I am trying to find information about WW1 Female Poet Marjorie Wilson, who used the pen name ‘Town Girl’ for some of her poems which were published in “The Children's Newspaper”. Marjorie was a sister of WW1 soldier poet T.P. Cameron Wilson, who was killed on the Western Front in 1918. However, she is very hard to find.
The 6 children of the Rev. Theodore Cameron Wilson and his wife Annie Fredoline Wilson, nee Smith were Christopher, Mary, Theodore, Alice, John and Charles.
The death of T.P. Cameron Wilson was reported in the "Derby Daily Telegraph" of 8/4/1918: ”… His two sisters are nurses. One is at Netley Hospital, and the other is with the Duchess of Sutherland's nursing staff in France. Practically the whole of the family have given themselves up to the service of their King and country”.
The only mention of one of the Rev. Theodore Cameron Wilson's daughters I could find that could possibly fit with the dates of Marjorie's birth is for Alice Margaret Wilson - Daughter - Single - Female 25 - born 1886 in Devonshire Torquay on the Census record for 1911: Census For England & Wales - St Luke's Vicarage, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. (Note - It is usual for the Census to record a year following the year of birth.)
During WW1 it seems the Reverend T Cameron Wilson was Rector of a church in Little Eaton in Derbyshire.
Dr Connie Ruzich kindly sent me the following information : The death of the WW1 soldier poet T.P. Cameron Wilson was reported in the "Derby Daily Telegraph" of 8/4/1918: ”… His two sisters are nurses. One is at Netley Hospital, and the other is with the Duchess of Sutherland's nursing staff in France. Practically the whole of the family have given themselves up to the service of their King and country”. " www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000327/19180408/019/0003
Dr. Connie Ruzich on her website Behind their Lines shows us a memorial for a Marjorie Wilson, daughter of the Rev. Theodore Wilson, in St. Peter's Church, Blaxhall, Suffolk, UK, which tells us that Marjorie was born on 4th June 1885 and died on 9th September 1934: The inscription reads "To The Dear Memory of Marjorie Wilson, daughter of the Rector of Blaxhall" The memorial shows an angel comforting mourning children, and it was designed by Dorothy Rope.
Sources:
https://www.flickr.com/.../in/album-72157605921176107/
https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/
The photograph of Marjorie is from https://allpoetry.com/Marjorie-Wilson
To Tony (Aged 3) (In Memory T.P.C.W) by Marjorie Wilson
Gemmed with white daisies was the great green world
Your restless feet have pressed this long day through-
Come now and let me whisper to your dreams
A little song grown from my love for you.
There was a man once loved green fields like you,
He drew his knowledge from the wild bird’s songs;
And he had praise for every beauteous thing,
And he had pity for all piteous wrongs….
A lover of earth’s forest – of her hills,
And brother to her sunlight – to her rain –
Man, with a boy’s fresh wonder, He was great
With greatness all too simple to explain.
He was a dreamer and a poet, and brave
To face and hold what he alone found true.
He was a comrade of the old – a friend
To every little laughing child like you
And when across the peaceful English land,
Unhurt by war, the light is growing dim,
And you remember by your shadowed bed
All those – the brave – you must remember him.
And know it was for you who bear is name
And such as you that all his joy he gave –
His love of quiet fields, his youth, his life,
To win that heritage of peace you have.
T.P.C.W. was Theodore Percival Cameron Wilson, the poet’s brother, killed in action 1918.
This poem was included in the Anthology: “Valour and vision: poems of the war, 1914 –18 (Longmans Green, London, 1920), Edited by Jacqueline Theodora Trotter.
If anyone has any definite information about Marjorie and her WW1 service please get in touch.
Dr. Connie Ruzich, a former Fulbright Scholar in the UK, is now a University Professor at Robert Morris University, Sewickley, Pennsylvania, United States of America. She has edited a fantastic WW1 Anthology entitled “International Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology of Lost Voices” Editor Constance M. Ruzich (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) 157.50$
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/international-poetry-of-the-first-world-war-9781350106444/
Her marvellous WW1 poetry weblog is Behind their Lines - https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/
