A canny lad from Prudhoe (A Soldier's Poem)
(this page amended 22 February 2008)

Ten years ago, this website published four verses of  a poem "A canny lad from Prudhoe".
Thanks to Neville Fairbairn of Prudhoe and Mrs Snaith from Mickley we are now proud to
show all ten verses of the original work entitled "A Soldier's Poem".  It was written during
the First World War by Private A. Gibbons, the brother of Mrs Snaith's grandmother.

The poem was printed on cards which were sold for 1d (one old penny) each.  The money
raised was used to buy cigarettes and other comforts for the brave lads fighting at the Front.
 

A  SOLDIER'S  POEM
Composed at the Front by Pte. A. Gibbons, No. 2050, "D" Coy.,  4th Northd. Fusiliers
Dear Tommy, just a line or two,
To let you know that we've pulled through,
And to our country we'll be true,
       The canny lads from Prudhoe.

To Blyth we came as strangers, but friends
        we parted,
And every lad was broken-hearted,
When on the boat for France we started,
       The canny lads from Prudhoe.

We soon got face to face with Huns,
And their big Jack Johnson guns,
And they teemed the shrapnel in by tons,
       On the canny lads from Prudhoe.

It just seemed to be our luck,
On we went with British pluck,
Till a piece of shrapnel came and struck,
       A canny lad from Prudhoe.

He faltered, then on his face he fell,
Beside him I knelt down as well,
And how he died just I can tell,
       That canny lad from Prudhoe.

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|		 Rather than being a German slave,
He lies on the field among the brave,
And I wrote on wood across his grave -
       A canny lad from Prudhoe.

He volunteered to cross the sea,
To fight for his King and country,
And fell for England's liberty -
       That canny lad from Prudhoe.


Tell Thomas Davison, of Cowpen Quay,
And also Robert Caisley,
That you have had a line from me,
One of the lads from Prudhoe.

And tell them we are keeping fit,
As in our dug-outs here we sit,
Ready again to do our bit,
       The canny lads from Prudhoe.

All the boys join in and send,
Their best respects to all their friends,
And on Providence it all depends,
For the canny lads from Prudhoe.

CARDS - ONE PENNY EACH
Proceeds to get Cigarettes, Etc., for local Soldiers at the Front.