Page 47 - Last Chargers example

Appendix 1
152
You remember the Transvaal Tournament? ’Twas just two years ago:
There were eight of us doing some riding tricks, Dressed up in a Cowboy show.
We were the Twelfth’s “Rough riders,” How we made the Doppers stare!
I think of those days in your good old town, And at times I long to be there.
And many a friend we left behind
In the city of gold and sun,
Who came to look at our riding tricks And take a hand in the fun.
If you see Sergeant Wallace I guess he minds Of a race he rode on “Bobs,”
When I came third – but since those days I’ve been on some other jobs.
There are some of our boys in the Transvaal Police, If you happen to see them, mate,
You might just mention it, please, to them, That six of our riding eight
Were killed, and the seventh has lost an arm;
It was shattered to bits by a shell,
And I – well, I shall do no more tricks,
And no more riding as well.
They rode in a far, far greater race, They rode in a race – to death!
They rode in a race for greater stakes; They rode for their shibboleth.
They rode for the honour of England; They rode in a race – and won! Bare-headed, coatless, each poised his lance, And charged on the quaking Hun.
152 This was written in response to a letter received in Johannesburg on 2nd December 1914, from a wounded Sergeant in the 12th Lancers, this was possibly Sergeant Whelan. He was a Trick Rider and was wounded in the shoulder by a shell splinter on 13th September 1914 .
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