The First Nfld. Regiment
By Rev. J. V. Hammond, Ayr, Scotland

When honour claimed Britannia's aid oppression to withstand,
A hearty, hefty, breezy lot of men from Newfoundland.
Steamed swift across the briny, all agog to lend a hand.
At smashing Prussian bullies of the Potsdam kultur brand.

With men like these, from Overseas, to reinforce her arms,
Britannia flies her honoured flag and flouts the foe's alarms;
Then toast these gallant fellows and lift your glasses high,
To drink the health of the manhood wealth of her oldest Colon-i.

Five hundred strong they landed and at once began to train.
With gusto, and, as keen as knives, they drilled on Salisbury Plain;
With swinging stride they marched and made the earth resound again,
Whilst more and more recruits sped o'er the great Atlantic main.

At length for Dardanelles embarked the 1st Battalion fit,
And with the immortal 29th Division did their bit;
At Suvla Bay they suffered sore, but stuck it out, with grit
That savoured of their Regiment's Crest-the Caribou, to wit.

They charged the Turks' position, and they drove them off the hill.
They routed them with home thrusts that some Turks remembers still;
That way they're built and fiercely they will fight the foes, until
The Allied arms have squashed the Hun and Chums of Kaiser Bill.

Hail! Newfoundland, most generous, thy motto doth relate
Gifts thou dost bring Britannia from thy sea-girt estate;
Of all thy sea-borne bounty, aye, these warriors sons she'll rate,
With loyal hearts and sturdy limbs, as far the richest freight.

Poppy Rev. J. V. Hammond, "The First Nfld. Regiment," The Veteran, Vol. 1, No. 1, Dec. 1920, p. 47.

Illustration: Comrades by Jason Johnston, 1999.

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