Frances Mary Barbara Garnons Williams
was born in 1889. Her father was British
Army Officer and Welsh Rugby Union Player Richard Davies Garnons Williams, a
landowner, and her mother was Alice Jessie Garnons Williams, nee Bircham. In 1911, the family lived in Waundererwen
Hay, Hay Urban, Breconshire, Wales,
Barbara Garnons Williams was educated at
Godolphin School, Salisbury, Wiltshire, In Kensington in 1916, Barbara married
Roderick Buckley Hume, a solicitor and director of Buckley’s Breweries in
Llanelly, Wales.
Barbara was serving in France when her
husband, a Captain in the Welsh Guards, who had been invalided home from
Gallipoli and served in Egypt and on the Western Front, where he was wounded at
the Battle of Ypres, was killed at Cambrai on 1st December
1917. Her father, a Lieutenant-Colonel, although
retired from the Army, served again in WW1 and was killed in 1915 at the Battle
of Loos.
Barbara’s Uncle, Aylmer Herbert Garnons
Williams, was in command of the Lancashire Navy League Sea Training Home in
Liscard.
The following poem written by Barbara
was published in the Godolphin School Magazine “The Godolphin Gazette” in the
Summer Term 1915:
“THE GREATER LOVE”
“Greater love hath no man than this:
that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Forth! Though the din of battle sounds
but faintly
O’er
English woods and lanes.
Forth! For it thunders loud and still
more loudly
On
French and Belgian plains.
Forth! And though many hundreds fall
beside them,
Though
cannon thunder loud,
Yet they stand fast, unbroken and
undaunted,
Awe-stricken,
yet uncowed!
Forth! For from blood-drenched earth, in
purple trenches
Their
comrades call them home;
“Fresh are the laurels, bright the
crowns immortal,
Therefore,
our brethren, come!”
Forth! Across yards hail-swept with
shrapnel,
While
great shells burst above,
They meet the death their brothers found
before them
And
know the “greater love.”
Forth! And though heads are bowed and
eyes are weary,
Only
one thing they see:
That flag which sets their brains and
pulses bounding
To
set their England free!
Forth! And they come from many lands and
islands,
Yet
all are one in death.
And for one end and for one great
tradition
They
give their latest breath.
Forth! They are heroes, and their lives
are precious,
And
some of great renown.
Yet each one finds a larger life and
fuller
In
laying this life down.
Oh, God of Battles! Grant them rest from
striving,
Make
all their warfare cease!
Give that, which passes all our
understanding,
Thine
own eternal Peace.
BARBARA GARNONS WILLIAMS
Sources:
With grateful thanks to Lucy Beney, herself a
former Godolphin School pupil, for searching through the WW1 copies of "Godolphine Gazette" and sending me some fantastic poems written by female poets, including the poem written by Barbara
Garnons Williams.
