| In Memoriam Private D. Sutherland, Killed in Action in the German trench May 16 1916 and Others Who Died So you were David's father, and he was your only son, and the new-cut peat's a rotting, and the work is left undone Because of an old man weeping just an old man in pain For David, his son David, who will not come again Oh, the letters he wrote you, and I can see them still, not a word of the fighting, just the sheep upon the hill And how you should get the crops in, 'ere the year got stormier And the Bosches have got his body and I was his officer You were only David's father, but I had fifty sons, When we went up in the evening, under the arch of the guns And we came back in the twilight -- Oh God! I hear them call To me for help and pity, who could not help at all Oh, never will I forget you, my men that trusted me, More my sons than your fathers, for they could only see the helpless little babies, and the young men in their pride, They could not see you dying and hold you as you died Happy young and gallant, they saw their first-born go But not the strong limbs broken, the beautiful men brought low the piteous writhing bodies, They screamed "Don't leave me, Sir" For they were only your fathers but I was your Officer Ewart Alan Macintosh 1893 - 1917 |
| The man who wrote these words was twenty-three years old. He died in the Battle of Cambrai, November 1917, aged 24. |
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