Posted on Remembrance Day, 2020
This poem focuses upon the brave service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their Country and pays tribute to the common soldier. It is all the more poignant because the subject of the poem was my late brother's father.
This is a true record of events that unfolded in November/December 1942
He was just another soldier, a conscript, khaki clad,
No-one of importance, someone’s husband, someone’s dad.
His family clung together in a long and last embrace,
The little boy was seven and tears streamed down his face.
Then just another soldier left his family at the door,
And shouldering his kit bag, he went off to fight a war.
The rendezvous was Euston, his train would leave at two.
And his final destination? He didn’t have a clue
This was not unusual, for when their loved ones went,
The family had no inkling as to where they had been sent.
Details of troop movements were classified and so,
Were issued on a basis of strictly ‘need to know.’
At the docks in Liverpool, he finally left the train,
And embarked upon a steam ship in the cold November rain.
Ready to do battle, so his country could be free,
Just another soldier to be taken by the sea.
Christmas for the family was exceptionally bleak,
They’d received a telegram earlier that week.
'Ship torpedoed / deep regrets / measures put in place
To pick up all survivors / but confirm there's been no trace'
There was little for his family, no watch, no wedding ring;
A handful of old photos and a telegram from The King.
No funeral, no eulogy, no coffin, shroud nor grave,
His identity obliterated by the cruel wave.
It would take six decades for the story to be told,
When events of that December night would gradually unfold
His epithet, until that time, much as it was before.
“Just another soldier, fighting just another war.”
This poem marks events that actually took place. The facts only emerged some 60 years later when certain information became de-classified and access to it was facilitated by the advent of the internet.
On 3rd November 1942, SS Ceramic left Liverpool, bound for Australia, via Cape Town. Aboard were 377 passengers and 264 crew. The passenger-list was composed of 244 military personnel and 133 fare paying passengers, including 12 children.
On the night of 6th/7th December 1942, Ceramic was sunk by three torpedoes from a German U- Boat (U515). The weather was atrocious and although passengers had taken to the life-boats, there was only one survivor, who was picked up on the orders of the German U-boat captain.
After extensive research, a tribute to the man who was 'just another soldier' was finally traced to Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.
He was Francis Alan Sircom (27/08/1906 – 6/12/1942) Rank: Private,
Service number: 6854573, husband to Peggy and father of Malcolm and Neal. He served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and perished along with 639 others, when their ship, Ceramic, was torpedoed on 6th/7th December 1942.
BROOKWOOD 1939-1945 MEMORIAL panel 19 column 2
Francis' name is perpetuated by his sons, two grandsons, one granddaughter, two great grandsons and one great grand-daughter.
On a personal note, Francis was my mother's first husband. Malcolm and Neal were my half-brothers.
