By Kendall Jennings

On July 1, 1916, the Battle of the Somme began in France. It became a muddy marshland within the Western Front being held by the Germans and their strategic fortresses. The four-month offensive ended on November 18, 1916 with the Allies suffering 600,000 casualties and the Germans 440,000, making the Battle of the Somme one of the most infamous battles of the First World War.

The granddaughter of Barham’s Donald Douglas was fortunate to win a place in a book of 1000 poems, published from a worldwide poetry competition. Olivia Douglas’ poem was chosen from 26,000 entries and was published in the ‘Songs of Peace: World’s Biggest Anthology of Contemporary Poetry’ book in 2020.

“I believe it is a wonderful description of what my father, Orm Douglas, went through when he was fighting in France,” stated Donald Douglas. “My granddaughter was 17 when she first wrote it. It describes the terror and death that so many of our own Australian soldiers went through.”

“It means a lot to be selected. It’s pretty significant, and I feel lucky to be able to wow the judges enough to have them put my poem in the book,” said Olivia Douglas.

The Battle of Everyone

By Olivia Douglas

Arrive, arise, adhere to the prayers,
The prayers of the men wounded in warfare,
Prayers of the brothers, sons and fathers,
Protecting the motherland from invasion of others.

Farewelling the station they once manned,
To face inevitable death in no-man’s-land,
Amid the warning of their comrades’ yells,
They fall to the eternal sleep of golden shells.

Fantasising the end of the Battle of the Somme, 
Unknowingly not for months to come,
As sickly white knuckles hug weapons in terror, 
Warfare stirs with men a quiet fervour.

Peace is not the Battle of the Somme, 
But the Battle of Everyone.