FAR, FAR FROM YPRES SCRIPTS
Second Half
Pages 10, 11 and 12
Through flatland fields where life goes on
And carefree children sing
Round rows of ancient tombstones
Where a generation lies
And at last I understood
Why old men cry
My mother's father walked these fields
Some eighty years ago
He was half the age that I am now
No way that he could know
That his unborn grandchild someday
Would cross his path this way
And stand here
Where his fallen comrades lay
He'd been dead a quarter century
By the time that I was born
The mustard gas which swept the trenches
Ripped apart his lungs
Another name and number
Among millions there who died
And at last I understood
Why old men cry
I walked from Leith to Newtongrange
At the turning of the year
Through desolate communities
And faces gaunt with fear
Past bleak, abandoned pitheads
Where rich seams of coal still lie
And at last I understood
Why old men cry
My father helped to win the coal
That lay neath Lothian's soil
A life of bitter hardship
The reward for years of toil
But he tried to teach his children
There was more to life than this
Working all your life
To make some fat cat rich
I walked from Garve to Ullapool
As the dawn light kissed the earth
And breathed the awesome beauty
Of this land that gave me birth
I looked into the future
Saw a people proud and free
As I looked along Loch Broom
Out to the sea
Narrator
What then happened to our brave friend, Jimmy MacDonald? Did he survive the Great War or was he one of the unfortunate 3 million casualties of the British and Empire forces?
Victory Parade (5th and final verse) 5D
Five long years of bloody war
Comrades dead….dead or wounded
Passendale and the Somme
And we are going home
I can hear the bombs still falling
Jimmy laughs and shouts at me
“You'll be home by Christmas
Back before you’ve gone”
Black Watch, Highland, Royal Scots Greys
The whole town cheered as we marched away
Bring us back a medal
Bring us back a medal
Bring us back a medal for the victory parade
O’er the bridge and up the road
I walked as fast as my legs could take me
Just behind my friends who…
Died for the British army
Just out front was young MacDonald
Brave as a dead man ever could be
Men at arms together on
The victory parade
Black Watch, Highland, Royal Scots Greys
The whole town seemed so quiet that day
I’ve brought you back a medal
Brought you back a medal
Brought you back a medal for the victory parade
Narrator
So young Jimmy MacDonald was one of more than 100,000 Scots who died in the Great War. Did he die a hero? Of course he did but that’s not what killed him. The dreadful irony was that he died because of an influenza pandemic. Jimmy was one of 50 million, 50 million, in the world to die of Spanish flu.
The pain was felt by Jimmy's comrades, but also by a young girl from "any village in Scotland" who asked the same question that was asked before ……."why him and not me?".
The Bells of Hell They Ring (solo only)
The bells of Hell they ring
For you, but not for me,
And the devils, how they sing
For you, but not for me.
Oh death where is thy sting
Oh grave thy victory?
The bells of Hell they ring
For you but not for me!
Narrator
We'll end with the words of Harry Lauder, describing his feelings when he received a telegram to tell him that his son, John, had died and we hear the song of hope that Harry wrote as a result of his personal tragedy:
"Captain John Lauder killed in action, December 28. Official War Office.
"That was all it said. I knew nothing of how my boy had died, or where - save that it was for his country."
The black despair that had been hovering over me for hours closed down now and enveloped all my sense. Everything was unreal. For a time I was quite numb. But then, as I began to realise….. and to visualize…. what it was to mean in my life that my boy was dead, there came great pain. The iron of realisation slowly seared every word of that curt telegram upon my heart. I said it to myself over and over again. And as I whispered to myself as my thoughts took form, over and over, the one terrible word: Dead!"
Keep right on to the end of the road 2G
Ev'ry road thro' life is a long, long road .
Fill' d with joys and sorrows too
As you journey on how your heart will yearn
For the things most dear to you
With wealth and love ‘tis so
But onward we must go
Keep right on to the end of the road
Keep right on to the end
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong
Keep right on round the bend
Tho’ you're tired and weary still journey on,
Till you come to your happy abode
Where all you love, you've been dreaming of
Will be there, at the end of the road 8 BEATS
With a big stout heart to a long steep hill
We may get there with a smile
With a good kind thought and a mile end view
We may cut short many a mile
So let courage ev’ry day
Be your guiding star alway
Keep right on to the end of the road
Keep right on to the end
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong
Keep right on round the bend
Tho’ you're tired and weary still journey on,
Till you come to your happy abode
Where all you love, you've been dreaming of
Will be there, at the end of the road
It’s a long way to Tipperary, ALL
It's a long way to go,
It's a long way to Tipperary,
To the sweetest girl I know.
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long, long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.
It’s a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go,
It's a long way to Tipperary,