23270 Pte William Ollerenshaw, 10th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers

I'm a little late in marking this centenary, but on 27/28 June 1916 William Ollerenshaw of the 10th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers was killed, aged 18,  in the build-up to the Battle of the Somme.  He was my Great Uncle.

The 10th Battalion was raised in Bury, Lancs, in September 1914 as part of Kichtchener's New Army.  It disembarked at Boulonge on 15 July 1915 as part of the 52nd (Infantry) Brigade of the 17th (Northern) Division.

I know practically nothing of the circumstances of Wiilie's death.  The Battalion War Diary (WO 95/2012/1 at The National Archives) only gives a few pages to June 1916.   Her are the events around Willie's death, which took part during the build-up to the great offensive on 1 July 1916.

23rd
Take over 20th Brigade Front from 2nd Gordons of 8th Division
23rd-28th
Gas and smoke attacks and a practically continuous bombardment of the enemy by our artillery.  At times for an hour intensive.  Enemy replying by M.G. fire at night and a vigorous shelling of our trenches.  Casualties during this period - Killed - Wounded - Missing.*  That they were not greater due to the excellent trenches and 'dug-outs' and also the large extents of front held.
28th
The Battn relieved by 2nd Gordons, 2nd Boarders of 9th Division

*Frustratingly, these details were never filled in.

Citadel New Military Cemetery, Fricourt

William Ollerenshaw is buried at the Citadel New Military Cemetery at Fricourt.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission describes the cemetery

The cemetery is in the Northern part of a valley, running from Fricourt to the Somme, which was known in 1916 as "Happy Valley." It was begun by French troops and from August 1915, when the first Commonwealth burials were made, it was known as the Citadel Military Cemetery (Point 71). It was used until November 1916 and once in August 1918. The great majority of the burials were carried out from field ambulances before the Battles of the Somme. In the Autumn of 1916 the Citadel became a large camp for units withdrawn from the line.

He is also commemorated, along with 627 others, on the Stalybridge War Memorial which was unveiled in November 1921.  The memorial takes the form of a low curving wall, flanking Trinity Street - making an approach to the bridge over the Tame.  It's relatively difficult to take a photo of it, but the one below from this site catches it quite well.

The following members of 10th Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers died on 27 June 1916

5535 Cpl Edmund BIBBY 

17116 Pte James BLINSTON 

15653 Pte Michael CARROLL 

14663 Pte Walter GIBSON 

27055 Pte Ernest HIPKIN 

5305 Pte Jonathan HOLT 

21142 Pte James MAGUIRE

23270 Pte William OLLERENSHAW

13049 Pte Michael OWENS

4092 Pte Norman PETER

19188 L/Cpl Lawrence SMITH

6192 Pte John STANTON 

21494 Pte James STIRZAKER

5448 Pte Patrick WALSH 

5386 Cpl A WALTON 

4043 Cpl W WATERHOUSE

13160 L/Cpl Edwin WILLDIG

First Shots, First Losses

HMS Amphion

On 5 August 1914 the Royal Navy's Harwich Force made their first wartime sweep of the northern approaches to the English Channel as far as the Dutch Coast.  The rear part - the cruiser HMS Amphion (Capt C H Fox) and destroyers from the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla - were advised by a trawler that a suspicious vessel had been seen "throwing things overboard".

The Koenigin Luise in peacetime - for war service she was re-painted in

the colours of a Great Eastern Railway Co ferry

Two of the destroyers, Lance and Landrail, were sent ahead to investigate.  About 11 am they sighted the Koenigin Luise (Cdr Biermann) a ferry that had been requisitioned to serve as a mine-layer.  The destroyers gave chase, signalling the rest of the force to join them.  Lance opened fire, the first British shots of the world war.

Lance's 4 in gun, preserved in the Imperial War Museum

When Amphion and the the rest of the destroyers joined the fight, Koenigin Luise attempted to withdraw to neutral waters (leading the British into a minefield on the way).  This failed and, hopelessly out-numbered, Biermann gave the order to scuttle.  Koenigin Luise sank at 12.22, and 46 of the 100 crew were picked up by the British ships.

Fox later commented on the effectiveness of his gunnery:-

I commenced with salvoes from the three foremost guns with 7,200 yards on the sights; the first salvo was short and badly out for deflection; I made a lucky correction for the latter and went up 500; one round of the next salvo hit the top of the Keonign [sic] Louise's foremast and exploded. This was too much for the guns' crews, whom I previously imagined to be drill perfect; they started off firing as fast as they could, and it was a good minute before by dint of throwing things at them that I could stop them; the sights were again corrected and the order given for rapid independent — "Fire three rounds." At least two out of the three shots hit consistently. 

The RN's first naval engagement was a victory - as the Official History puts it "and so we drew first blood".  Yet two incidents quickly followed that cast a shadow over this victory.

Capt (later Rear-Adm) Cecil Henry Fox

 As Amphion and the destroyers continued their sweep, the destroyers sighted another ship of the same type as Koenigin Luise flying a large German flag.  They opened fire.  But this wasn't a mine-layer, it was the St Petersburg, a ferry carrying the German ambassador away from England.  With a diplomatic incident in the offing, Capt Fox sent a signal to the destroyers to cease firing.  Whether caught up in the excitement of the moment, or because the order wasn't received, the destroyers continued to shell the ferry.  Fox was force to put Amphion between St Petersberg and his own ships in order to stop the engagement.

The second incident was more serious in its consequences.  At about 6.30 the next morning, while returning to Harwich, Amphion struck one of Koenigin Luise's mines.  The explosion caused severe damage, breaking the ship's back.  Surviving crew were given to abandon ship and were picked up by the destroyers.  151 members of Amphion's crew and 19 prisoners from the Koenigin Luise were killed.

Crew of HMS Amphion

British Casualties of the Loss of HMS Amphion

ADAMS, Carl H B, Shipwright 2c. ARUNDEL, Norman Mc K, Leading Telegraphist. ASHTON, Robert, Stoker 1c. AUSTIN, Albert V, Chief Engine Room Artificer 1c.

BEARNE, George, Leading Signalman. BENNETT, Henry J, Engine Room Artificer 1c. BIRKIN, James W, Stoker 1c. BOND, John, Master at Arms. BOWEN, William, Act/Chief Stoker. BRETT, William, Stoker 2c. BURNS, Robert, Private, RMLI. BURT, Benjamin J, Armourer

CALLAGHAN, Owen, Stoker 1c. CANN, Jerome, Private, RMLI. CARTER, William A, Private, RMLI. CHARLES, Ernest E, Engine Room Artificer 4c. CHRISTIE, George, Joiner. CLARK, Thomas H, Ordinary Seaman. CLARKE, William. COKER, Fred, Stoker 1c. COLLINS, Andrew, Leading Stoker. COOK, Frank A, 2nd Sick Berth Steward. COOMBES, Edwin, Stoker 1c. COPLAND, Henry, Leading Stoker. COWLEY, Albert, Able Seaman. CRAIG, David, Leading Seaman. CRIDDLE, William J, Petty Officer. CROCKER, Samuel E, Chief Ship's Cook.

DAVENPORT, Raymond T, Able Seaman. DAWE, Samuel H, Petty Officer Telegraphist. DEACON, James W, Blacksmith. DENCH, John W, Ordinary Signalman. DICK, William, Stoker 2c. DONOVAN, Denis G, Stoker 2c. DOUGLAS, William J, Stoker 2c.

EDGCOMBE, Walter, Stoker 2c. ELLIOTT, Claude H, Shipwright 3c. ELLIS, William J R, Ship's Steward Assistant.

FIELDHOUSE, Ernest, Engine Room Artificer 4c. FISHER, Frank L, Stoker Petty Officer. FLACK, Robert W, Private, RMLI. FLEET, Frederick E, Leading Seaman. FOSTER, Jesse, Stoker 1c. FREEMAN, Cecil A T, Ordinary Seaman. FROST, Thomas N, Officer's Steward 3c.

GEDGE, Joseph T, Staff Paymaster. GRANGER, Charles, Act/Leading Stoker. GRISWOOD, Albert E, Stoker 1c. GROVES, Charles H, Private, RMLI. GUNN, James, Stoker 1c.

HAMLIN, Joseph, Leading Seaman. AMLIN, Thomas, Stoker 1c. HARRADINE, Albert L, Ordinary Seaman. HENDER, Charles R, Able Seaman. HICKS, William E, Signal Boy. HILLIER, Douglas R, Able Seaman,. HOCKING, Thomas J, Leading Seaman. HOLWILL, Thomas S, Leading Seaman. HORRIDGE, Frank V, Stoker 2c. HORTON, William E, Stoker 2c. HOURIHAN, Timothy, Able Seaman. HUGHES, William J, Leading Stoker. HULL, Richard E, Private, RMLI. HUNT, James W, Able Seaman

JARVIS, George, Stoker 1c. JENNINGS, George, Canteen Server, Admiralty civilian. JONES, George, Stoker Petty Officer. JONES, Richard G, Ordinary Seaman. JORDAN, Maurice P, Cooper's Crew. JUBB, Ernest W, Able Seaman. JULIAN, William, Leading Stoker.

KELLYN, Irvine, Private, RMLI. KERSWILL, Ernest R, Able Seaman. KINGHAM, Lionel F, Signalman. KINSMAN, Arthur W, Signal Boy. KNIGHT, William J, Stoker 2c.

LAMBELL, Peter J, Boy 1c. LANE, Albert E, Able Seaman. LANE, William J, Stoker 1c. LAVERACK, Francis W, Able Seaman. LENNON, Herbert, Stoker 2c. LOVELL, Henry, Able Seaman. LUXTON, Alfred J, Stoker 2c. LYNCH, Joseph, Petty Officer 2c. LYONS, Lawrence, Stoker 1c.

MACEY, Robert H G, Ship's Corporal, 1c. MAIR, William C, Leading Telegraphist. MARTIN, Albert, Stoker 1c. MAXWELL, John, Signal Boy. MCCONACHY, Charles G, Able Seaman. MCDOWALL, John, Corporal, RMLI. MCKEY, Victor J, Able Seaman. ERRETT, John E, Petty Officer 1c. MICHELL, Frederick C, Stoker 2c. MINIHANE, Jeremiah, Able Seaman. MOLES, Albert E, Able Seaman. MORRIS, Frederick, Stoker 1c. MORRISON, Frank, Stoker 1c. MULLEN, William, Leading Stoker. MUNNELLY, Martin, Chief Stoker. MURPHY, Joseph P, Signalman

NICHOLAS, William, Able Seaman.

OLVER, Charles H, Stoker Petty Officer.

PARSLOW, Samuel, Stoker 1c. PELLOW, James, Engine Room Artificer 2c. PENDRY, George F, Stoker 1c. PENGELLY, Albert G, Engine Room Artificer 4c. PINNOCK, Percy J, Stoker 2c. POUND, Frederick W, Stoker 1c. PRESS, Sidney L, Able Seaman.

REDFORD, Frank, Stoker 1c. REILLY, John, Act/Leading Stoker. RICE, James W, Leading Signalman. ROUTLEDGE, Charles, Private, RMLI. RUNDLE, Nicholas W, Able Seaman.

SCOTT, James E, Sergeant, RMLI. SHEPHARD, Archibald T, Stoker 1c. SIMMONDS, Alfred, Stoker Petty Officer. SKIDMORE, Walter H H, Ordinary Seaman. SKYRME, James H, Stoker 1c. SMITH, Gustave A C, Lance Corporal, RMLI. SPURDLE, Albert F, Boy 1c. STANLAKE, Henry T, Stoker 1c. STEVENSON, Joseph, Able Seaman. STOKES, George, Private, RMLI. STREET, Herbert J, Stoker 1c. SWEETMAN, Reginald H, Officer's Cook 3c. SYDENHAM, John W, Able Seaman.

TANCOCK, Thomas, Stoker 1c. TENNENT, John, Private, RMLI. THOMAS, Robert J, Petty Officer. THOMAS, William H, Stoker 2c. TICKELL, Nicholas, Able Seaman. TOLCHER, William J, Leading Seaman. TOOKEY, Frederick G, Stoker 2c. TOWILLIS, John D, Petty Officer. TUCKER, Reginald P, Act/Leading Stoker.

VIDLER, William H, Private, RMLI. VYVYAN, Francis A, Able Seaman.

WALLER, Harold, Stoker 2c. WARREN, John W, Carpenter's Crew. WARSAW, Eli W, Able Seaman. WELTON, William, Stoker 1c. WHITE, Thomas M, Stoker 1c. WILLIAMS, Edward A K, Shipwright 2c. WILLS, Frederick W, Stoker 1c. WOODHOUSE, Abraham, Leading Seaman.

YATES, Frederick J, Engine Room Artificer 4c.

Lights Out

It almost seems superfluous to mention that today marks the centenary of Britain's declaration of war against Germany in 1914.

This was the culmination of the 'July Crisis'.  Following the assassination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary, various diplomatic manoeuvers ended with Austria (heavily prompted by the German Kaiser) sending Serbia an impossible ultimatum on 23 July.  Treaty obligations (and refusal to follow the arbitration procedures in other treaties) now led to a series of escalations.

On 24 July Russia had a partial mobilization in support of its Baltic ally; Serbia itself mobilized the following day.  On 28 July Austria declared war against Serbia, which prompted a general mobilization by Russia.  Germany sent ultimata to Russian and France (Russia's treaty-partner and Germany's preferred enemy) requiring that they should not support Serbia.  On their reply, Germany declared war against Russia on 1 August and mobilized.  Germany moved west into Luxembourg on 3 August and declared war against France.  Belgium refused permission for German troops to enter its territory, but German crossed the border at 8.02am (local time).  The British government issued an ultimatum, requiring Germany to maintain Belgium's neutrality (as guaranteed by the 1839 Treaty of London) - the reply was 'unsatisfactory' and Britain entered the war at 11.00pm London time (bringing the Empire along with it).

All this led to the famous comment later attributed to Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary:-

"The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life”

To mark all this an event called Lights Out is being held.  Everyone in the UK is being asked to turn out their lights between 10.00pm and 11.00pm, leaving on a single light or candle.

It seems a simple and beautiful thing to do.

WWI Coins

The other week I posted about the new £2.00 coin the Royal Mint is issuing to commemorate the start of World War I.

It features Kitchener in his 'Your Country Needs You!' pose.  Rather predictably, and a sadly, there has been a backlash to this.  In my normally excellent newspaper last week someone wrote that he was unworthy because he recruited and sent a lot of men to their deaths.  Showing an unusual knowledge of history for such writers, he also pointed out that Kitchener was also pretty mean to the inhabitants of the Sudan and "invented concentration camps" (perhaps he'd seen 'Dad's Army' and 'Breaker Morant').

I'm not really here to defend Kitchener.  Those three factoids are true as far as they go, and importantly they show the level that the 'debate' about the Commemoration of World War I is at.  I find this whole Michael Gove vs Blackadder debate rather depressing.  Perhaps by the time we get to August 2014 (or November 2018), things will be a little less black-and-white.

Going back to the coins, there is now an on-line petition to get Edith Cavell on a coin.  I support this suggestion, but I haven't signed the petition, partly as it's being touted as a balance to the Kitchener coin (using the ignorant and false distinction that he was 'For' war and she was 'Against' it) as because it was almost certainly already planned for 2015 (the centenary of her death).   After the hassle the Bank of England had over not pre-announcing their plans to have Jane Austin on a banknote (and thus inviting 'Bank Ignores Women' headlines) it's a surprise that the Mint has merely responded that they have plans to feature other individuals, but will neither confirm nor deny that Cavell is among them.

On the assumption they mean it when they say 'individuals', who else will they feature?  I can't think who would be appropriate.  Let's assume there's one a year:

2014 - Kitchener
2015 - ? Cavell
2016 - ???
2017 - ? TE Lawrence
2018 - ? Wilfred Owen

My guess for 2018 is based on the fact that Owen will be a crowd-pleaser - everyone remember him from school and he also appeals to the 'War is Bad' sector.  Equally, we all know Lawrence of Arabia (and he covers 'The Treaty of Versailles Was Bad').

2016 might mark the Battles of the Somme or Jutland.  I can't imagine Haig or Rawlinson would be politically acceptable.  But what about Jellicoe or Beatty?  It would be amusing to see the 1920s Jutland controversies rehashed.

Who else features in the popular mind when considering WWI?

• Sassoon?  Can't have both him and Owen.
• Lloyd-George?  Churchill?  Are they too political?
• Capt Fryatt?  Only naval geeks have heard of him, and Cavell covers the 'unjustly shot by the Germans'.
• What about the Irish, Canadians, ANZACs, Indians etc?
• Assuming we have the army and navy already represented, who could represent the aerial forces?  Trenchard perhaps.  

Tubby Clayton, Woodbine Willie or  Walter Tull might be interesting.  Sir Fabian Ware would get my vote.

Honouring VC Awardees

The government has announced that as part of the  commemorations for the centenary of World War I, memorial flagstones will be laid to mark every British born serviceman awarded the Victoria Cross.  The idea is that the first 28 will be unveiled next year to mark the 28 VCs awarded in 1914, and so on until 2018.  There are also grants to restore existing war memorials (a problem that has been concerning people for some time).

Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23563616 and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10220571/Hometown-memorials-for-Victoria-Cross-heroes.html.

I've seen some cynical postings about this, but I think people might take it to heart, rather as they did with the painted postboxes for Olympic medalists - it's obviously designed to engender the same community spirit as we saw last year.  There's a memorial in my local church to an ex-choirboy who earned the VC - I wonder how many locals know about him?

There seems to have been quite a taste for minor public sculpture in the last decade - look at the success of the banana-cows in Liverpool, the Gromits in Bristol that Steve at Bleaseworld is currently treating us to and the elephants and gorillas in Norwich.

Remembrance

 

I don't normally post just to bump up past entries, but on this Remembrance Day, I think it's worth pointing to a couple of posts just in case you missed them first time around:-

The soldiers of 2/1 RNZIR Battalion performing their Unit haka in salute to fallen comrades

Some notes on Siegfried Sassoon, WHR Rivers and Craiglockhart Hospital

And here are highlights from services around the world

Medal Collecting and Remembrance

From reading some of my recent posts one might be mistaken that medals are just the shiny things worn by young princes or won by glamorous fly-boys.  This is far from the truth, as anyone who as spent time working through World War I casualty lists (as I have recently) will know.  They can be a surviving memento of hard work and sacrifice otherwise forgotten.

This was brought back to me by a couple of posts on the British Medals Forum recently.  The custodian of these medals has kindly allowed me to re-post their story.

The first is a little collection relating to 67540 Pte James Belcher, Royal Warwicks, late Warwickshire Yeomanry.  It consists of a standard World War I pair - the British War Medal and Victory Medal - along with a memorial plaque and scroll indicating that he was a casualty.  But most medal collectors are interested in more than the artifact - to us the real story is 'the man behind the medal'.

James Belcher was an employee of Mitchell & Butchers Ltd, Cape Hill Brewery, Smethwick.  He enlisted as soon as he could do so at Leamington and served with the 14th Warwicks (1st Birmingham Pals) as part of the 5th Division.  In September 1917 they were sent to Flanders where they were in action during the Third Battle of Ypres. The division then moved to Italy and took up positions in the line along the River Piave in late January 1918. They were recalled to France to assist with the German Advance in late March 1918 and were in action during the Battles of the Lys. On the 14th of August 1918 the 5th Division was withdrawn for two weeks rest. Then moved to The Somme where they were more or less in continuous action over the old battlegrounds until late October 1918.

James Belcher had been killed on 7 September: he was nineteen years old.  He lies with 635 comrades in Ration Farm Military Cemeterty, La Chapelle-D'Armentiers, France (Grave Reference I. A. 7.).

Pte James Belcher - d. 7 Sep 1918, aged 19

Not Forgotton - his mother's remembrance

He sleeps beside his comrades
In a hallowed grave unknown
But his memory is written in letters of love
In the hearts of those at home.

Sassoon at Craiglockhart

Today is the anniversary of the death at the age of 80 of the soldier-poet Siegfried Sassoon in 1967.

Probably his most important piece of writing was the Soldier's Declaration, written in July 1917.

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise.

Sassoon faced court-martial, but Robert Graves intervened, giving the authorities the get-out of declaring the Sassoon was suffering mental illness.  He was accordingly sent to Craiglockhart Military Hospital, where he was treated and befriended by W H R Rivers and met Wilfred Owen, on whom he was to have a great influence.

The Craiglockhart War Hospital

Craiglockhart War Hospital for Officers was established in 1916 in the requisitioned Craiglockhart Hydropathic Institute, near Edinburgh.  It specialised in the treatment of neurasthenia ('shell shock').   Rivers  wanted his patients to talk about their experiences and face their fear and the horror of what had happened to them - the ‘talking cure'.  In doing this Rivers became a life-long friend and mentor to many of his patients (including Sassoon).  He conducted three sessions a week with Sassoon, in which he also tried to get him to return to the battle front. Rivers considered shell shock to be an illness and treated all of his patients as individuals who needed special care. He also had ethical concerns about his role - he felt that curing patients was problematic when they would be returned to the front line, where he believed they would be in danger of having another breakdown.

Rivers, Craiglockhart and the talking cure are at the core of Pat Barker's excellent Regeneration Trilogy - with Sassoon as a major character in the first novel and Owen's fatal return to France featuring in the last.

Rivers' back-story is fascinating.

Rivers at Craiglockhart

Born in 1864, William Halse Rivers Rivers was the son of a Church of England priest, who had a side-line in speech therapy (one of his patients was the Revd Charles Dodgson), his uncle was the founder of the Anthropological Society (later the Royal Anthropological Institute of GB and Ireland).  William had a stammer and lacked visual imagination, both of which were to inform his later works.  He had intended to attend the University of Cambridge to study classics, but the necessity of earning a living led him to medicine, which he studied at London University  He application to join the RAMC on graduation was rejected on health grounds, instead he decided to go to sea as a ship's surgeon (a popular route for medical graduates in the nineteenth century).  On graduating as a MD and becoming a FRCP, where he began specialising in neurology and psychology.  He worked at Barts, the National Hospital and Guy's before being appointed to a lectureship at Cambridge, where he became a Fellow of St John's.

In 1898 Rivers headed the Torres Straits Expedition.  Initially he studied colour-perception among the islanders in comparison to Europeans (sensory perception was a preoccupation of the Cambridge psychologists at that time), but his collection of islanders' genealogical  information for genetic purposes turned his mind to ethnological and anthropological questions.  Rivers was to pursue his anthropological enquiries with expeditions to Melanesia in 1907-08 and 1914-15.  After his time at Craiglockhart, Rivers was attached to the Royal Flying Corps.  In 1919 he returned to St John's, and died on 4 June 1922 after being taken suddenly ill.

His death prompted Sassoon to write  'To A Very Wise Man':

I

FIRES in the dark you build; tall quivering flames
In the huge midnight forest of the unknown.
Your soul is full of cities with dead names,
And blind-faced, earth-bound gods of bronze and stone
Whose priests and kings and lust-begotten lords
Watch the procession of their thundering hosts,
Or guard relentless fanes with flickering swords
And wizardry of ghosts.

II

In a strange house I woke; heard overhead
Hastily-thudding feet and a muffled scream...
(Is death like that?) ... I quaked uncomforted,
Striving to frame to-morrow in a dream
Of woods and sliding pools and cloudless day.
(You know how bees come into a twilight room
From dazzling afternoon, then sail away
Out of the curtained gloom.)

III

You understand my thoughts; though, when you think,
You’re out beyond the boundaries of my brain.
I’m but a bird at dawn that cries ‘chink, chink’—
A garden-bird that warbles in the rain.
And you’re the flying-man, the speck that steers
A careful course far down the verge of day,
Half-way across the world. Above the years
You soar ... Is death so bad? ... I wish you’d say.

The Rivers Centre at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a clinic, established in 1997, for the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  There are several charities aimed at helping veterans with PTSD; in the UK these include Combat Stress and Healing the Wounds.

Wilfred Owen

I've not left myself much room to talk about Wilfred Owen (a patient of Arthur Brock rather than Rivers).   Perhaps I shall do so come 4 November.  For the time being, here is one of his best poems, the draft of which Sassoon famously amended:-

Anthem For Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

A Warriors' Farewell

Published on Aug 25, 2012 by NZDefenceForce

Haka is used throughout New Zealand by many, not only Māori, to demonstrate their collective thoughts. There is a haka for each of the Services, as well as the Defence Force. Units with the NZ Army have their own haka. This video shows the soldiers of 2/1 RNZIR Battalion performing their Unit haka, powerfully acknowledging the lives and feats of their fallen comrades as they come onto the Unit's parade ground. It is also an emotive farewell for they will leave via the waharoa (the carved entrance way) for the very last time.

Haka --sometimes termed a posture dance could also be described as a chant with actions. There are various forms of haka; some with weapons some without, some have set actions others may be 'free style.' Haka is used by Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) for a myriad of reasons; to challenge or express defiance or contempt, to demonstrate approval or appreciation, to encourage or to discourage, to acknowledge feats and achievements, to welcome, to farewell, as an expression of pride, happiness or sorrow. There is almost no inappropriate occasion for haka; it is an outward display of inner thoughts and emotions. Within the context of an occasion it is abundantly clear which emotion is being expressed.