The Grave of War Poet: Issac Rosenberg By Trevor Tasker

      On the 1st April 1998 , it will be the 80th Anniversary of the death of the 'Poet and Artist', Private Isaac Rosenberg of the King's Own Royal Lancaster (KORL) Regiment. During the German March Offensive, an attempt to capture Arras was made, (Operation Mars), on the 28th of March 1918. The 12th Brigade of the 4th Division were holding the line south of Gavrelle. The front line was overwhelmed and pushed back to Fampoux. Rosenberg was at rest behind the line on the 28th but his company was bought up to north of Fampoux to help consolidate the new front line. On the night of 1st April 1918, Rosenberg was killed "somewhere close to the French village of Fampoux, Isaac Rosenberg was killed in close combat. He was twenty -seven", (COHEN, 1975, page 4).

      Most First World War poets were officers, some non-commissioned officers, but very few were just 'Private' (Pte) soldiers. Of the thousands of British graves on the Western Front only two belong to poets who were ordinary soldiers. In Belgium at ARTILLERY WOOD CEMETERY [B106], is the grave of Pte Ellis Humphies Evans, (pseudonym; 'Hedd Wyn') , of the 15th Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Killed at Pilckem Ridge on 31st July 1917. The other poet-Prtivate grave is in France, that of Pte. Isaac Rosenberg; who is generally regarded as the greatest war poet., after Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). Others, put Rosenberg higher than this; Professor Paul Fussel regards Rosenberg's poem 2The break of the day in the trenches", (1916), as the greatest poem of the war, (Fussel, 1976).

      Rosenberg's grave now rests in BAILLEUL ROAD EAST CEMETERY, (FR,644) in plot V, (FIGURE.ONE). The cemetery register points out that this cemetery contains the concentrations of many burial grounds. Plot V contains the graves of 69 United Kingdom soldiers from "NORTHUMBERLAND CEMETERY,FAMPOUX, which was the west side of the road from Fampoux to Bailleul-Sire-Berthoult. This road was called Northumberland lane, with a neighbouring trench called Northumberland Avenue", (CWGC, Cem.Reg page 6). This is the sunken road which runs north of Fampoux, but no longer to Bailleul, because of the N50 dual carriageway; built in the mid 1980's. In order to locate the exact position of the cemetery, I had to write off to The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission; (CWGC), to ask for the map reference from the 'burial returns' in their records. The trench map reference of the old cemetery was 51b H. 11 a 6.5. Plotting this on a map showed it was indeed on this road, and on the west side.

    When Northumberland cemetery was moved, seven graves, which were known to be buried there, could not be found. There is a special memorial (S.M) to these, who all have S.M. headstones around a Dunhallow Stone; Located beside the Remembrance stone and shelters of the cemetery, (FIGURE TWO).

     These seven are from different units, killed April-July 1917. Most of Plot V; (Northumberland Cemetery), are from this time period, (1917), except for one 'September 1918' and eleven 'April 1918'. These eleven (including Rosenberg) are all from the 1st KORL, however, seven were killed on the 1st April and the other four on the 2nd April. ALso, six of the eleven soldiers were 'group identified' and have the superscription of "BURIED NEAR THIS SPOT" on their headstones. There are other examples of these superscription on headstones in Plot V.

      The location map, (FIGURE ONE), shows the position of the demarcation stone. This shows the position of where the Germans were halted in April 1918. The new front line ran roughly north/south, in line with the old cemetery. This  was the front line from April to August 1918, and therefore, would have sustained battlefield damage. All the graves with " buried near this spot" are probably those who lost their grave markers through artillery fire. If this north/south line is continued further south, to match up with the demarcation stone on the Arras/ Cambrai road; (N39), the the line runs through the lost burial ground of the 27 British soldiers who were found in December 1996, west of Monchy-le-Preux, beside the High Speed train (TGV) rail line.

       Rosenberg was 27 years old when killed in the last year of the war, it was a slow process before he became acknowledged as on of the leading war poets. In 1922 his poems were published, (BOTTOMLEY 1922), with an introduction by the war poet Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), who is  well known for his quotation, "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;age shall not weary them.........We will remember them". (STALLWORTHY, 1984, page 209), from Binyons poem; 'FOR THE FALLEN' which is recited every November at Armistice Day ceremonies.

     Nearly 10 years after his death, Rosenberg's complete works, (poems, plays, prose/criticisms, and letters), were published, (BOTTOMLET& HARDING, 1937). This time, Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), wrote the introduction; he praised Rosenberg's 'depth ' and 'integrity', and comment on how he sculptured poems; by the way he 'modelled words'. Rosenberg was also an artist, as stated on his headstone, (FIGURE ONE), he was a painter and sketcher, and attended the Slade school of art before the war, also there at the time were the future artists; C.W.H.Nevinson (1889-1946) and Stanley Spencer( 1891-1959). Ironically Rosenberg ketched very little of the war he saw and experienced, most of the sketches were portraits of his comrades which he gave away for them to send home, (COHEN, 1975).

   Rosenberg's poetry was described by Edward Marsh (1872-1953) as 'obscure' and 'puzzelling' in his letters to Rosenberg when he was first at the front. Rosenberg's poems broke with convention  in a modern style; his poetry did not contain Sassoon's protest , or Owen's compassion to shock. Rosenberg 'painted' what he saw and experienced; his poetry contained the colours of light/shade and the contrasts of night and day of the battlefield landscapes he constructed in his poems. These painted poems also contain a philosophising about life and civilisation. He used his Jewish background to go back along the history of mankind, and even further into the bowla of pre-history. These themes in Rosenberg's poetry will be covered in another article. This is an article about the grave of Rosenberg.

      Them CWGC who look after the graves, had a no-repatriation policy, and the soldiers were to be buried with their comrades on the battlefield, (LONGWORTH, 1976), however, there were so many isolated graves and small cemeteries that many were concentrated into larger cemeteries, one of the thousands on the Western Front to be exhumed and re buried in a large cemetery was the 'poet and artist', Private Isaac Rosenberg.Although an ordinary soldier, Rosenberg's poetry ranks higher than many poet-officer, (though like other poet-pte., E.H.Evans; lack of formal education showed up in both their spelling). There are 26 British and commonwealth war poets buried on the Western Front; six of these have 'no known grave', and have their name comemorated on the memorials to the missing, (CWGC, information sheet). Isaac Rosenberg is the only poet who was group identified. The records of the CWGC headquarters at Maidenhead shows the means of partial identification as the metal 'shoulder titles' of the regiment. Records have existed to show that eleven named soldiers of the KORL Regiment were killed on the night of 1st/2nd April 1918 and buried in Northumberland Cemetery. Of these; five were fully identified, but six could only be identified by their regiment (KORL) because of this durable metal insignia, (eg Shoulder titles). Most identity discs during the Great War was made of 'Compressed fibre' which disintergrated when buried. The remaining six were group identified and all have ' Buried near this spot' on their headstone. One of these graves contains the remains of Isaac Rosenberg, it could be the one with his name , or one of the other five graves; (Privates: Fred Lord, James O'Boyle, D.Pritchard, Robin Williams, or Lance Corporal P.O'Donovan).

    Even though thousands of isolated graves and small cemeteries were concentrated into larger cemeteries soon after the war ended, the movement od the Northumberland Cemetery seems to have been a late decision. The cemetery was moved in 1926, but the cemetery registers of 1928 still had the cemetery marked on the location map, which was 'taken out' on later editions of the cemetery registers of the area, (FIGURE: THREE). Why was this particular cemetery moved? If there were too many cemeteries in the area, why was NAVAL TRENCH CEMETERY [FR 1192] , not moved instead; this only contained 59 graves, and also was in a field and not easily accessed as Northumberland which was beside a road. There is no evidence to suggest that Northumberland cemetery was moved so that all the graves could be exhumed and identifications checked in the hope of finding Rosenberg's grave, who by the mid 1920's was becoming acknowledged as one of the leading war poets. However, questions should still be asked about this cemetery. also to be considered, was the fact that Rosenberg was 'somewhere' in this cemetery, had nothing to do with it's concentration into another cemetery. This is backed up by BLANGY MILITARY CEMETERY, St Laurent-Blangy, (now a suburb of Arras). This cemetery contained 271 graves but these were concentrated into CABERET ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, [FR 924], (11Km NW of Arras). BLANGY MILITARY CEMETERY; this 'no longer in existance' cemetery was also not edited out of the location maps of 1928.

   Whe nthe war ended, there was little space available for cemeteries of the vanquished. The Germans have fewer cemeteries than the allies, but these are much larger, and usually contains mass graves along with individual graves. Near BAILLEUL ROAD EAST CEMETERY, {With 1294 graves) is the large German Cemetery of LAURENT-BLANGY; where nearly 32000 German soldiers are commemorated, (7022 graves, and 21892 in mass graves). During the Battle of Arras 1917, many villages behind the German lines were captured, these villages had German cemeteries which suffered artillery damage, along with the villages. There was a large German cemetery in Gavrelle, this along with the other German Cemeteries, contribute to the large numbers in mass graves. Rosenberg's headstone has the 'star of David' engraved on it. In the nearby German cemetery , amongst the dark crosses are some grey slab headstones with the star of David. For obvious reasons Second World War German Cemeteries in France contain no Jewish headstones. (All German graves of 1939-45 in NE France are concentrated into the large German cemetery at BOURDON, near Amiens).

  In 1914 , Rosenberg was staying with his sister in South Africa ; where the climate was better for his lungs than the London air. In 1915 he returned home and shortly afterwards 'joined up'. He tried to join the Medical Corps because of his Pacifist beliefs, but was turned down because of his height. He later joined the bantams of the 40th Division, and finally ended up in the 11th KORL, but when this was disbanded in February 1918, he was transfered to the 1st KORL of the 4th Division.

     Joseph Cohen in his biography of Rosenberg describes his life in the Army as an ordeal. Rosenberg was short of stature, sickly, suffered feet problems during marching, and was clumsy and absent minded. This 'reluctant pacifist' suffered three long years in the British army, (Cohen, 1976).

    Cohen also points out how opposite Rosenberg was to the other war poets, in particular Rupert Brooke (18887-1915), who became established as part of English Literary Society. Rosenberg had not only to fight for his poetry but being Jewish of Lithuanian refugee parentage, he also fought for his Englishness. Rupert Brooke was in the Royal Naval Division, (RND), and died of blood poisoning enroute to Gallipoli , and is buried on the Greek island of Skyros in an isolated grave. After Gallipoli, the RND came to France and fought on the Somme, and in April 1917, captured the village of Gavrelle with many casualties. If Rupert Brooke had survived Gallipoli, he could have been killed and buried near Gavrelle where "there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England" from 'THE SOLDIER' by Rupert Brooke, (STALLWORTHY, 1984, page 163). With regards to Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) there are two corners of foriegn feilds that that is..................

Trevor Tasker, March 1998

REFERENCES

BOTTOMLEY,G, (ed), (1922) POEMS BY ISAAC ROSENBERG, William Heineman, London

BOTTOMLEY, G & HARDING, D, (eds), (1937), THE COLLECTIVE WORKS OF ISAAC ROSENBERG, Chatto and Windus, London.

COHEN, J., (1975) JOURNEY TO THE TRENCHES;Life of Isaac Rosenberg 1890-1918, Robson books, London.

COOMBS, R., (1976) BEFORE ENDEAVOURS FADE,Battleof Britain Prints International Ltd, London.

CWGC, (Information Sheet) POETS OF THE GREAT WAR, CWGC, Maidenhead

FUSSEL, P,. (1976) THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY, Oxford University Press,Oxford

LONGWORTH,P,. (1967), THE UNENDING VIGIL, Constable,London.

STALLWORTHY, J., (1984), THE OXFORD BOOK OF WAR POETRY, Oxford University Press,Oxford.

This article was written by my good buddy Trevor Tasker, any feedback, please direct it to :

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