Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From the Trenches
Somewhere in France
By “Muldoon” Marks

As I sat by the fire on guard
One night in a foreign land
And gazed into the flames
With my pencil in my hand
I saw so many pictures
That unconsciously I wrote
My thoughts on this piece of paper
Like the “Sentimental Bloke”.

I thought of my many comrades
Who had joined with me at home
And how each one was absent
Since the day we started to roam
I see the ill-fated ‘Afric’ that carried our troops so gay
But alas! The news has reached us
She has gone lads, gone for aye.

Sunk by a German torpedo
In the Mediterranean Sea
But there you are lads we can’t help it
Was is to be – will be
Then my thoughts turned towards these trenches
Where hours in peril I spent
And went through agonies and tortures
As the shrapnel screamed as it went.

But they say it’s playing the game lads
And another vision I see
Of poor Bill Blyth my comrade
Who was shot just alongside of me
All we heard was the roaring and screaming
And the crash of the shot and shell
When poor Bill cried “They’ve got me”
And down in the trenches he fell.

I helped him under cover
And with his head upon my knee
I received from him a message
For loved ones across the sea
He was one of the best of our toilers
And each of us Gunners will say
That Tasmania will mourn for a hero
Who kept the Germans at bay.

We’ve lost two more of our comrades
Since that eventful day
And now not far from our dug out
Side by side they lay
‘Neath the tall tree they are sleeping
In this gruesome “Ploegsteert Wood”
Where many a brave lad’s lying
For the time “Not Understood”.

‘Snowy’ Paine was one of the whitest
He did his bit in the fray
And Nelson he too was a good lad
Oh why were they taken away?
But still our lads are fighting
As they fought on ‘Gallipoli’
And we’ll soon be home to meet you
Flushed with Victory.

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- Sent by Corporal William Henry Darlington Beadle (Service No:25347 - 3rd Divisional Ammunition Column) to his family in Perth, Western Australia during WWI with the notation:

"What do you think of this for an amateur’s first attempt?
He was on guard the other night in the front line and next morning he handed us this poetry to read, so I have copied it from him and forward it on to you with the author’s best respects.
- Will."

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A Note on the Poet:

I believe the author of this poem may be Gunner, Harold “Mul” Ernest Edward Marks (Service Number 895 of the 43 Infantry Battalion) who was transferred to 3rd Division (Medium and Heavy) Trench Mortar Batteries) in March 1917.

Harold Marks enlisted in Adelaide, South Australia and embarked from here on 9 June 1916 on HMAT Afric A19 bound for the Western Front. He and William Beadle both served in 3rd Division Artillery, crossing paths in France between November 1916 and June 1917, when the 3rd Division was involved in the Battle of Messines.