Moving poems written by WWI soldier on the front-line revealed for first time after laying undiscovered in a loft
Incredible verses try to make sense of the slaughter of the Somme and the bloodshed at Passchendaele
LEFT in a loft to gather dust for almost a century, they are the poignant poems a humble Tommy wrote in the trenches to escape the horror around him.
Private Allick Ellis' beautiful work that tried to make sense of the slaughter of the Somme and the bloodshed at Passchendaele has only now been uncovered after a clear-out.
Educated Allick, a stretcher bearer in the First World War, took a pocket notebook with him to the Western Front which he turned to for solace.
One poem, titled An Unknown British Soldier, is his tender description of a recently-dug grave of a dead Tommy he had just come across.
Excerpt from Unknown British Soldier
An unknown British soldier
In that grave all alone & forlorn
Put down on the lists as missing
For such is the Government form
But a mother, wife, sweetheart is waiting
A letter or knock at the door
Praying though tears may be falling
O God bring him safe back once more
The 5ins by 3ins notebook was recently discovered in a loft of a property in Hertfordshire by a homeowner during a routine clear out.
The man has no connection to Pte Ellis, whose name is written in the front, and had no idea the book was there.
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He handed it in to historians at the Herts at War exhibition - a Lottery-funded project to tell untold stories relating to the First World War.
They are hoping to reunite the book with Pte Ellis' descendants and are appealing for them to come forward.
The book of poems is called Field Dressings by Stretcher Bearer and is dated 'France 1916-17-18-19.' It has been described as a “wonderful and fascinating find” by poetry scholars.
On the inside page Pte Ellis has written the name and address of his next of kin so that the black book can be returned to his family in the event of his death.
One of the most striking poems is Victory - his account of the Battle of Cambrai of 1917. He reflected on the great human loss the British victory had cost.
Excerpt from Victory
For the groups of walking wounded who progress as best they can
Limping, struggling slowly onward helped by the stronger man
With clothing torn & faces pained & blood their path to show
But let the bells ring loud & clear it's victory you know.
There are heaps of dead in the trenches & red in 'noman's land'
Tis not for them a flowered grave tended by loving hand
There'll be vacant chairs in many homes in England's hills and dells
But still this is a victory for they have ruing the bells.
The sombre poems are punctuated with some more humorous ones such as Revenge in which Pte Ellis jokingly pledges to murder the 'blinkin' man' who created the much-maligned Army biscuit.
Dan Hill, of the Herts at War project, said: "It was delivered anonymously to us with a note saying 'this was found in my loft, hope it's of interest.'
"It is believed this was somebody who was going through their attic and has just found it.
"We know from Allick Ellis' records that he was a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, bringing in the wounded from the battlefields of the Somme and Passchendaele.
"From a layman's perspective the work follows regular rhythms and has been produced by somebody who is clearly educated.
"It is a nice mixture of sombre poetry you would associate with the war, like the Unknown Soldier. You can imagine him sat there looking at a recently dug grave, contemplating who this guy was.
"And there are some tongue in cheek poems as well, like the ditty about when he returns to England he will be prosecuted for murder because he is going to find the bloke who made the Army biscuit."
Dr Hywel Dix, principal lecturer in English at Bournemouth University, described Pte Ellis' work as honest and said many Tommies were inspired to wrote poetry to escape the war.
He said: "This discovery reminds us that many of the men who wrote about their experiences in the trenches would not have referred to themselves as poets.
"But something about the immediacy of the experience, the solemnity that it made them feel, seems to have encouraged them to seek a way of putting down their thoughts and feelings in a way that was probably out of the ordinary for them.”
Records show that Pte Ellis was born in 1886 and was the seventh of 10 children born to John and Susan Ellis of Vine House, Terrington St Clement near King's Lynn, Norfolk.
He enlisted with the army in February 1915 at Chelsea, west London, and in July was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps and served with the 3rd London Field Ambulance.
He arrived in Le Havre in February 1916 and served throughout the Battle of the Somme later that year at at Passchendaele in 1917.
He took leave October 1918, most likely to marry his sweetheart, Emma Hurren in Blything of that year.
He survived the war and returned to England in May 1919, a month before he was demobbed.
Dan added: "It is wonderful to think that there are pieces of history like this that are still out there it attics waiting to be found.
"Our aim is to reunite this book with the Allick Ellis' family 100 years on from when he wrote these words. It would be very special to be able to return it to them."
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