Authuile Military Cemetery on the banks of the river Ancre
"We hear their voices no more, yet it must be that somewhere the music of those voices lingers"
Charles Douie This is one of my favourite lines of prose, not from a poem but from a description of a burial in the Authuile Military Cemetery on the Ancre near the infamous Black Horse Bridge, in Douies book "The Weary Road" Lt Noel Hodgson MC. 2nd Lt Robert Earnest Vernede. The Rifle Brigade. KIA 09/04/1917 Lt Roland Aubrey Leighton. 7th Worcesters. KIA 22/12/1915
1st Dorsetshire Regiment
There is probably no complete record of all the WW1 Poets and many books have been written compiling lists. What I have found is not the prose itself but the eloquent way and descriptive simplicity of the words they use and the simple perspective they had. Their words really are pictorial.
This section is not meant to be a compilation of these soldier poets but a brief description of some of the sites I have visited. It is of course subject to addition and expansion as time and visits permit.
I first became interested in some of the more famous books published such as "Undertones of War" by Blunden and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" by Sassoon by seeing them constantly
referred to in Books I had read. I then commenced to visit the sites described such as Point 101 Cemetery and read further. "Poets and Pals of Picardy" by Mary Ellen Freeman being a superb book detailing just two days on the Somme. So here are my brief visit notes for just some of the poets burials, actions or pictorial descriptions:
Grave of Noel Hodgson MC. The Devonshire Cemetery, The Somme
Known as Smiler he attended Christ Church College, Oxford and whilst there joined the Officer Training Corps before joining up in 1914. He first saw action at the battle Loos and won the Military Cross defending some German trenches. He lies in the Devonshire Cemetery near Mametz on the Somme. This trench cemetery has unusually, a stone marker at its entrance carved with the lines,
"The Devonshires held this trench
The Devonshires hold it still"
At rest in this trench cemetery is Hodgson, best known for "Before Action" written and published just days before he died, like many others on the 1st July 1916.
Must say goodby to all of this:-
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
Also buried nearby is Capt Martin who had predicted that a German machine gun sited at the "Shrine" would bring enfilade fire to the Devons unless knocked out, he and probably Hodgson fell to this well hidden gun
Retired Mayor at the Grave of Robert Vernede at Lebuquiere
Vernede was an over age volunteer, at 39 his age was stated as 35 on enlistment in September 1914. He was an author of several minor novels before the war and fought at Hooge and Ploegsteert Wood before moving to the Somme. He was killed advancing on Havrincourt wood and eventually buried at Lebuquiere Communal Cemetery Extension. a small pleasant plot to the rear of some farm buildings, easy to miss. I was honoured when I visited his burial site along with my brother, in meeting a retired ex mayor of the village who by a mixture of English sign language and some notes, explained the fighting that took place in the immediate area he seemed to take great pride in the Cemetery and I looked on him as a resident guardian. I made an entry in the book, took a picture of the grave with "Le Mayor" and read a passage from his poem "The Little Sergeant"
There where the darkening shadows fall
I think I can hear him chanting slow-
The British Army's the best of all
Don't argy the point - I ought to know"
France August 1916
Grave of Roland Leighton. Louvencourt Cemetery, The Somme
Leighton had a 1st class education at Uppingham School winning seven prizes and an entry to Merton College, Oxford. He volunteered in November originally in the Norfolk Regiment, a Territorial Unit eventually fighting on the Somme and before that in Ploegsteert Wood where he wrote his famous "Villanelle" and sent his fiance Vera Brittain four violets he had picked in the wood. He was killed by machine gun fire when leading a wiring party to the West of Serre near Hebuturne and was buried some miles behind the front at Louvencourt, buried nearby is Brig. General Bertie Prowse DSO, but that is another story. Reading about his short but eventful life you cannot ignore his short relationship with Vera and here "Testament of Youth" must be read. I have just got hold of a copy of her Second Testament (of Experience) which is out of print and look forward to another good read. Vera did eventually get married and had a daughter, Shirley Williams. The visit to Louvencourt followed my usual programme, sign the book, leave a poppy, take a photograph and read a short stanza over the grave; another of my favourite poems,
Violets from Plug Street Wood
Sweet, I send you oversea
(It is strange they should be blue,
Blue, when his soaked blood was red;
For they grew around his head;
It is strange they should be blue.)
One day perhaps I will be in the vicinity of Louvencourt when violets are in bloom, and I can leave some for Roland.