55594: Poem: 'The Battle of Gazza [sic]' by Pte JD Morgan

Poem written by Pte J. D. Morgan

Somwhere at Gazza they laid them
Somewhere at Gazza they fell
Little we thought when we parted
It was our last farewell

Gone are the friends we loved so dear
Silent the voices we love to hear
They sleep in a lonely grave

This Poem by Pte J. D. Morgan printed in the Montgomeryshire County Times 21 July 1917, is a sample from a folder of research undertaken by Mrs Jones into the men named on the war memorial (1914-1919) of Guilsfield parish (near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire - now Powys, in Wales). During the battle of Gazza in 1916 Pte Frank Arthur, Guilsfield, was wounded. He died in Palestine in 1917, and photos etc. have also been submitted from that collection. The names on the Guilsfield memorial include: Frank Arthur, Ernest Charlton, Edward Evans, Robert Evans, Fred Evans, Charles Galliers, Robert Gainsford, Edward Griffiths,John Higgins, Edwin Jones, James Jones, Charles Jones, William Jones, Alan Langlands, Edward Lloyd, John Lloyd, Richard Morgan, Edward Morris, John Owen, Evan Phillips, Herbert Trevor, David E. Bailey, Herbert Bailey, Arthur Gough, Charles Jones, George R. Jones, Arthur T. Lewis, Mathew W.H. Morris, Richard D.H. Mytton, Gruffydd V. Trevor. Representing a number of regiments of the army, also the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps. Also evident is the volunteers who joined up early in the war, as well as the tribunals which decided that even though farming was a reserved occupation that man-power being so scarce some men would be compelled to join the army, leaving their families, their aging fathers, mothers, sisters and younger siblings to continue to provide food for the war effort - an insight into the home-front in rural Wales.