General Chat

Dear stranger pause as you go by,
For here lie young men sent to die
The years have passed, the grass is green
The carnage no more can be seen.
But if you dig deep you will discover
Exactly where these boys took cover.
So stranger pause upon your way
and whisper a prayer for them today.

My gran's brother died today.

Well how do you do, young Willy McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen-sixteen
I hope you died well
And I hope you died clean
Oh young Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene?

(Chorus)
Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

Did you leave here a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
Although you died back in nineteen-sixteen
In that faithful heart, are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed then forever behind a glass pane
In an old photograph torn, battered, and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfNyfMd4JKc