New Year’s Eve in the Trenches, 1915, by "AF"

This mournful piece of doggerel, with its eloquent illustration, is preserved in the World War One diary of Major General Sir William Douglas Smith (ref: SMITH, WD 2/2).  "AF" may be Smith’s fellow officer, Major Athel (or Athol) Murray Hay Forbes. 

The poem’s sardonic final couplet, "Although wet through, I still keep bright and cheery/ Warmed by the pipe I got from Princess Mary," is a reference to the tobacco tin sent to all service personnel on the Western Front and in the Royal Navy from December 1914 (some took many months to arrive), under a scheme devised by Princess Mary, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.  

Source: King’s College London Archives