Lyr Req: Suvla Bay

Subject: Suvla Bay
From: Dunc
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 07:14 AM

My father recalls the following verse from a song his mother used to sing. I've drawn a blank searching...any ideas?

Away in an Australian homestead with roses round the door
Stood a girl with a letter in her hand that had just come from the war
He did his bit that day - and lost his life at Suvla Bay

Dunc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: MudGuard
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 07:30 AM

THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA and one of the Foggy Dew versions (As down the glen one Easter morn) are the only two songs I knew so far mentioning this place Suvla Bay.

But I found this: Suvla Bay

Hope this is the one you are looking for!

MudGuard

Subject: Lyr Add: SUDA BAY
From: masato sakurai
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 07:37 AM

I've found another version.

SUDA BAY (WWII)
from WWI, this version adapted in WWII

In an old Australian homestead
With the roses round the door,
A girl received a letter,
Just newly from the war.
With her mother's arms around her
She gave way to sobs and sighs
For when she read that letter,
The tears came to her eyes.
Chorus: Why do I weep? Why do I sigh?
My love's asleep so far away.
He played his part that August day
And left my heart in Suda Bay.

2. She joined a band of nurses
Beneath the cross of red
And swore to do her duty
To the soldier who lay dead.
Many soldiers came to woo her
But were sadly turned away
As to them she told the story
Of the grave at Suda Bay.
Chorus:
----------------------
The WWI version, Sulva Bay, refers to the Bay that was in the infamous Gallipoli Campaign (1915). In WWII, there was a fierce fight at Suda Bay, which was near the Isle of Crete - famous for the first mass use of paratroopers to seize an objective.

SOURCE: HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: red flag
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 07:39 AM

My grandfather fought at Sulva Bay in WW1

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 09:24 AM

Look in this thread Anti-war songs frm WWI for a version of Suda Bay posted by Bob Bolton (17-01-00), plus some discussion on the song.

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 07:21 PM

Hi red flag
I work at a company called Pennant.
Is that a coincidence or am I just a thread creep?.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Dunc
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 07:38 AM

Thank you all for your help on this one.
Does anyone know of a CD or recording of this song?
I would love to get a copy for my Dad...His 90th Birthday is coming up in December.

Dunc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: ddw
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 05:41 PM

Red Flag,

Then you're damned lucky to be here. Not that many made it back from that mess.

david

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM

Dunc, if you are still monitoring this thread and you still don't have the song, I can Email you a copy of Suvla Bay by Ray Kernaghan.

If you'd rather have it, his Silver Jubilee Album is available here ~~ http://vs2180.server-store.com/store/item.inetstore?id=1104 I don't know where you are, but that ia an Australian album ~~ worth having, but not all that easy to find.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From:
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:09 AM

Hi:
My great mother left Ireland to America direction in 1920.
The last song, she listened meanwhile took a boat was "Foggy dew".
She knew to Can.Rev.Charles O'Neill. When I was child, and from my birth, she sang this song to me. This song is very important for me,
and she died in Spain, after to try to go back to her lovely and ever green land, Ireland. For that, this song is so important for me. Once, I listened this song by a woman singer some fews years ago, I do not know exactly who was she. But she remember to my grandma's voice.
From Spain, Slán to all.
Pilar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:44 AM

This has strong resonances in my family. My mother's oldest brother died at Gallipolli in WW1 (blown up, only some of his equipment identified,) and her youngest brother died in the battle for Crete in WW2 and is buried in the war cemetery there. Both were scarcely out of their teens.
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:48 AM

My Grandfather also fought in the Gallapili campaign during WW1, and was sent home before the end.

Tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:54 AM

Here's the lyrics to Sulva Bay

http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/english/sulvabay.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:56 AM

I'll try and send a linkhttp://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/english/sulvabay.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 03:37 PM

Slim Dusty Recording of Suvla Bay
I have a tape of this somewhere, if anyone requires it I can convert it to CD nabd send it on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From:
Date: 22 Oct 02 - 08:17 AM

greetings Kenny B, my name is Terry from Swansea South Wales,please can you get in touch with me about a copy cd copy of Sulva Bay.
                Many Thanks Terry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST, Dale
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 01:11 PM

Does anyone have information as to authorship?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: mmb
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 09:13 PM

Clarification Request: How many locations are being discussed in this thread?

I'm seeing "Suvla Bay," "Sulva Bay," and "Suda Bay." I'm okay with the explanation of Suda Bay, but am not sure whether Suvla Bay and Sulva Bay are separate, real, entities, or one is a different spelling of the other.   Thanks. M.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 11:10 PM

Suda Bay on Crete was involved in the Battle of Crete, WW2. German forces, in a land, sea, air battle, defeated the "British" and Greek forces. The "British" were forced to evacuate the island. Losses were severe and more forces were lost during the evacuation. A number of British warships were lost or severely damaged. I put "British" in quotes because Australian and other forces were involved, but Chambers just puts British in their minimal description of the Battle of Crete.

Suvla Bay of WW1 is not in modern atlases because proper Turkish names are now applied, but it is the bay at the northwest corner of the Gallipoli Peninsula on the Aegean Sea (opposite side of the peninsula from Gallipoli). It is now called Büyuk Kemikli Burun.
In the Enc. Britannica article on the Dardanelles Campaign, there is the remark "As a consequence of the failure in Suvla during the early days of its occupation, certain changes in command were carried out." The major failing was not moving inland at once. Eventually, the Bay was evacuated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 11:20 PM

Modern atlases have changed the name Gallipoli to Gelibolu, or give them both.
The "Anzac Cove" on the Gallipoli Peninsula is in the large indentation to the south of the "Suvla" area. Cape Hellas is the extreme southwest tip of the Peninsula. These names, of course, are no longer on current maps.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 11:34 PM

Bob Bolton posted the words to Sulva Bay- Suda Bay in thread 32539: Sulva Bay

In the National Geographic Atlas, nothing is shown at the location of "Anzac Cove" and "Cape Hellas" is not noted, but it is where the town of Seddülbahir (Sedd el Bahr on older maps) is located.

Subject: RE: Suvla Bay
From: berny666
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 02:52 PM

i need to find a copy of this song in a bit of a hurry can anyone help many thanx berny

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 06:50 PM

Hi, Berny - if you're looking for lyrics and the tune, follow the links in this thread. If you're looking for a recording, that might be harder to find.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: freda underhill
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 09:08 PM

Sulva Bay is a misspelling - its Suvla Bay. And the word goes that you could have been arrested for singing this song during WW1- it was meant to be bad for troop morale, and bad for the country's morale during war time. My father taught me this song, and someone recorde me singing it at Gulgong festival one year. That recording is somewhere in a war museum in London, I was told. I could sing it and send you a tape if you wish - pm me, and I'll send you my email.

best wishes

freda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: JennyO
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 10:38 AM

I wish I had a recording of the time Bill Bekric sang it with Jennie G doing a harmony between the lines. Maybe freda and I could do it together, cos I remember how Jennie's harmony goes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: JennieG
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 08:25 PM

Bill Bekric told me he learnt the last verse from his stepfather; Bill taught me the harmony at a session a few years ago.

Cheers
JennieG not singing much this week due to the Dreaded Lurgy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Carol
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 07:58 AM

I sing the song as Suvla Bay and the words are mainly from my mother

In an old Australian homestead with Roses round the door
A girl received a letter that had just come from the war
With her mother's arms around her, 'neath the blue australian skies
She slowly read that letter then hung her head and cried

Why do I weep, why do I cry, my love's asleep, so far away
He played his part that August day and left my heart in Suvla Bay

She has joined a band of nurses and beneath that cross of Red
She has gone to do her duty for her loved one who was dead
Many man they came to woo her, but she sent them all away
When she told them of her loved one
Who lay dead in Suvla bay

Why do I weep etc. twice

Yes, I can understand why it would have been considered bad for troop morale!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Jun 04 - 11:27 AM

Oh no Jennie, not the dreaded lurgy again! Didn't you have something like that about this time last year too?

So far I'm lurgy-free, touch wood.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,liz
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 05:33 PM

does anyone have a copy of sulva bay by ray kernaghan they could email me. thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 10:58 PM

'Ernest Raymond (1888 - 1974) was a British novelist, best known for his 1922 book, Tell England, set in World War I.' Wiki ===

Out of interest, this book which I grew up with as it was a fave of my father's [b1901], is set in the Dardanelles campaign in which the author had served, & gives a good account of what the fighting there was like ~ with, naturally, much ref to Suvla & Hellas as the joint centres of the fighting.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,liz
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 07:25 AM

it is the song version that i am looking for, thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Tradsinger
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 07:52 AM

The Gloucester gypsy Wiggie Smith sang it as Dunkirk Bay. See http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/smith.htm.

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 03:52 AM

Australians didn't serve at suvla bay. they didserve at suva bay in ww2 new guines. suvla bay was a british do, ix corp irish brigade.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 08:57 AM

Suva is in Fiji. No fighting took place there in either World War.

Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles on April 25, 1915.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 09:42 AM

Google maps, Suvla Bay Turkey - the word Anzac near the roundabout on the major (yellow) road is a hotel!

Google image search on Suvla Bay Turkey

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: GUEST,#
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 10:43 AM

The Landing at Suvla bay - poem by Reg Ecclestone

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/8747/2495?bt=europeanaapi

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 03:29 PM

I'm sure I've posted this before. Never mind.

I have 2 copies of Suvla Bay (In an Old Australian Homestead) sheet music. It is credited to Jack Spade. One copy has Charlie Chester on the cover and the other has Bertha Wilmott. Both are copyrighted 1944 and 1948 and there is no indication of an earlier WWI version.

I first came across it being sung by ex servicemen from WWII. There are recordings on the BL Sound Archive website as sung by my friend the late Mick Robinson and my late uncle Harold Sykes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 03:34 PM

By the way it has a lot of similarities with the song 'You'll be happy little sweetheart in the spring' 1943

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 03:38 PM

Steve, I looked into the song's background for Gwilym, and my findings match yours precisely.

"Jack Spade" may be a pseudonym. It is possible that he or someone he knew actually did write the song during WW1 or not long afterward, but there is no trace of it before 1944, and no evidence that it was known at all, if it existed at all, in 1915-18.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: JeffB
Date: 13 Jul 15 - 05:19 AM

Sorry Lighter. You're wrong about the the Anzacs landing at Suvla Bay on 25th April. That was the date they landed at Anzac Cove, and it is commemorated every year in Australia as Anzac Day, probably the most important day in the Australian events calendar (after the Melbourne Cup of course).

The Suvla Bay landing was in early August. It was a purely British affair, and was a dismal fiasco.

The accounts I've read of both landings say that, despite the myths of storms of shot and shell, they were relatively unopposed by the Turks; in fact the Australian author Alan Moorehead (in his excellent book Gallipoli) says that on the afternoon of the 25th an Australian unit almost made a significant break-through which would have opened the way to an advance into the interior of the peninsula. It was one of the couple of occasions on which the campaign very nearly succeeded, but unfortunately the Aussies came up against a platoon of Turks commanded by Kemal himself.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Suvla Bay
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jul 15 - 07:54 AM

JeffB, of course you're right about the exact location of the ANZAC landings, just a few miles south of Suvla proper. Careless of me. I spent an hour trying to determine whether "Suvla Bay" technically included ANZAC Cove. I mistakenly took the name "Suvla" to include the nameless (?) larger bay, where the cove is located, and which is separated from the real, much smaller, Suvla Bay by only a narrow headland.

Obviously no Australian or New Zealander would have made such a mistake.

"Suvla Bay," however, provides far greater rhyming possibilities for a distant songwriter than does "ANZAC Cove."

At any rate, the presence of "Suvla Bay" certainly makes it more likely that the song is of English rather than Australian origin.

But that rhyme...that mellifluous sound....