The Gamekeeper Incident
Jackie Tweedale
From October until the 22nd November, the first Battle of Ypres had been taking place, with the loss of thousands of lives and numerous casualties. Rupert Brooke had been trying to finish his poems for the next edition of New Numbers which was due to be published in December 1914. Brooke had been deeply affected by his experiences in Belgium and Edward Thomas was debating the rights and wrongs of war with friends and family. This was to be expressed in his poem, “There Is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong” (1915).
On November 25th Thomas arrived at The Gallows to stay with the Frost. It was to be his last trip to the area. He was still undecided about joining up. As a married man of 37 and with children he was exempt. Thomas had no immediate work commitments, and so this visit was seen as a break. The men walked the area and often walked on land belonging to the 7th Earl of Beauchamp. Lord Beauchamp lived at Madresfield Court, near Malvern. A Liberal peer, he had been the only cabinet minister available to sign the declaration of war on the 3rd August 1914. Ironically, he had been an advocate for peace!1
Lord Beauchamp owned thousands of acres of land locally around Dymock, including The Gallows. Wilfrid Gibson and Lascelles Abercrombie had been given permission to walk and picnic on his land but, all children had to be accompanied by an adult. A gamekeeper, by the name of Bott, patrolled the area and he reported to Mr Allbright, from Bromsberrow Place, who leased the land from Lord Beauchamp.
Frost and Thomas came across Bott whilst out walking and they were challenged by him and accused of trespassing. Frost believed, that as a guest at The Gallows, he had every right to be walking there. The 2 men became angry, with Frost losing his temper at being called a “dammed cottager”. Thomas tried to diffuse the situation and when Bott raised his gun persuaded Frost to withdraw. They walked away, but Frost insisted on turning back to challenge the gamekeeper again. Thomas was not keen, but the men tracked the gamekeeper back to his cottage on the edge of Grove Coppice, near Ryton. (The ruins are in a small wooded area on Poets path 2)
Angry words were exchanged, a fight almost ensued and the gamekeeper threatened them with his gun again. The poets retreated. The incident was remembered by Ted Hill, a boy of 12 at the time, who was visiting the gamekeeper’s cottage. Thomas, was the less belligerent of the poets and not keen to cause further trouble. They retreated again, but Frost felt as though he had made his point to the gamekeeper.2
That evening or the next day, the poets were visited by a policeman who gave them a summons for threatening bodily harm. Frost asked Wilfrid Gibson for his help to sort the matter out but he refused. He had been appalled by Frost’s actions. Gibson’s cottage was also owned by Lord Beauchamp and, it has been suggested, he was wary of causing a fuss as it may affect his tenancy. Relations between Gibson and Frost became strained for a while as a result. It was John Haines who came to their aid. Abercrombie asked him to help in his capacity as a solicitor. The matter was resolved and Lord Beauchamp suggested to his gamekeeper that if was so keen to fight perhaps he should enlist.
There has been much debate about whether this incident led to Thomas making his mind up about enlisting. Should he have stood up the gamekeeper and supported his friend more robustly? Was he a coward for not doing more? Was he afraid of making the step into writing poetry? The incident left Thomas troubled and when he returned home he underwent the transformation from writer to poet writing his first poem in early December.
1 Dorothy E Williams. The Lygons of Madresfield. Langston Press. 2001
2 Matthew Hollis. All Roads lead to France. Faber and Faber. 2011
