THE RIGHT HONORABLE VISCOUNT OF LINDESAY, COLONEL SIR WILLIAM F. WILLOUGHBY 1814
To All Fallen Brothers
To all courageous lives ended with sword, canon or bullets
of lead.
To all Brothers… No longer our enemies instead…
For Power and Ambition even Friends will part.
To silent fallen Heroes always true to a loyal heart.
To Courage always ready
to fight for what thought right.
To Brave Men convinced Honour is being Victorious,
Now certain bones on battlefields are never Glorious.
To Sons taught to hate by greedy, ambitious men.
To many a young Mate we shall never see again.
To gallant Officers who believed what was told,
Always willing to give, but hardly getting old...
Eloquence never asking: “Parlez Vous…?”
Or
merely educated: “How do you do?”
On battlefields God was indeed hard to find,
And we wondered; is He on your side or mine?
Perhaps never wanting to be near,
Seeing what we are really doing down here...
Again infinite bones in rotting uniforms everywhere,
Whilst anyone hardly remembers or troubles to care...
What we believed in,
how we spoke or who we were.
People even snubbing
whether whatever left of you,
Is in the rags of a Redcoat, in dark green or French blue,
But needless to tell… still much of a man,
For yet your bones in a muddy field give what they can.
Whether an arm, a leg or a scull… all just grounded up,
To raise a much better crop…
for Life will never stop.
Just dirt to dirt... Man again fertilizing Mother Earth.
All the same, said never to be found lying around…
Bloodied buttons and buckles secretly hidden in hay,
Are polished and sold by those in need on a rainy day.
Again virility of spring...
Is in winter quite a nourishing thing,
For Life still goes around and around in
ring…
Even dressed in proud red, white and blue… more than two…
Maps and Rulers changed in less than a hundred years,
Ludicrous are our Hate and our Fears.
Do let us in memory of Confucius agree,
For seasoned veterans of war and intellect are we thought
to be,
Saluting in attention with infinitely more comprehension,
We Honour You Forever still certain Humanity might never understand,
Honor, Glory and Victory are in Brothers holding out a Loving hand.
Col. RCEF Sir William Francis Willoughby Lindesay England
KG GCB KP KT
Col. RCEF Sir Robert Eowan Lochlan McGregor Scotland
KG GCB KP KT
1st. Royal Life Guards 1807 - 1810
13Th. “Jolly Ruffians “Rifle Company On Foot 1810 Portugal,
Spain
13Th. Mounted “Invincible Wildman“ Rifle Company 1811-1814 Spain
1st. Royal Life Guards 1814 England *
(*Really Royal Cavaliers-Elite Force Secret Intelligence Service
1814)
Willowbee
Manor, Lindesay Hall, Yorkshire 1814
Copyright©2013 Kari M. Knutsen
CONFUCIUS 551 - 479 BC
Golden Rule
Basic
Rights for Humanity
Do not do to others what you do not wish to be done to yourself.