Poems of the Great War

PREFACE

PREFACE

that during much of the time of the preparation
of this volume my mind was full of the memory of
my friend Lieut. -Col. G. H. Baker of the 5th
Canadian Mounted Rifles, who fell in command of
his battalion during the third battle of Ypres on
June 2, 1916.

J. W. CUNLIFFE.

JULIAN GRENFELL

Flanders, April, 1915.

Captain the Hon. Julian Henry Francis Grenfell, D.S.O.,
of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons, was wounded in the trenches
in front of Ypres on May 13, and died in hospital at
Boulogne on May 26, 1915. He was the eldest son of
Lord Desborough, by whose consent the poem is here
reprinted. Lord Desborough writes: “Not many men
would have knocked out two professional boxers and
written those verses in one week.”

NORA GRIFFITHS

A LEGEND OF YPRES

— Elinor Jenkins.

(See note on “ The First Battle of Ypres,” by Mrs. Mar¬
garet L. Woods, p. 290 of this volume.)

EDMUND JOHN

THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES 1

And the lone village dreaming in the downland yonder.
Half a million Huns broke over them in thunder,
Roaring seas of Huns swept on and sunk again,

1 Author’s Note. — In the first Battle of Ypres,
which was fought in October-November, 1914, a thin
line of British, supported on each wing by small bodies
of French, stopped the push of an immense German army
on Calais. The allusion in the latter part of the poem is
not to “the angels of Mons,” but to a story received from
a very competent witness. On three occasions the Ger¬
mans broke through our line, then paused and retired,
for no apparent reason. On each of these occasions prison¬
ers, when asked the cause of their retirement, replied :
“We saw your enormous Reserves.” We had no Reserves.
This story was incidentally confirmed by the remark of
another officer on the curious conduct of the Germans in
violently shelling certain empty fields behind our lines.

MARGARET L. WOODS

PREFACE

PREFACE

that during much of the time of the preparation
of this volume my mind was full of the memory of
my friend Lieut. -Col. G. H. Baker of the 5th
Canadian Mounted Rifles, who fell in command of
his battalion during the third battle of Ypres on
June 2, 1916.

J. W. CUNLIFFE.

JULIAN GRENFELL

Flanders, April, 1915.

Captain the Hon. Julian Henry Francis Grenfell, D.S.O.,
of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons, was wounded in the trenches
in front of Ypres on May 13, and died in hospital at
Boulogne on May 26, 1915. He was the eldest son of
Lord Desborough, by whose consent the poem is here
reprinted. Lord Desborough writes: “Not many men
would have knocked out two professional boxers and
written those verses in one week.”

NORA GRIFFITHS

A LEGEND OF YPRES

— Elinor Jenkins.

(See note on “ The First Battle of Ypres,” by Mrs. Mar¬
garet L. Woods, p. 290 of this volume.)

EDMUND JOHN

THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES 1

And the lone village dreaming in the downland yonder.
Half a million Huns broke over them in thunder,
Roaring seas of Huns swept on and sunk again,

1 Author’s Note. — In the first Battle of Ypres,
which was fought in October-November, 1914, a thin
line of British, supported on each wing by small bodies
of French, stopped the push of an immense German army
on Calais. The allusion in the latter part of the poem is
not to “the angels of Mons,” but to a story received from
a very competent witness. On three occasions the Ger¬
mans broke through our line, then paused and retired,
for no apparent reason. On each of these occasions prison¬
ers, when asked the cause of their retirement, replied :
“We saw your enormous Reserves.” We had no Reserves.
This story was incidentally confirmed by the remark of
another officer on the curious conduct of the Germans in
violently shelling certain empty fields behind our lines.

MARGARET L. WOODS