The Message by Ellis Williams

Possibly one of the country's best, but little known, war poets was commemorated in London last month to mark the 90th anniversary of his
death.

Isaac Rosenberg served with the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment and his work brings to mind the poetry of another soldier who also had Lancaster connections – Quartermaster Sgt Ellis Williams, also of the King's Own.

Ellis Will-iams from Bo-wer-ham in Lan-caster, joined the King's Own in 1875 and served in Gibraltar, Jamaica, Ireland and in the South African War 1899-1902.

He was deeply interested in literature and helped in many efforts to raise funds for soldiers comforts, reciting with dramatic effect Rudyard Kipling's poem The Absent Minded Beggar.

He published a collection of his works titled Ballads of the King's Own. Perhaps the most stirring of his compositions was The Message, a story of the heroic deeds of Pte James Miller who won the Victoria Cross in July 1916.

Pte Miller was ordered to take an important message under heavy shell and rifle fire and to bring back a reply at all costs.
He was compelled to cross the open land , and on leaving the trench was shot almost immediately in the back, the bullet coming out through his abdomen.

However, he delivered his message, staggered back with the answer, and fell at the feet of the officer to who he delivered it. He died on July 30, 1916, and was buried at Dartmoor Cemetery on the Somme in France.
Williams' poem was published shortly after Pte Miller's death and sold in aid of the Regiment's Prisoners of War Care Committee Fund and other servicemen's charities.

Williams married in 1885 and had six sons who all served during World War One.

Three died during the war, two others were wounded in action, one of who became a Prisoner of War.

He died in 1922 and received a regimental funeral.

Isaac Rosenberg

Pte Isaac Rosenberg of the 1st Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment was born in Bristol, the son of impoverished Russian immigrants whose father fled Lithuania to avoid conscription.

He grew up and was educated in the Jewish East End of London and attended the Slade School of Art where friendships with David Blomberg, Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer and Nevinson among others were established.

In October 1915, he enlisted in the Army for mainly economic reasons – he no longer had to worry about earning money as an artist, his
mother would receive a separation allowance and half his pay, and he would be clothed and fed by the Army.

22311 Pte Isaac Rosenberg served with the 11th Battalion of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment – a 'Bantam' battalion which took men under the usual physical requirements – men who would certainly today be considered not fit enough to fight.

The 11th Battalion served on the Western Front from 1916 until disbanded in 1918 and Rosenberg was transferred to the 1st Battalion of the King's Own.

It was on a night patrol on March 31/April 1 that Rosenberg was killed. For a fortnight his body lay in no-man's land until it was recovered and he was buried.

Rosenberg differed from the great many war poets in almost every respect – race, class, education, upbringing, experience and technique.

He was a skilled painter as well as a brilliant poet. When he writes
"A man's brains splattered on A stretcher-bearer's face;
His shook shoulders slipped their load," it is Rosenberg himself
experiencing this, and not an officer, like Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon who would only have been a witness.

n If you want to learn more about this poet, a new book Isaac Rosenberg, The Making of a Great War Poet, A New Life, by Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson, published last month, is available from the City Museum shop for £25.

WAR CALL: Recruiting advert for Rosenberg's battalion in the Morecambe Visitor of 1915.