"Beaucourt Revisited" - RND 11/16

[ianw]

I love this poem and know Harmsworth amd William (Ker) but can one of our RND experts tell me who "James" is ?

[ianw]

J.A Cook is a possibility, but I can't find out what the "J" stands for ! Any ideas ?

[michaeldr]

Ianw,

Sorry that I can’t take you very much further forward on this

But if you are going to do a look-up, then please note that Douglas Jerrold in his book ‘The Hawke Battalion’ has the name with an “e” at the end; Sub Lieutenant J. A. Cooke

Thanks for the reminder of this great poem

Michael D.R.

[ianw]

Michael,

Thanks for that info. CWGC has him as "Cook". World War One photos website has his obit. So I hope to confirm both spelling and first name details.

Regards Ian

[michaeldr]

Ian,

The book has only just arrived here and I have not yet got as far as this battle. A quick glance forward however seems to indicate that Herbert was one of only two officers in the battalion who were not either killed or wounded during this advance [the other was Sub Lt Bowerman] and obviously this must have had a very unsettling effect upon him.

If you need them there are a couple of photographs of Ker and Harmsworth which I could post here.

Complaint to N & M if anyone there happens to be watching; some/most of the maps mentioned in the index appear to be missing – very disappointing

Regards

Michael D.R.

[ianw]

Thanks for that Michael. I would certainly be interested in seeing a picture of Ker.

I suppose N&P would say "Well it's a facsimile of the original copy, we had ." seems a bit sloppy though - and as you say , intensely annoying.

Amazon have this book for £18 , by the way.

Original copies of this book are like gold-dust though, I think. £100 plus and I suppose more for one with all the maps !

[michaeldr]

Ian,

Many thanks for the tip

the return favour, a picture of Lieut. William Ker RNVR, should follow below

I am also making a little more progress with my reading

This was the Hawke Battalion's first real substantial action in France after their arrival from Gallipoli and it came as a bit of a shock

Most of their casualties were taken in the first five or ten minutes in a frontal assault on what turned out to be a strong point which was well supplied with machine guns and which had survived the barrage.

“The number of NCOs and men of the Hawke collected on the ground after the battle was under twenty, and the total remaining with the battalion was not much more than a hundred, including transport men, cooks, Quartermaster-Sergeants, and men on detached duties. These all joined up with Commander Lockwood [who took over from the wounded Col. Wilson] at Engelbelmer, from where the battalion was taken in motor-buses to Arqueves, well behind the fighting zone. Here on 16th November [1916] a memorial service was held for those of the battalion who had been killed in the engagement. ‘A very pathetic little battalion’ is the simple description in the unemotional battalion diary of the attendance at the service.”

I am not sure when Herbert wrote the poem but it could well have been quite soon after the event, for in January the battalion was once more on its old battlefield: “Do you remember?... Yes, they remember well enough, as they marched past Hamel on January 19th along the Ancre Valley, where Freyburg had shown the way only two months before up to the Yellow Line, now the support position to our front-line trenches beyond Beaucourt.”

Regards

Michael D.R.

[michaeldr]

I am not sure when Herbert wrote the poem but it could well have been quite soon after the event

Ian,

Do you by any chance know when this poem was written?

I mentioned in my final para above, that the Hawke ‘revisited’ the Beaucourt area again in January ’17, and as I read on through Jerrold, I now see that Herbert was on leave in February, probably some time in the first half of that month. This could perhaps have provided him with the quiet opportunity for some writing?

Regards

Michael D.R.

[ianw]

Michael,

Thanks for the picture of W. Ker.

I suspect you are right. The poem strikes me as pretty much contemporaneous with "After the Battle" which is a fairly bitter Herbert poem regarding the congratulations given to the battalion fairly soon after the action . Herbert was wounded in 1917, I think, so would have had time while recovering then to think back to Beaucourt.

He published a book of poems in 1919 called "The Bomber Gipsy" but they may be a lightweight selection from "Punch" and "B. Revisited" may not be among them.

[michaeldr]

Ian,

Many thanks for your ideas on this

I was particularly interested to see that you thought it might be contemporaneous with ‘After the Battle’

Right after the Jerrold passage which I quoted above, he writes

“….the diarist records only the details of the march back from Arqueves to St. Firmin, with halts each night at Gezaincourt, Berneuil, Garennes, and le Plessiel, when not a man fell out in the five days of marching, and generals halted the battalion at intervals to express their ‘satisfaction.’”

And yes, it fits:

“You will come up in your capricious car

To find your heroes sulking in the rain

To tell us how magnificent we are,

And how you hope we’ll do the same again.”

So far Jerrold mentions Herbert being on ‘leave’ – I have not yet got to where mention is made of his being wounded [we’re still decorating here and reading, or even web time, is alas, somewhat limited]

Best regards

Michael D.R.

[michaeldr]

Thanks for that info. CWGC has him as "Cook". World War One photos website has his obit. So I hope to confirm both spelling and first name details.

Ian,

Are you any further forward on this one?

We are gradually getting straitened out a little here and once more I have access to some of my books and papers.

Len Sellers in his ‘RND’ No.12., March 2000, on pages 1136/7 republished a large group photograph of 185 officers taken from “With The Royal Naval Division On Board HMS Crystal Palace & Elsewhere. Souvenir No.2 Pages 37 & 38. Published by W.H. Smith & Son [The Arden Press] 53/5 Fetter Lane, London EC”

I will add part below which shows J. A. Cook [no ‘e’] Sub-Lieut.

He is the round faced young chap in the centre of the photograph: the two officers above and below him are standing/facing slightly to the left

Regards

Michael D.R.

[ianw]

Michael,

Thanks for posting the photo. Unfortunately, I have not heard back about his obit, so no further news about his name/initials. How nice to find an image of him. By the way, I am assuming you recommend the Jerrold book for all it's problems with missing maps ?

[michaeldr]

Ian,

Yes I recommend the Jerrold book; A family interest in the Hawke, reinforced by a liking for that particular style of writing.

[by the way, and always supposing that this J. A. Cook is ‘James’]

Then fate is very strange sometimes

I now see that in this same group photograph appears E. L. A. Dyett, Sub-Lieut

At that same battle of the Ancre, and while the Hawke were dying at Beaucourt,

this young man was serving with the Nelson Battalion and his actions were at the time construed as such as to be deserving of being SAD – see Len Sellers’ book “For God’s Sake Shoot Strait!”

A. P. Herbert [of the Hawke] who wrote the beautiful poem which is the subject of this thread, also wrote [in 1919] a novel entitled ‘The Secret Battle’ which is generally supposed to be based upon the Dyett case.

Regards

Michael D.R.

[michaeldr]

Very sorry,

I should have explained that Dyett is in the centre of the first/front kharki uniformed row

Michael D.R.

[ianw]

A very haunting photograph when viewed with knowledge of the various fates of the men - difficult not to come to the conclusion that these different fates were completely interchangeable depending on luck or circumstance.

[michaeldr]

Very true Ian