Cicely was educated at Manchester High School for Girls from 1894 – 1897, writing poetry and describing herself as “something of a rebel”. Her first collection of poems - “Songs of Greater Britain” - was published in 1899, when Cicely was sixteen.
Cicely and her sister moved to Canada, where Cicely worked as a shorthand typist for the British Columbia Lands Department. She spent much of her spare time on the waterfront, which contributed to her knowledge of nautical matters, which was, in turn, reflected in her poetry.
Cicely and her sister returned to England before 1914 and went to live in Hampshire. Cicely wrote with such authority about the sea that many people supposed she was a man. In all, she published more than 630 poems in a wide variety of publications. Cicely also wrote novels, short stories and articles.
During the Second World War, Cicely lived with her brother Philip and sister Margaret, who was also a writer, in Soberton House, Dreoxford, Hampshire.
At the age of 67, Cicely was awarded a pension by the Government “for services toliterature”.
Cicely died in Bow, Devon, on 8th April 1954.
The WW1 poetry collections of Cicely Fox-Smith were:
“The Naval Crown: Ballads and Songs of the War” (Elkin Mathews, London 1915)
“Fighting Men: Poems” (Elkin Mathews, London, 1916)
“Small Craft and Other Poems” (Elkin Mathews, London, 1917)
“Songs and Chanties 1914 – 1916” (Elkin Mathews, London, 1919)
“Rhymes of the Red Ensign” (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1919)
“Sea Songs and Ballads, 1917 – 1922” (Methuen, London, 1922)
and her poems were published in seventeen WW1 poetry anthologies.
Cahterine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978)
“Armed Merchantmen: An Old Song Re-Sung”
By the Liverpool Docks at the break of the day,
I saw a flash packet, bound westward away;
And well did I mark how each new-mounted gun
Like silver did gleam in the first morning sun.
Bound away, bound away, where the wide waters flow,
She's a Liverpool packet - oh, Lord, let her go!
For thieves be abroad on the ocean highway
To harass our traders by night and by day,
But let such attempt her, to take or assail,
They may find to their cost she's a sting in her tail.
She's a crack ocean liner - now catch her who can! -
Her crew are true British and game to a man;
The pirates of Potsdam had best have a care -
She's the Navy's stepdaughter, and touch her who dare!
Bound away, bound away, with a bone in her mouth,
She passes the Bar light, she turns to the south,
A Liverpool packet that stays for no foe -
Safe, safe on her journey, oh, Lord, let her go!
Bound away, bound away, where the wide waters flow,
She's a Liverpool packet, - oh, Lord, let her go!
Cicely Fox Smith
