Page:For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920.djvu/229

Rh sedulously developing down to the outbreak of the war. Then, although in peace-time, for the benefit of his health, he had become an expert aeronaut, he was rejected by the Flying Service, solely on the score of his age, and enlisted in the University and Public School Corps as a private in September 1914. Later, he entered the Inns of Court O.T.C., and in 1916 obtained his commission. He was sent to France in January 1917, and within three months was killed in the attack on Vimy Ridge.

It was the voice of the living that cried through Colin Mitchell's 'Autumn in England,' but reading it now is to hear again in fancy that longing of the dead for the England they had loved, for since the spring of 1918 his place has been with them:

Autumn in England! God! How my heart cries

Aloud for thee, beloved pearl-gowned bride,

With tresses russet-hued and soft grey eyes

Which sometimes weep and sometimes try to hide

Sweet sadness in a smile of transient bliss,

Painting the West with blushing memories

Of Summer's hot and over-ardent kiss

Betokening farewell....