John Orr Ewing, MC (1884 - 1961) – Major and poet

With grateful thanks to Hannah Dale, Archivist at Cheltenham College, for additional information about John and for the photograph of him in the Boyne House 2nd XV Rugby Team;  and to Cheltenham Historical Society for their kind help.

In Catherine Reilly’s Bibliography of English Poetry of the First World War, there is an entry on page 122 about John Orr Ewing, (MC, Major), giving the title of John’s WW1 poetry collection:  “Hoof Marks, and other impressions (poems), illustrated with sketches by G.H.S. Dixon (H.F. & G. Witherby, London, 1934).

John is on the end of the back row 
on the right

John was born in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, Scotland on 23rd May 1884.  His parents were Hugh Moody Robertson Ewing and Helen Margaret Robertson Ewing, nee Robertson.  John’s father died in 1889 and on the 1891 Census, John was living with Christian Robertson, his Grandmother, and his mother, Helen M.R. Ewing, who is listed as a widow.  John had the following siblings:

a sister - Christian Leckie Orr Ewing, b. 1885  - and a brother - Hugh Eric Douglas Orr Ewing b. 1888.

John was educated at Cheltenham College between May 1898 and December 1901 and was in Boyne House.  He went on to Sandhurst Military College and served in the British Army with the 16th Queen’s Lancers from 1903.   There is a listing for the marriage of John Orr Ewing and Gwendoline Evelyn Curtis in Kensington in December 1908.

There is an entry in the 1939 register for John Orr Ewing, born 23 May 1884 – a retired Army Officer - and his wife, Gwendoline Orr Ewing, born 9th February 1880.  

John died in Berkshire in 1961 and Gwendoline in Berkshire in 1964.  

  

I managed to obtain a copy of John Orr Ewing’s poetry collection “Hoof-Marks and other impressions” which is beautifully illustrated by G.H.S. Dixon.   Here is one of the poems:

“Roll On!”

Behind the lines in Flanders

A Corps Commander raged –

The Front was not the only place

That War was being waged –

The Nth Dragoons were dirty!

In wrath he named a day,

And, were the Nth not clean by then,

There would be Hell to pay!

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  

At three they had Reveillé –

“Black Jack” was due at ten –

From peep of day they slaved away

Till horses, saddles, men

Outshone the sun in splendour,

Outdid the newest pins –

The curtain rises, this is where

A Tragedy begins: -

First let me introduce y ou

To Trooper Albert Hake,

Who, grooming, as we see him now,

Is hissing like a snake:

Meet, also, one called Ginger,

His horse, A92,

And learn from Ginger’s glossy coat

What ‘elbow-grease’ can do.

When Hake had saddled Ginger

A man could see to shave

In leather’s gleaming surface, or

The glint that bright steel gave;

The back of every buckle

Showed polish, too, and spit –

All justified the looks of pride

That Hake bestowed on it.

Hake went to fetch his jacket,

Parade was nearly due,

Here Destiny took things in hand

To show what she could do –

To Ginger came a tickle

Beneath the blankets’ fold,

He squirmed, he wriggled, tried to bite,

The ropes, ‘built-up’ and ‘head’ were tight,

The thing persisted, come what might,

He had to – Yes!  He rolled!

The sun shone bright that morning,

But ‘ere the dawn, the rain

Had left the lines a sea of mud

That rendered sweeping vain:

So Hake returns to Ginger

To find the awful truth –

The coat that carried silken sheen,

The saddle cleaner than the clean,

Behold them now – a slimy green! –

A tragedy in sooth!

A Soldier’s sense of humour

Here lent its kindly aid.

Past praying for felt Albert Hake,

Yet very nearly prayed!

He held his hands to heaven,

And when he got his breath,

His words were few, but chosen well,

“Roll on! Oh ____ing Death!”

pp. 75 – 77 “Hoof-Marks and other impressions”

Sources: Information from the Archives of Cheltenham College, from Find my Past, Free BMD and

Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978),  p. 122

John Orr Ewing, “Hoof Marks, and other impressions (poems), (G.H. Dixon, Witherby, 1934).  On the inside fly leaf of the book is a dedication/inscription:  

As John Orr Ewing married a Gwendoline Curtis, I feel there is some sort of connection but I am not sure what.  If anyone can help please get in touch.

George Scholefield Dixon (1890 – 1960)   -  artist and illustrator (illustrated John's poetry collection)

Born in Hunslet, Yorkshire, UK on 20th April 1890, George’s parents were George Dixon, a clerk, and his wife Clara Dixon,  nee Scholefield.   George studied at Leeds School of Art. Although a portrait painter, he was primarily an illustrator and commercial artist with works reproduced in such publications as Punch, Tatler and Bystander; he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and an active member of the London Sketch Club.

Reginald Bancroft Cooke (1887 - 1946 ) – writer, poet and translator

 This WW1 soldier poet has been found for us through some amazing research by author, poet, translator, historian AC Benus. 

AC Benus is the author of a book about German WW1 poet Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele : “The Thousandth Regiment: A Translation of and Commentary on Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele’s War Poems” by AC Benus (AC Benus, San Francisco, 2020). Along with Hans's story, the book includes original poems as well as translations.    ISBN: 978-1657220584

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1657220583 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/1657220583

AC Benus, who often helps me with research, told me that Reginald translated “The Sonnets of Karl August Georg Max Graf von Platten-Hallermünde” (Boston, 1923) and included this poem of dedication in the translated volume. It is this poem that led AC Benus to think he may have written other poems during WW1 … and the search began.

"TO F. G. C. of the Royal Air Force" by Reginald Bancroft Cooke

To you, in memory of war- time days,

When your New Zealand and my Canada

Fought with our England 'neath a single star

Against one foe, who set the world ablaze

To you the thoughts this slender book conveys

I beg to offer from this land afar,

Hoping some verses here perchance there are

Which may be not unworthy of your praise.

For these are stolen fruit. I have but lent

The means whereby another might confess

His heart to those whose hours cannot be spent

In foreign vineyards, there the juice to press

From foreign vines. Therefore to what extent 

His thoughts are mine 'tis yours, my friend, to guess.

If anyone has any idea who F.G.C of the Royal Air Force was please get in touch. 

Mention of "our England" in the poem, led me to research and I discovered that Reginald was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire on 13th July 1887. His parents were Bancroft Cooke, a Managing Director, cotton broker and general merchant, and his wife, Emily Sarah Cooke, nee Madge, who were married in June 1876. Reginald had 4 older siblings: Hester Bancroft Cooke - born May 1877 d 1938 California; Dora Bancroft Cooke – born Nov 1878, died Aug 1890 Birkenhead; Leonard Austin Cooke – born 1881, Died 1955 California; & Arthur Bancroft Cooke, born 1882, died 1943 California. 

In 1901 the family lived in a house called The Lems, Kirklake Road, Formby, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England.  He seems to have spent a great deal of time in the United States of America - I imagine that his father must have had friends and possibly even family there due to his involvement with cotton. Reginald studied at the University of California, Berkley.

Information on the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Record Card shows Reginald enlisted as a Private on 4th October 1915 in London, Ontario.    He gave his home address as Carpentaria, California, U.S.A.    He had been in the University’s cadet corps and was described as a ‘student teacher’.

Reginald originally joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and was allocated the identity No. 475379.  He served 12 months with the PPCLIs and two years six months seconded to the 26th Battalion in France.  His height was five feet ten and a half inches, his eyes were blue and his hair fair.   

After the war, Reginald returned to America and was living in Portland, Maine in 1923, when his war-time poetry collection – “Some Sonnets of a Passing Epoch” – was published  by Southworth Press, Maine. Reginald died on 1st November 1946 in Cumberland, Maine, USA.

Additional research carried out by AC Benus confirms that the information I found about Reginald is correct.  Reginald graduated on 11th May 1910 with a Masters of Arts from Berkley.

Reginald also published a collection of his own poems – “Some Sonnets of a Passing Epoch”, Reginald Bancroft Cooke (Southworth Press, Maine, 1925) - 61 pages

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Some_Sonnets_of_a_Passing_Epoch.html?id=qkZDAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

According to the inside cover of Reginald's collection, he obtained a Ph.d from the University of Wisconsin. 

Here are some of the poems from Reginald's WW1 collection:

JUTLAND

SHIPS of the line ! Men of the mast ! Yo-ho !

The sea is England's proper battle ground, 

And not since Aboukir has there been found

So fine an admiral as Jellicoe.

Blow hard, ye winds, adown the North Sea, blow !

Surge, ye tumultuous waves which still surround

Our island homes ! From every bourne and bound 

Join with our guns to sink this upstart foe.

Long shall their landsmen sailors rue “ the day"

When they crept forth too far from sheltering shores,

For many a year their children's children pray 

That they may truly have no further cause

To learn what better had been learned in school,

That on the ocean Britons ever rule.

Page 15

THE PLEDGE OF THE PRINCESS PATS

WHAT deeds are those that blazon bright the name 

Of Connaught's royal daughter on the scroll 

Of history ! While the battle thunders roll

O’er the fair vales of France, and the fierce flame

Of just revenge illumes the land, their fame,

Like a loud trumpet, shall inspire the soul

Of Canada, aye, and from pole to pole 

Long shall resound. And well ye know whence came

These warriors;  how, like a flowing tide,

Gladly their homeland has outpoured her best,

Their deeds a pledge that, trusted and well tried 

On many a field, She shall fight on beside

Her parent, Britain , until, east and west,

Our empire stands triumphant, undefied.

Page 21 

NOTE:  The Battle of the Nile –1st August 1798 – fought near Alexandria in Egypt -  was also called the Battle of Aboukir when Admiral Lord Nelson was in command of the British Fleet. 

Sources:  Find my Past, FreeBMD and The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who inform me that the 26th Battalion doesn’t exist anymore, but they are perpetuated now by The Royal New Brunswick Regiment. 

William Robert Fountaine Addison VC (1883 – 1962) - Anglican Church Minister and poet

I think we may have found another WW1 VC poet - William was found for us by Loraine Sherlock, in whose Grandmother's autograph book William wrote the poem featured here and pictured below when he was a Curate at St. Edmond's Church, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK 

William Addison was born on 18th September 1883 in Odiham, Hampshire, UK.  His parents were William Grylls Addison, an artist, and his wife Alice Addison.  Educated at Robert Mays School in  Odiham, as a young man William went to work as a lumberjack in Canada. After studying at Salisbury Theological College, he was ordained in 1913 and became Curate of St Edmund's Church, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK, which  now houses Salisbury Arts Centre.

William volunteered to serve in the British Army Chaplain’s Department and became a Temporary Chaplain of the Forces, 4th Class in the Army Chaplain's Department, British Army.  

He served in Mesopotamia and was awarded a Victoria Cross (VC) for most conspicuous bravery on 9th April 1916 at Sanna-i-Yat when he carried a wounded man to the cover of a trench and assisted several others to cover, binding up their wounds under heavy rifle and machine gun fire.   In addition to these unaided efforts, by his splendid example and utter disregard of personal danger, he encouraged the stretcher-bearers to go forward under heavy fire and collect the wounded.

The poem written by The Reverend William Robert Fountaine Addison
in 1913, when he was Vicar of St. Edmunds Church, Salisbury

William married Marjorie H.K. Wallis of Caterham in Christ Church, Brighton in September 1917.  

William’s Victoria Cross was gazetted on September 26th 1916 and almost a year later, the presentation by King George V took place at Buckingham Palace on 3rd August 1917. William Addison was also awarded the Order of St George-Russia.

After the war, William continued as an army chaplain and served in Malta, Khartoum and Shanghai and at various army bases in England. He was Senior Chaplain to the Forces from 1934 to 1938 when he left the army and again became a parish priest. He was Rector of Coltishall with Great Hautbois in Norfolk from 1938 to 1958.  During the Second World War, William returned to the army and served as Senior Chaplain to the Forces. He died in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex on 7th January 1962 and is buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.

A replica set of William's medals is on display at the Museum of Army Chaplaincy, and at Sarum College in Salisbury.

The Order of Saint George (Russian: Орден Святого Георгия, Orden Svyatogo Georgiya) is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation.  The award was established on 26 November 1769 Julian calendar (7 December 1769 Gregorian calendar) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commissioned officers and generals by Empress Catherine the Great. After the 1917 Russian Revolution it was awarded by the White movement anti-communist forces under Alexander Kolchak until their collapse in 1921. 

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD, Wikipedia and http://www.hellfirecorner.co.uk/coulson.htm

With grateful thanks to Loraine for this amazing find. 

A poem written by an unknown Captain in the Army Ordnance Depot (AOD), Boulogne, France, WW1

From “Reported Missing in the Great War 100 years of searching for the truth” by John Broom, with a foreword by Paul Reed (Pen & Sword Military, 2020) p. 123.

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equipment, ammunition and clothing and certain minor functions such as laundry, mobile baths and photography. The RAOC was also responsible for a major element of the repair of Army equipment. 

“The Forgotten Letter”

1. Don’t go to the ‘Pictures’ or ‘Concert hall’,

But stay in your billet tonight,

Deny yourself to your pals that call,

And a Good long letter write.

Write to the Dear ones left at home.

Who sit when the day is done.

In the even’s twilight cold & grey,

And dream of the absent one.

2. Don’t selfishly scribble ‘Excuse my haste’,

I’ve but little time to write,

Les their anxious heart should yearn as they think

Of many a bygone night;

When they lost their needed sleep & rest.

And every breath was a prayer.

That God should keep their loving son

Through life in His tender care.

3. Don’t let them feel that you have no need

Of their love and counsel wise,

For the heart grows very sensitive

When sorrow has dimmed the eyes.

Remember, comrade, your mother’s words

As you entered the ranks with delight

‘Good-bye’ and ‘God bless you’ my dear brave boy

And ‘Don’t forget to write’.

4. Now I wonder if ever you give a thought

As with comrades you daily unite

To the anxious suspense you may have caused

By neglecting that letter to write.

I know that ‘tis well to have comrades true

Who make your pleasures gay

But they have but half the thought for you

That your mother has to-day.

5. So tell them what you intend to do

Let them and your pleasure wait

Lest the letter for which your mother has longed

Be a day or an hour too late

For with loving heart she waits at home

With cheeks tear-stained & white

Longing to hear from her soldier son

Who perhaps has forgotten to write.

A poem written by WW1 soldier poet and schoolteacher Ernest Denny (1888 - 1917)

A poem written by Ernest I. Denny (1888 - 1917) for Miss B. Gaviller and published on page 16 of a collection of his poems entitled “Triumphant Laughter: Poems 1914 – 1917”, which was published in paperback form by Brentham Press, London, UK in 1978.

Having posted this on several Facebook pages, I received a reply from Julie Cauvin from the Facebook Group Wenches in Trenches about Miss B. Gaviller. Julie says :  "Her full name was Babette Olive Gaviller.   She was born in England in 1892 and emigrated to Canada with her parents in 1898. She died in Collingwood, Simcoe, Ontario on 13th March 1970.

I think she had a sweetheart named Victor. One of her family members on Ancestry says on 13th June 1916, in the Canadian Convalescent Home for Officers, near Dieppe, France, Olive wrote “While we have been here, so many officers, both Canadians and English, have told me over and over again how splendid he (Victor) was at the front”. She never married.

No one is even remembering her on Find a Grave. I’ll put in a request for a picture of her grave. She’s buried at All Saints Anglican Cemetery, Collingwood, Ontario.

Babette served from 9/7/1915 until 4/3/1919."

Photo of Babette’s grave from Julie:  Here you go, she's buried with her parents."

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Brock_centenary_2nd_ed._1913.djvu/57

William Cadwaladr Roberts (1892 – 1918) – Welsh WW1 soldier poet – Bardic Name Alaw Alltwen

With thanks to Clive Hughes of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum for finding this information about another hitherto unknown WW1 Welsh soldier poet. Unfortunately we have not been able to find examples of William’s poems.  If anyone can help please get in touch. 

William Cadwaladr Roberts was born in Llanddeiniolen (aka Deiniolen) parish, Caernarfonshire, Wales, circa 1892/3, the eldest of four children. His parents were Cadwaladr Roberts, a slate quarry man, and his wife Annie Roberts (nee Parry). William – known to the family as Willie – had the following siblings: Cadwaladr Roberts, born 1895, Benjamin Roberts, born 1897 and Mary C. Roberts, born 1901.

In the 1901 census the family were living at Allt Ddu, Dinorwic.  In the 1911 census they were living at Bron y Fferam (or Bron Fferam), Dinorwig (i.e. near Llanberis), in the house of William’s maternal grandfather, Benjamin Parry. He was recorded as a Quarryman (slate dresser).  

When war broke out, William enlisted in the Army as a Private – No. 40158 – in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.  John Krijnen's roll states: born Dinorwic, Quarryman.  Enlisted 22nd (Reserve) Bn. RWF 2.2.16.   (??Embarked) 28.6.16 and joined 1st RWF 4.8.16 (in France).  He became a Lance Corporal on 4.11.16.  The Unit was sent to Italy in late 1917.  William was promoted to the rank of Corporal on or about 8.5.18.  He was wounded (GSW) in the legs on 3.5.18 during a company raid on Austrian positions at Ambrosini, and was admitted to the 24th Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) 11.5.18.  William was sent to the 29th Stationary Hospital on 15.5.18 and posted to a Convalescent Depot on 24.5.18., rejoining the Battallion. 26.6.18.  He contracted Influenza, was admitted to the 22nd Field Ambulance on 10.11.18, sent to 39th CCS on 15.11.18 and died 24.11.18 aged 26.  William Cadwaladr Roberts was buried in Giavera Cemetery, Arcade, Italy, Grave Reference Plot 3. Row B. Grave 4.

William is remembered on the War Memorial, Deiniolen, as William C. Roberts, Bron Fferam. 

William had a bardic name - "Alaw Alltwen" - which is known to his descendants. His bardic name was mentioned in his obituary in a local Welsh language newspaper - “Yr Herald Gymraeg” (The Welsh Herald) - on 24.12.18 p3 : 

The town of Giavera is in the Province of Treviso. It is 12 kilometres east of Montebelluna and 14 kilometres west of Conegliano on the main road between the two places. Giavera British Cemetery is 500 metres north-west of the town close to the church. The Italians entered the war on the Allied side, declaring war on Austria, in May 1915. Commonwealth forces were at the Italian front between November 1917 and November 1918.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers (In Welsh: Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army and part of the Prince of Wales' Division, founded in 1689 shortly after the Glorious Revolution. In 1702, it was designated a fusilier regiment and became The Welch Regiment of Fusiliers; the prefix "Royal" was added in 1713, then confirmed in 1714 when George I named it The Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welsh Fusiliers. After the 1751 reforms that standardised the naming and numbering of regiments, it became the 23rd Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers).

The RWF retained the archaic spelling of Welch, instead of Welsh, and Fuzileers for Fusiliers; these were engraved on swords carried by regimental officers during the Napoleonic Wars. After the 1881 Childers Reforms, its official title was The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, but "Welch" continued to be used informally until restored in 1920 by Army Order No.56.

Information sent to me by Clive Hughes.

https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/hospitals/hospital.php?pid=12724

Auguste Marius Treilles (? - ?) – French soldier poet

With thanks to Sue Robinson of the Group Wenches in Trenches

for telling us about this poet 

‘Au Fées du Royaumont’ by Sergent Auguste Marius Treilles - Translation by Clare Brock :

The best-tempered steel of deadly weapons,

Is transformed in your hands into humanitarian tears,

And your delicate gentle fingers Miss Nicholson.

Are thrust into the palpitating body without fear,

While in a dream Miss Ivens, Miss Heyworth,

Under the confident spell that your science inspires,

I see you on waking searching for that smile,

Comforting balm on the bleeding wounds

You compassionate women shed uninterrupted.

The poem was written by Auguste Marius Treilles, a Sergeant in the French Army who was treated at the Scottish Women’s Hospital in Royaumont Abbey, France. It praised and was dedicated to the doctors, nurses and staff of the hosopital and was entitled ‘Au Fées du Royaumont’. The poem was published in a special SWH edition of “Common Cause”.-  "Common Cause", VII.344 (12 November 1915), p. 397.

Royaumont Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, located in France near Asnières-sur-Oise in the Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris. From January 1915 to March 1919 the Abbey housed a voluntary hospital – L’Hôpital Auxiliaire 301 – which was operated by The Scottish Women's Hospitals(SWH), under the direction of the French Red Cross.  The hospital was especially noted for its performance treating soldiers involved in the Battle of the Somme. After the war the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Frances Ivens CBE MS(Lond) ChM(Liverp) FRGOG (1870–1944), was awarded membership of the French Légion d'honneur.

"The Common Cause" was a weekly publication, founded in 1909, that supported the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. The first issue was published on 15 April 1909 and the magazine was mainly financed by Margaret Ashton. The final issue was published on Friday, 30 January 1920, in which the successor magazine – “The Woman's Leader” was announced.

"In The Cloister of the Abbaye at Royaumont. Dr. Frances Ivens inspecting a French patient."
painted by Nora Neilson Gray

Norah Neilson Gray (16 June 1882 – 27 May 1931) was a Scottish artist of the Glasgow School. She was a member of The Glasgow Girls whose paintings were exhibited in Kirkcudbright in July and August 2010.  During the First World War, Norah volunteered to serve with the Scottish Women's Hospitals and was sent to France.   She managed to find time to paint and sketch. Nora offered a painting entitled “Hôpital Auxilaire 1918” showing the SWH Hospital in Royaumont Abbey to the Imperial War Museum but the Women's Work Sub-committee of the Museum refused to accept it and requested a painting showing a woman doctor instead.  Thea bove painting was accepted by the IWM in 1920

Sources:

Wenches in Trenches Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/381631619655707

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87/9781107186934AR.pdf/British_Women_Surgeons_and_their_Patients__1860_1918.pdf?event-type=FTLA

https://www.wenchesintrenches.org/the-women-of-royaumont?fbclid=IwAR1hWkJmpTYIbXq0E_aS4HIJh0o6msO7pTmZLvDdO7Mw8ZxrxSEf3d0XfVg

See note 206 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/british-women-surgeons-and-their-patients-18601918/inside-the-theatre-of-war/8F3326DFD4BF47D0161B9E95273E69E0

“The Women of Royaumont: Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front” by Eileen Crofton (Tuckwell Press, 1997)