I first met Arthur at a military fair<\/p>\n
He was looking at books<\/p>\n
There is no glory in war\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Yet these youngsters flock here\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n And buy the detritus of war\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n It is only an interest and a way of remembering\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Not in my book Sir<\/em><\/p>\n Many of them would run a mile\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n If a war started tomorrow\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Then why are you here\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I collect books about my theatre of war\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Where was that\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Italy mostly and finally in France\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Have you found any<\/em><\/p>\n Not today<\/em><\/p>\n This might sound odd but I think I recognise you<\/em><\/p>\n I would not dispute that as I am frequently in town<\/em><\/p>\n You are from Caxton Hall<\/em><\/p>\n I saw your story in the local newspaper<\/em><\/p>\n Best forgotten that Sir<\/em><\/p>\n Much Ado About Nothing as the Bard might have said<\/em><\/p>\n Then I will not mention it<\/em><\/p>\n I thank thee for that<\/em><\/p>\n But between you and me I was honoured<\/em><\/p>\n Lord Duncan such a kind man<\/em><\/p>\n But you saved his life not once but twice<\/em><\/p>\n And was wounded in the process<\/em><\/p>\n Look between my fingers that is where the bullet made its exit<\/em><\/p>\n I was the lucky one as it damaged my hand and little else<\/em><\/p>\n I was able to drag Lord Duncan into a ditch<\/em><\/p>\n You saved his life<\/em><\/p>\n Given<\/em><\/p>\n You carried him across an open field within sight of the enemy<\/em><\/p>\n He would have been dead in an hour<\/em><\/p>\n If a bullet was meant for me then most surely it would of have struck<\/em><\/p>\n It was an act of valour<\/em><\/p>\n No it was an act of compassion<\/em><\/p>\n Any man in my position would have done it<\/em><\/p>\n Perhaps<\/em><\/p>\n And then you rescued him from a fire<\/em><\/p>\n Yes a fire started by carelessness<\/em><\/p>\n Our carelessness<\/em><\/p>\n I know Duncan well<\/em><\/p>\n Really I have never seen you at the hall<\/em><\/p>\n That is because I work abroad<\/em><\/p>\n Duncan owes his life to you<\/em><\/p>\n And he has rewarded me a well<\/em><\/p>\n A job for life he also rescued me and my Lucy<\/em><\/p>\n I drank heavily afterwards just to forget and forget I did<\/em><\/p>\n A man lower than me would be hard to find<\/em><\/p>\n And then Lord Duncan found me after a considerable effort I might add<\/em><\/p>\n He offered us a new life here at the hall a beautiful lodge in the grounds<\/em><\/p>\n I was a gardener before the war and he asked me to if I so chose to be his head gardener<\/em><\/p>\n Or if not just live in the lodge and be his friend as he always said that the only reason<\/em><\/p>\n That he now enjoyed his life was down to me as he would have died on that foul Italian field<\/em><\/p>\n I chose to work as I am not a kept man and I enjoy my profession greatly<\/em><\/p>\n I passed the hall earlier and from the road and I must say it looks well<\/em><\/p>\n Thank you Sir<\/em><\/p>\n Jonathan<\/em><\/p>\n Just Jonathan<\/em><\/p>\n Will you be visiting<\/em><\/p>\n In a couple of days as soon as Mina returns from Whitby<\/em><\/p>\n Then I will meet you again Sir<\/em><\/p>\n I look forward to it<\/em><\/p>\n Till then Sir<\/em><\/p>\n Till then Arthur<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I first met Arthur at a military fair He was looking at books There is no glory in war\u00a0 Yet these youngsters flock here\u00a0 And buy the detritus of war\u00a0 It is only an interest and a way of remembering\u00a0 Not in my book Sir Many of them would run a mile\u00a0 If a war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12177,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173\/revisions\/12177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}