The first
one on Dawn’s list is Eva H. Longbottom, who we think was probably born in
Yorkshire in around 1893 and who later moved to the Bristol area. Eva apparently also spent some time in Liverpool.
Eva was blind from birth. She
was a very accomplished musician, taught music and also wrote poetry.
A small
piece written in “The Western Daily Press” newspaper of 17th July
1915, quotes some verses from Eva’s poem entitled “When will my Spring come?”
Dawn
kindly photocopied some of the pages of Eva’s memoires, which were published by
Rankin Bros. Ltd of Bristol in 1933 under the title “Silver Bells of Memory” by
Eva H. Longbottom.
Eva said: “In
my humble opinion, the best war poem I wrote is entitled ,”When will my Spring
come?” The title was suggested by
an article from the pen of Mr James Douglas, in which he said that when he
listened to a certain thrush, it seemed all the time to be singing the words, “When
will my Spring come?” It is only
the title I owe to Mr Douglas, however.
The thoughts in the poem itself are mine, and mine alone.” (p. 201).
Extract
from the poem:
“Dweller
on German soil, list to my warning,
True
strength of nations lies not in their might,
Honour
prevaileth; if thou in thy sadness
Canst this
great lesson learn, spring shall bring gladness,
Crowning
life’s morning with rosiest light.”
By Eva H.
Longbottom.
I am
pursuing several leads and hope to be able to bring you more about Eva shortly.
Thank you Dawn.
Photograph from the title page of "Silver Bells of Memory" - if you look closely you can see that there is some Braille writing underneath the photo of Eva.
Thank you Dawn.
Photograph from the title page of "Silver Bells of Memory" - if you look closely you can see that there is some Braille writing underneath the photo of Eva.
