“Walter Mullin”
Description
Walter Mullin "changed his home in Whitneyville For a Canadian soldier's grave ... in the European War" The singer recalls the youth they shared. "Now you are wanted at the Front, But you will not take your stand. O why can't you be like my comrade"
Supplemental text
Walter Mullin
Partial text(s)
*** A ***
From Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson, Songs of Miramichi,
#44, pp. 178-180. From the singing of Marie Hare of Strathadam, 1962.
They grew in beauty side by side,
They filled one home with glee,
But now one sleeps beneath the sod,
Across the dark blue sea.
That same fond mother often watched
Her children at their play,
She never dreamt that one dear boy
Would go so far away.
(9 additional stanzas)
Notes
Whitneyville, now Whitney, is near the junction of the Little Southwest and Northwest Miramichi Rivers, about 10 miles west of Newcastle, New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson: "The song was made up by Wallace Travis of the Nor'West Miramichi, in memory of a friend killed in the First World War."
Since the song is a plea for others to enlist to fight in a war my guess is that this was written during the second World War. - BS
On the other hand, there is no hint of a second War -- or even of the end of the first. I incline to think it comes from the early part of the first War.
This is apparently based on "The Graves of a Household" by one Mrs. Henmans, found in the "Royal Readers" used in the nineteenth century in New Brunswick schools. More evidence for an early date, I'd say; I don't know about you, but I can't remember *anything* from my grade school readers.... - RBW
References
- Manny/Wilson 44, "Walter Mullin" (1 text, 1 tune)
- ST MaWi044 (Partial)
- Roud #9184
- BI, MaWi044