Bert
\nby cricketjeff on July 14, 2011.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nI doubt if people notice while they’re waiting for a bus
\nBut there between the trees and summer flowers
\nIs a simple dedication to a man who made no fuss
\nAnd every day he gave them all his hours
\nErected to the memory of Albert Arthur French
\nHis ninety years upon the earth recorded on a bench.<\/p>\n
I used to sit at lunchtimes in the sunshine by his name
\nAnd wondered who he’d been before he died
\nI knew his children loved him but that’s not a claim to fame
\nWhat extra deeds had filled their hearts with pride
\nI’ve searched through local papers to unwrap a special life
\nA tale of love and kindness for the world and for his wife<\/p>\n
His father died at Passchendaele before the son arrived
\nHis mother started teaching at the school
\nNo silver coated childhood but he never felt deprived
\nAnd didn’t feel the need to play the fool
\nApprenticed at the glassworks hard at work by ’39
\nThe army sent a letter and invited him to sign.<\/p>\n
From Catterick to Cairo eating sand and breathing flies
\nItalians and Germans came and went
\nHe fought when he was told to under unforgiving skies
\nAnd having fought he went where he was sent
\nThen Bert invaded Sicily with many thousand mates
\nHe found spaghetti’s secrets and then crossed Messina’s straits<\/p>\n
They called them D-Day dodgers but it didn’t blight his life
\nIt ended and he thought he’d like to teach
\nHe studied hard at college and he found a pretty wife
\nA brighter sounding future was in reach
\nHe taught his boys with passion not the cane and flying chalk
\nWhere others needed terror he would smile and simply talk<\/p>\n
They started with a daughter, then a son who shared his name
\nAnd five years later pretty little Clare
\nHe taught them life was precious and to play it as a game
\nAnd Clare grew long and curly ginger hair
\nHe always helped his neighbours was the first to own a car
\nA dark blue Morris Minor that his children called the Tzar<\/p>\n
The local cricket club have pictures taken every year
\nWith Bert and scruffy children from the school
\nHe scored at least one fifty (when they beat “The Belvedere”)
\nAnd saved a girl from drowning in the pool
\nYou see a life in snippits when you search through local news
\nAnd trawl through dusty records for some unsuspected clues<\/p>\n
His wife won cups for knitting and she curtsied for The Queen
\nHis boy played golf and won a camel race
\nI wonder what he thought when “Local Beauty Clare” was seen
\nAt Epsom wearing just her smiling face
\nReports of his retirement with some quotes from boys he’d taught
\nRevealed he liked a whisky and he “made a god of sport”<\/p>\n
So that was Bert the hero, born as Albert Arthur French,
\nA teacher and a husband and a dad
\nRemembered every lunchtime that I sit down on his bench
\nAnd knowing more about him made me glad
\nA week ago last Wednesday there were three sat on that seat
\nNow I’ve met all his children and my poem is complete!<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\n Author notes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bert by cricketjeff on July 14, 2011.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved I doubt if people notice while they’re waiting for a bus But there between the trees and summer flowers Is a simple dedication to a man who made no fuss And every day he gave them all his hours Erected to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9694,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5136","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6373,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5136\/revisions\/6373"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}