Our Brothers, Part 1. Charles James Tree, RIP, (1891-1915)

Charlie was a special one and sent away to school

“too pretty for a boy” with dimples, curls and smile

Delicate and weak he demanded sugar lumps

“Big men don't eat sugar” said Father.

"I'm only a little tiny grown up man.”

 

Devout and earnest, he always prayed,

“Bless our milkman and make him a good boy.”

But the melancholy of the cathedral made him say

“Why don't they strike? Why won't they strike?”

 

He took off his cap to salute our gardener

And Auntie said, “Only to ladies is that right to do”

And he replied, “Mayn't
I take off my hat for a gardner what I know”

 

Very clever, of a highly nervous disposition dread of strangers

Very shy, found social occasions a great trial

At Merton House, Harrow, Charterhouse, and Cambridge

he was fairly happy, and carried off many prizes

An athlete, shone at cricket.

Took a teaching post at East Grinstead

Delightful caustic wit,

Self restraint, will power and brain power

A very good bridge player

 

Charlie argued in favour of war

As long as the cause was sufficient and just

He signed up the morning war was declared

 

He passed through officers' training at Royston

Given commission in the 9th Worcesters

Spent the year in training his men on Salisbury Plain

 

On his very first mission

The Battalion left Cawder on the 22nd of June

and sailed for the Dardenelles

 

He lost his heart to Tangiers

Found Alexandria full of flies and “novel” smells

Then when they went up to the trenches he wrote

“I expect we will be
finding it a bit hot for a few days,

but the nights are cool

We have no fear of asphyxiating gasses,

I don't think they are using them out here.

I hear the Turks fight fair, I can tell you more soon.

We're going the rest of the way in small boats.”

 

The slaughter was tremendous. Hardly one returned to tell the tale.

His fellow officer wrote, “He was with his men in a part of the line

where the enemy were only 50 yards away.

In the middle of the night the Turks set fire to our barricades

in front of our trench

and your boy received a bayonet wound

while supervising the defence.

He was brave, and was
carried off tot he hospital ship,

but he died three days later.

 

“He repaired a parapet under heavy fire.

Among the officers

he was the ablest and the most popular.

I lost my very best friend. I'm sending his kit,

but took out his tobacco to share with his men,

as I am sure he would have wanted

He was the bravest of the brave. “

 

This is based on information from a book called Orate Fratres, published privately in 1919. It was written by Jessie and Janet Tree, the sisters of Charlie, and his two brothers who also were killed in the war. Another of the sisters was my husband's grandmother.