the foe,

And no Hell-fire shall move us once we’re there.

We’re out to win or die, boys; if we go

Back and yet back, leaving good strongholds bare,

We’ll save our lives, perhaps, but not our name.

There’s no one in this well-trained company

Who’d save his skin and perjure his good fame.”

 

We hold the wood, but, oh, how can it be?

The shells are raining down amidst the trees,

Snapping the full-girthed trunks that downward crash

In dire proximity to us. The breeze

Bespeaks hot human blood. The scarlet splash

Shows everywhere, and everywhere the maimed

Are crawling, white-lipped, to a dug-out where

The doctor in a drip of sweat seems framed,

So hard he works to hide the horrid stare

Of wounds adrip; while many pass away,

And need no lint to bind their frailty,

For God has ta'en them; 'tis their triumph day,

And all their sins shall expiated be.

 

Thus are we thrown in Life's great melting-pot,

Humanity much matrixed; but the ore,

Looms purer when the crucible is hot:

'Tis on this truth that we should set our store

Alfred ('Cot') Cotterill Kermode (1897 - 1973) - British

Alfred Cotterill Kermode, known as 'Cot' to friends and family, was born in 1897 on The Isle of Man, where his father, The Reverend Sidney Alfred Pizey Kermode, was an Anglican Church Minister.  Alfred’s mother was Lucy Emma Kermode, nee Lynam, and he had the following siblings:  Lucy C. b. 1890, Mary C. b. 1900 and Margaret Agnes, b. 1902.  In 1901, the family lived in Onchan, I.o.M. and in 1911 they lived in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.

Alfred was a pupil at Oundle School when war broke out in 1914. 

 

Alfred is just one of the poets featured in the exhibition of Poetry Written by Schoolchildren in the UK during the First World War that is on display at The Wilfred Owen Story in Argyle Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, UK.  The exhibition was opened on Saturday, 17th March 2018 (the day before Wilfred Owen's birthday) and Tim Kermode and his wife Annabel travelled up to attend a rather special event.  A bust of Wilfred Owen sculpted by Anthony Padgett was unveiled on the same day by local MP Frank Field and we presented Tim with a copy of the exhibition panel about his father Alfred. Here is a link to a BBC North West Tonight news report of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b40hAbqb8

 

The WOS is open from Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 noon until 2 pm (winter opening times) but it is advisable to phone first as the museum is manned by volunteers - 07903 337995.  Entry to the WOS is free.

 

 

The Wilfred Owen Story,

34 Argyle Street,

Birkenhead, Wirral, UK,

CH41 6AE

http://www.wilfredowenstory.com/

 

Panels from previous exhibitions held at the WOS, including that featuring some of the poets involved in the Battles of Messines (Mesen), Passchendaele and after in 1917, Poets of the Battle of Arras in 1917, Poets of the Somme 1916, Female Poets of the First World War, Inspirational Women of World War One and Fascinating Facts of the Great War, are available to view on file at The Wilfred Owen Story.  Other exhibitions are planned.

 

Photo:  Lucy presenting Tim Kermode with a copy of the exhibition panel about Oundle School that features his father, Alfred 'Cot' Kermode with the Wilfred Owen bust in the background - photo taken by Paul Breeze of www.poshupnorth.com

 

 

 

 

"Old Loot" - WW1 poet - does anyone know the identity of this poet?

I received an interesting query recently from one of my contacts:

 

"... many years ago I bought a lovely copy of “Barbed Wire”, an admittedly dull First World War 56pp booklet of prose and verse (published in 1918 by Beaumont) and bound in vellum on handmade paper, which is remarkable for at least one thing - the cover has a Paul Nash woodblock design.

It is exasperating that although one surmises the author was an officer and a banker so far his identity is a mystery to me because he only used the pen name “Old Loot”. There is no clue within the text and nothing I’ve come across on-line enlightens me either so if you happen to know I’d be grateful to find out. "

 

I posted the query on the Facebook Page of the War Poets Association and Catherine Avak very kindly found me a picture of the cover and some of the 8 poems featured in the end of  the book, which is available as a download from The Hathi Trust.

 

This poem (see right) was dedicated to Cyril Arnell Newman who enlisted with the Queen's Westminster Rifles in 1914.  He was posted to the Western Front in February 1915, wounded and sent home.   He was then commissioned into the North Staffordshire Regiment and returned to the Western Front in time to take part in the Somme Offensive of July 1916.  Lieutenant Newman was killed on 28th April 1917 at the age of 24 during the Battle of Arras.  He was buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery, France.

Has anyone any idea of the identity of the poet who used the pen-name 'Old Loot'? 

 

A Poem written by F.D.B. in Valetta, Malta on 10th May 1917

In Katrina Kirkwood's lovely book about her Grandmother who was a doctor during the First World War (see photo), I found a poem entitled “A Hospital Concert, May the 8^th 1917, dedicated to a voice” (pp. 306 - 307).

The voice mentioned in the dedication was that of Salvatore Salvati, the Italian Tenor, who organised concerts for the wounded sent to hospitals in Malta during WW1.

The poem was written by 'F.D.B.' - does anyone have any idea of the identity of the poet who was obviously present during the concert?

She will wish her pure strings to be mute –

Heal us, alone, by thy voice!

We are weak – with an arm, or a foot,

“Tented”, or bound, to no choice;

Ours are the bandaged eyes,

A-search for the Singer’s face –

Denial, through darkness arise,

Pierce it with sound, for a space:

O Singer of Life – so, of pain!

Sing “Vita” - - Thy “Vita” – again and again.

 

Ah! those were old words that we’ve read –

“Oh Sempre Amore” – that stirred;

And Love’s for us lads, sick in bed,

And Love is the wounded’s last word;

And a warmth drew in from the street,

And we slipped to an English June,

And England and Italy meet,

And touch the same chord of Love’s tunes;

O Singer of Love – lift from pain!

Sing Thy “Sempre Amore” – again and again!

 

Then he sank to an under key –

“Oh Pena”! – Oh Pain! Is it not?

And we fell to a blind reverie –

For we’ve had our pain, God wot!

We were back in the fever and ache,

Or peered in a pal’s dead face,

Or were feeling the lift and the shake,

And the moan in us down to the Base;

                O Singer – though sweetest - of pain!

                Sing “Pena! – thy “Pena” – again and again.

 

Then he wrought us – passionate – loud –

“Guerra, ah Guerra”!  - Is it War?

For our slack frame stiffened them proud,

And the men, we were once, we saw –

Over and on to a Leader’s sign,

Tightening their teeth on wild breath,

Spilling their blood like the reddest wine,

While they staked for winning or death! –

                Oh Singer of madness and pain!

                Sing “Guerra” – “Thy Guerra” – again and again.

 

The ward empties to shuffle and drill –

All but two bed-ridden rows;

But he’s made eyes, - the dryest – to fill,

He’s breathed all our souls to new glows;

And a pale face, still in a trance –

Is away to the glory of things;

And the crutches tap, tap to a prance;

While a voice to the hollowness clings –

                O Vita Dolce, si sovente amara!

                O Sempre Amore – Penna e Guerra ! –

 

Valetta, May 10^th 1917 by F.D.B.

 

Nowell Oxland (1890 - 1915) – British

Following a post by Dr Connie Ruzich, an American resercher and former UK Fulbright Scholar, on

her website Behind their Lines*, I had to revisit the post I wrote about Nowell Oxland.

With thanks to Keith Wren for finding Nowell and to Catherine Avak for additional information.

Nowell Oxland was a poet born in Devon on 21st December 1890.  He was the son of William Oxland, a Church of England minister and a former vicar of St. Augustine’s parish church Alston, Cumberland, and his wife Caroline Amy Oxland,  nee Cole.   Nowell's siblings were: Dora M. (b. 1876), Campbell W. (b. 1877) and Collette (b.1879).

The Reverend Oxland was a naval chaplain appointed by the Greenwich Hospital, Lords of the Manor of Alston Moor. In 1883 he was one of a group of officers on the training ship H.M.S. Boadicea. In 1893 he was chaplain and naval instructor on H.M.S. Ganges, a training ship for boys at Flushing, then in 1902 he was appointed Vicar to Alston.

Educated at Durham School and Worcester College, Oxford, Nowell was a keen rugby player and was Captain of his college Rugby Football team. He was elected Secretary of the Lovelace Club in Trinity Term 1914. 

In September 1914, Nowell was commissioned into the 6th Border Regiment and sailed for Gallipoli in June 1915.  Lieutenant Nowell Oxland was killed at Suvla Bay on 9^th August 1915 and was buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Sulva Bay, Gallipoli.

In St. Augustine’s Church in Alston there is a portrait on either side of the altar depicting a knight in armour, each with a halo, each with the face of Nowell Oxland. In one he is St. George, having slain the dragon, and the other he is St. Alban, Britain’s soldier-saint.

Nowell in unform

Nowell's poem “Outward Bound “, written while Nowell was on night-guard on board the troop transport ship sailing down the River Mersey from Liverpool, bound for Gallipoli, on 30th June 1915.    The poem originally bore the Latin inscription: “O terque quarterque beati” (Thrice and four times blessed), and the word “harbour” in the fourth verse read “Mersey.”

"Outward Bound" was sent to “The Times” newspaper by a family friend – Amy Hawthorn, a schoolmistress in Alson.  She knew about his literary skills.  His poem “The Secret of the Hills” was published in “The Saturday Review” on 24th March 1914.  Nowell entrusted Amy with his “Poems and Stories” manuscripts.  In 1920 Amy had Nowell’s 18 poems and 7 stories published as ‘Poems and Stories’ for private circulation – “Poems and Stories”; Author, Nowell Oxland ; Publisher, Mawson Swan and Morgan, Limited, 1919 ; Length, 86 pages.

‘OUTWARD BOUND’

There’s a waterfall I’m leaving

Running down the rocks in foam,

There’s a pool for which I’m grieving

Near the water-ouzel’s home;

And it’s there that I’d be lying,

With the heather close at hand,

And the curlews faintly crying

‘Mid the wastes of Cumberland.

While the midnight watch is winging

Thoughts of other days arise,

I can hear the river singing

Like the saints in Paradise;

I can see the water winking

Like the merry eyes of Pan,

And the slow half-pounder sinking

By the bridge’s granite span.

Ah! to win them back and clamber

Braced anew with winds I love,

From the river’s stainless amber

To the morning mist above,

See through cloud-rifts rent asunder,

Like a painted scroll unfurled,

Ridge and hollow rolling under

To the fringes of the world.

Now the weary guard are sleeping,

Now the great propellers churn,

Now the harbour lights are creeping

Into emptiness astern,

While the sentry wakes and watches

Plunging triangles of light

Where the water leaps and catches

At our escort in the night.

Great their happiness who, seeing

Still with unbenighted eyes

Kin of theirs who gave them being,

Sun and earth that made them wise,

Die and feel their embers quicken

Year by year in summer time

When the cotton grasses thicken

On the hills they used to climb.

Shall we also be as they be,

Mingled with our mother clay

Or return no more it may be?

Who has knowledge who shall say?

Yet we hope that from that bosom

Of our shaggy father Pan,

When the earth breaks into blossom

Richer from the dust of man,

Though the high gods smite and slay us,

Though we come not whence we go,

As the host of Menelaus

Came there many years ago;

Yet the self-same wind shall bear us

From the same departing place

Out across the Gulf of Saros

And the peaks of Samothrace:

We shall pass in summer weather,

We shall come at eventide,

Where the fells stand up together

And all quiet things abide;

Mixed with cloud and wind and river

Sun distilled in dew and rain

One with Cumberland for ever,

We shall go not forth again.

My latest research led to the discovery of two marvellous books about Nowell and his friend from school and Oxford, and fellow Yuletide birthday boy – William Noel Hodgson (about whom I wrote on 4th January 2020) https://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2020/01/william-noel-hodgson-mc-1893-1916.html :

“Before Action: William Noel Hodgdon and the 9th Devons, A Story of the Great War”

by Charlotte Zeepvat (Pen & Sword, Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK, 2014)

“The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players” by Stephen Cooper (History Press Ltd., Cheltenham UK, 2013)  

A tribute to the pivotal role Rugby played in the Great War by following the poignant stories of fifteen men who played for Rosslyn Park, London. They came from diverse backgrounds, with players from Australia, Ceylon, Columbia, Ireland and South Africa, but they were united by their love of the game and their courage in the face of war. 

I contacted the Vicar of the church of St. Augustine of Canterbury’s Church in Alston, who said:

“There are portraits of Oxland on either side of the High Altar, depicted as St Alban and St George: there are excellent photos here 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/13669

The portraits are very well executed, and complement the central reredos, but sadly I can find no record of who the artist was.”

Sources:  Find my Past and 

http://cumbrianwarmemorials.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/just-had-posting-from-guy-called.html

http://warpoets.org.uk/worldwar1/poets-and-poetry/nowell-oxland/

https://www.worc.ox.ac.uk/visiting/library/college-archives/worcester-college-and-first-world-war/college-members-killed-1915

https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/13669

https://alstonmoorhistoricalsociety.org.uk/alston_stories/?post=war-poet

https://alstonmoorhistoricalsociety.org.uk/alston_stories/?post=war-poet

* https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2015/08/speak-of-glory-sing-of-home.html

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3pDPBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT282&lpg=PT282&dq=%E2%80%98Poems+and+%22Stories%27%22+%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD+by+Nowell+Oxland&source=bl&ots=XFKYy2ihVw&sig=ACfU3U2g_psnvEdKkuRzJNErDQLFgFy0Hg&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpzJWN_rz5AhVlSkEAHc2uA9AQ6AF6BAgVEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98Poems%20and%20%22Stories'%22%20%20%20%20by%20Nowell%20Oxland&f=false

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Qm47AwAAQBAJ&pg=PP117&lpg=PP117&dq=%E2%80%98Poems+and+%22Stories%27%22+%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD+by+Nowell+Oxland&source=bl&ots=POKWV1fLDi&sig=ACfU3U3SKk3Tv3Y4X-CufLwJOg6Qv4K58g&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpzJWN_rz5AhVlSkEAHc2uA9AQ6AF6BAgWEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98Poems%20and%20%22Stories'%22%20%20%20%20by%20Nowell%20Oxland&f=false