Blog
Behind the Lines: The Beaconsfield Society commemorates the Great War
Friday, March 14, 2014
We welcome back Gabriel Woolf and Linda Hart who were involved with The Robert Frost Centenary 2012. In this year’s event they will read a wide variety of poetry, prose and songs about the war. The programme will include poems by Julian Grenfell, who had family connections with the Grenfells of Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. The event will take place on Saturday 12th April 2014 at the Fitzwilliams Centre in Beaconsfield.
Behind the Lines tells the story of what people thought at home at the start of the War and what soldiers experienced at the Front as it went into its second, third and fourth years. The enthusiasm for war expressed by Julian Grenfell and Rupert Brooke will be contrasted with the bitterness of Siegfried Sassoon and the wry humour of ee cummings. Other readings will include works by soldier poets Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, Ivor Gurney and Isaac Rosenberg.
The readings darken in tone to reflect the horror that unfolded as the war dragged on. But, says Woolf, "humour helped the soldiers to survive, so our programme includes readings from the pages of the famous trench newspaper, The Wipers Times, which will provide some laughter. We've also included some snatches of WWI songs to lighten the atmosphere, as they did for the soldiers."
Linda Hart notes that "I am pleased to be reading several works by women who express their joy, their fears and then their anger as time and the war goes on. Most of these women are forgotten because of the focus on iconic poets such as Owen and Sassoon. But no programme on the War is complete without Vera Brittain's diary, and its record of the death of her beloved Roland. As an expat American I am pleased we have included a poem by Robert Frost, who lived in Beaconsfield from 1912 to 1914.”
The Grenfell Connection to Beaconsfield
Kari Dorme from The Beaconsfield Society has looked into the connections between the town of Beaconsfield and the Grenfell family. "Julian Grenfell was a cousin of Beaconsfield’s war heroes, the Grenfell twins," she explains. The twin’s family home was Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. Later they lived at Butlers Court with their uncle and guardian, Field Marshall Baron Francis Grenfell of Kilvey.
"On 24August 1914, Capt. Francis Grenfell gained the coveted Victoria Cross for gallantry in action following the Battle of Mons. He was one of the first officers in the British Army to be awarded the VC in this war.His twin brother Riversdale was killed less a month later. Julian and his brother, Gerald William Grenfell, also died in the War."
The twins’ names are on the Beaconsfield war memorial and there is a stained glass window in St. Mary’s Parish Church in their memory.
Ticket information:
Behind the Lines.
Saturday 12 April at 2.30pm and 6pm
Venue: The Fitzwilliams Centre, Windsor End, Beaconsfield, HP9 2JW
Tickets £10 (refreshments included)
On sale at Beaconsfield Library, Reynolds Road, Beaconsfield HP9 2NJ
Tel: 0845 2303232 or email lib-bea@buckscc.gov.uk or www.beaconsfieldsociety.org.uk
Tickets are limited so please be sure to secure yours as soon as possible.
Photograph kindly reproduced from ‘Francis and Riversdale Grenfell’ by John Buchan, published by Thomas Nelson 1920 ed.
