Our Brothers, Part 2. Warren Francis (Frank) Tree, RIP (1890-1916)

By jeand

Sun, 04 May 2014
  • 995 reads
3 comments
 

Frank was sunny and cheery to boot

A chubby loveable lad

So proud he was of his first velvet suit

With pockets to prove him a man.

 

He wasn't the one to shine at school

And left when just sixteen.

But he always expected to work in the law

And that is just what he did.

 

He excelled at sports, and had the rare gift

to fight to the last against odds

but to lose gracefully – and never fuss

A truer sportsman never found.
 

Even at bridge he often did say

or so I have heard them tell,

The fun is not in holding good cards

but in playing a bad hand well.
 

When the call came for the great war,

He was so full of hope,

Always saying it soon will be o're

His optimism helped us to cope.
 

After training in Belfast, a commission he got

With the sturdy 10th Worcesters gang.

"I think we are starting to stir the Hun now,

and I don't think he'll stop, and we shan't."

 

In October, he got what everyone craved

A “blighty” from a shell in the arm

Cutting an artery, just bad enough

For six months rest up at home.
 

At the Battle of Somme he was first a reserve

When the boss was killed he was told

to take the charge at La Boisselle,

which they had only just won.

 

He fell at Bazentin le Petit on July 22,

one day after becoming 28

and two days after in the previous year

when Charlie his brother became “the late”.
 

After we heard from his Sergeant-Major.

“The battle was absolute hell.

The battalion had been in the trenches for a week

Bombardment without a spell.

 

Frank, in his dug-out when the orders came

“You've got to lead over the top.”

“I can't do it. Really can't," he said.

He was frozen alive with his fear.
 

Morning came, he was the first to go over,

At night came the order to retreat.

When all had left Frank turned to go,

but a shell then burst at his feet.
 

Certificate U
Poem
War stuff
Biography

Comments

Submitted by Bee on

Again, you built up the picture of the man he was, making the ending sadder for being so real. He sounded overly. 

'The fun is not in holding good cards

but in playing a bad hand well.'  Loved that.
 

Bee

Submitted by jeand on

Thanks Bee,

He was the favourite of the brothers - and worked in his dad's law office and according to the eulogies, was better at the job even than his father. He was engaged when he went off to war - but of course, never managed to get married.

Jean

 

Jean Day

Submitted by jeand on

Here are some of Frank's words from Jessie's book.

Frank, I think, showed more by action than by word how he viewed the struggle. He was absolutely convinced of the justice of the war, though he could not realise what a task that call of justice
had imposed upon us. We see in this respect the different temperaments of the two boys strongly marked. Frank's cheery disposition led him to take an optimistic view of things, and he could not believe, as Charlie did, that the struggle must be a death struggle long and bitter.

In reply to a letter from me after Charlie died, Frank wrote: "I don't feel that there is much I can say in response to your letter. There is one point you touch on in which I think you take a wrong view of things, and that is in saying that you feel somewhat 'small.' But why? Surely the purpose of life is to do that which lies straight ahead of us, to serve faithfully and fully whatever one's lot may be. I suppose there are very few men who do not realise that by far the harder lot in this catastrophe is being played by those who are compelled either by sex or physical reasons to remain at home. I believe the fact that there is a risk of one's life ending before it has run its ordinary course is far more readily given if it be known that those who remain behind will not grieve and fret; and so it seems to me that you and all of you have received the news of Charlie's death in the way that he would have had it."
 

Jean Day