Only A Private Killed

This collection of verses was composed by Walter Bailey, a private with the Somerset Light Infantry during his service in Flanders in 1915 and 1916. Whilst on leave from Flanders, in January 1917, Walter and his sweetheart, Amy Hague, made a fair copy of the verses in a leather-bound note-book. A last entry to the note-book, written in a beautiful script, was made by Lance Corporal Stanley Purnell, a friend and comrade of Walter, on 12th October, 1918. The Armistice and ceasefire occurred one month later, on 11th November 1918. Walter was killed three days before the Armistice; Stanley was also killed.