A new headstone stands
remote from the blood-red fields
and coffinned graveyards.
The gartered tree
sports your remembered name
'Bertie W. Crew':
fallen, though strangely upright
on parade with comrades
around the village green.
You ran this grass
in tag and bulldog,
leaned against this tree
on forgotten summer days
before the sting of war
took you to foreign places.
There, in a place where friend and foe
cried in accents that troubled your ear
and stumbled your tongue,
you fell in the Spring of life
to the Autumn lumberjack of combat.
Footnote: On further research Bertie Crew of the Bedfordshire Regiment actually died in 1919 whilst serving in the 'Labour Corps' which was manned by soldiers not rated 'A1'. These were often those who had been previously injured on the battlefied. So it would appear the Bertie did actualy experience Armistice Day. He was buried in the Chapel yard of Houghton Regis Baptist Church along with Gilbert Horsler and Thomas King.
Footnote: On further research Bertie Crew of the Bedfordshire Regiment actually died in 1919 whilst serving in the 'Labour Corps' which was manned by soldiers not rated 'A1'. These were often those who had been previously injured on the battlefied. So it would appear the Bertie did actualy experience Armistice Day. He was buried in the Chapel yard of Houghton Regis Baptist Church along with Gilbert Horsler and Thomas King.
No comments:
Post a Comment