One day no-one will march by at all..

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:49 PM

Ed, there was a Boer war General - Sir George White.
At the age of sixteen, I knew an old soldier who had not only fought in the WW1 and Boer War, but was in the battle of Omdurman with the Lancers. If you Google Sgt. John Freeman, you'll find a biography of the old boy from his days as a railway policeman. At the age of 96 he still stood bolt upright and retained his cavalry moustache. We would drink South African sherry and discuss the contents of the Daily Telegraph. I still have the magnifying glass that he used to read it. And he sang folk songs and popular songs from those days..."Gaily the Troubadour" was particularly vulgar as I recall.
He outlived the other survivor from Omdurman - one Winston Spencer Churchill - by a couple of years.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Beer
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:12 PM

Here here Gnu.
Thanks as well Gervase. Good of you to post this. So long ago now. But not to be forgotten.
Adrien

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:08 PM

Lest we forget.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 06:53 PM

Just back from a Sing - Did Eric Bogles song for Jack Ross !

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: GUEST,edthefolkie
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 06:49 PM

Further to the last post, two of my uncles (twins)were christened with second names of Baden and Buller after Boer War generals Baden-Powell and Redvers Buller. The twins were born about 1902. Although one was known as Buller for the rest of his life, the other was always known as White (presumably after George White's Scandals).

My dad's side of the family has never been notable for their consistent approach to logic......

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 11:42 AM

Thanks katlaughing, I'll take a look.

My Gt Gt Grandfather was born in 1854. He was christened Henry Alma Henshall in memory of the battle.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 11:29 AM

Sminky, the Crimean will always figure in books by Anne Perry, one of whose main characters, Hester Latterly, returns to London from serving there.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: theleveller
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 10:37 AM

Here's the song by Brother Crow "No Money For the Widows", about Willam Stone who was also shot as a coward because, when told by his dying Captain to retreat, jammed his empty rifle across the trench to hamper the German pursuit and was accused of throwing away his weapon. His wife wasn't told he had been executed until she went to claim her widow's pension and was told there was no money for the widows of cowards.

http://www.brothercrow.co.uk/downloads/songs/no_money_for_the_widows.html

It's a great song and a great CD. (That's a beer you owe me Andy and Graeme.)

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:39 AM

Harry Farr's page, inspired totally by Reg Meuross's incredibly moving song about Harry, '...and Jesus Wept'

On there you'll also find videos about Harry Patch, one of our last surviving soldiers here in the UK.

Reg is on the Mike Harding show on Wednesday, 10th June.


Harry was shot at dawn in WWI:

Harry Farr's Myspace page

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:36 AM

Only yesterday I discovered that in the cemetery/crematorium where my grandparents lie are the graves of two men who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.

They are in good company though, nearby are:

Samuel Laycock, the Lancashire poet and author
Beatrix Potter (though her ashes were scattered in the Lake District)
Violet Carson, actress who played the formidable Ena Sharples
Stan Mortenson, footballer
Jimmy Clitheroe, Norman Evans and Frank Randle, comedians

I guess the Crimean War doesn't figure highly in the history teaching of today. Indeed, there may come a time when it is only remembered in song.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:26 AM

in 1918 one of my greatuncles was supposed to be guarding a bloke accused of desertion - we'd call it shell shock - & allowed him to escape!

I saw this on his record in our National Archives which contains service records of all servicemen & women from all wars in which Austalians have participated. So I went looking for the escapee's records & found he received a 2-year sentence in a British prison & didn't return to Australia till long after his mates. He was lucky.

I've seen an Australian cartoon from c.1917 showing a soldier before the Colonel for AWOL - he's spinning a yarn about missing the train back cos a band struck up the National Anthem & he had to stop & salute! The soldier guarding him has a slight grin on his face & I see Bill in that soldier.

sandra

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 07:16 AM

Absolutely, Leveller. My own favourite is Eric Bogle's 'All the Fine Young Men', just because it emphasises the gap between ideals and reality. However, I do think there's actually a little more respect for those men now than there was, say, 20 years ago.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: theleveller
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 06:48 AM

"Many of those men never spoke of what they experienced, but soon it will no longer be in living memory and somehow that puts real distance between us and our history."

Very true. Both of my grandfathers were at the Somme but they seldom spoke of it in anything but the vauguest terms. I actually think they were almost embarrassed to have survived. My maternal grandfather certainly spent the rest of his life (he lived to be 94)getting involved in community work.

Folk music has a major part to play in preserving the memory of this conflict and its reprecussions and it's interesting that contemporary folk song writers such as Reg Meuross and Brother Crow are producing songs highlighting the injustice of thse 'shot at dawn' for alleged cowardice.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Ref
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 06:36 AM

In theuS, we seem to have repressed WW I. I don't know if it wasn't glorious enough (it ended in an armistice, after all) or just got lost in the shadow of WW II. One theory is that the resulting social upheavals are what some want to have forgotten!

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 06:03 AM

Thanks Gervase. Yes, it is indeed a sobering thought. Many of those men never spoke of what they experienced, but soon it will no longer be in living memory and somehow that puts real distance between us and our history.

Subject: RE: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 03:55 AM

thanks for the link, Gervase

re your Waterloo comment I used to know a woman born in 1914, whose grandfather arrived in Australia in 1793, the same year my probable ancestor arrived in the country. Her father & grandfather both married late.

sandra (listening to a radio report of Jack Ross's death)

Subject: One day no-one will march by at all..
From: Gervase
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 02:46 AM

...and that day is today.
Australia's last WW1 'digger', Jack Ross, died in a Victoria nursing home early this morning at the age of 110.
It's a sobering thought that we today are becoming as distant from the Great War as those men were from the Battle of Waterloo.
There seem to be just five veterans life now - three British, one Canadian and one American, the youngest aged 108.