The Cardiff Pals
Phil Carradice penned a fine book
About soldiers from Cardiff and the Vale,
The ex-head teacher from Penarth
Wrenches us back to a terrible time
On the 4th August 1914.
People were filled with a patriotic zeal,
“The Cardiff pals” left to an ovation
Marching from Maindy down to the station:
Dockers, teachers from all walks of life.
But young men do not dwell on mortality,
Corporal Alfred Johnson the first
Soldier to fall to his death
But many more followed at Mametz Wood.
They spent three horrendous years in Salonika
Dreaming of home in conditions so dire,
Dying from disease and enemy fire.
Carradice shows photographs of SS Ethelhilda
At the docks of wartime Penarth
And its band with Penarth hero, Sam Pearce.
But when these young lads from Cardiff and the Vale
Marched proudly off to war
They wouldn’t have envisaged the Grand Couronne,
Perishing on a September day,
Screaming for their mothers light years away.
Guy Fletcher
Dan-y-Graig
Pantmawr
Cardiff
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