Thanks to Steve Glover for introducing us to this story with Elkhorn roots.
Gripping poetry distilled from the trenches and barracks of the First World War tells the story of an 18-year-old Elkhorn, Manitoba recruit. Frank Dixon’s excitement upon enlisting and then his changing perspective of the Great War grabbed the attention of many. A songwriter Jon Brooks, found his poem, “Cigarettes” and recorded it on a 2007 CD.
What makes this more poignant is the part his mother played in first collecting and publishing her son’s material in 1937.
What follows is an unlikely, yet true litany of events and the people who were also gripped by this young veteran’s words, to bring about the republishing of his poetry, pertinent war history and some Elkhorn history.
From Barrie, Ont., Steve Glover, Barrie Legion Public Relations Officer & Branch Historian contacted the Empire-Advance and related the details of his search for Dixon’s work and why it was important.
GLOVER WRITES:
In the past few weeks, I have been in contact with a descendant of Dixon and Stubbs families that were living in Manitoba from the early 1880s. The Dixons were primarily in Elkhorn and the Stubbs family around Miami, Manitoba. I had discovered a poem written by Frank Dixon and what follows is the story I wanted to share with you:
Several years ago, I picked up a book titled, We Wasn't Pals - Canadian Poetry and Prose of the First World War edited by Barry Callaghan and Bruce Meyer (Exile Editions 2001). It included a poem written by Signaller, Frank P. Dixon, "Cigarettes". The opening line of the poem really hit me -
"When the cold is making ice cream of the marrow in your bones."
The opening stanza ends with:
"Tho' life seem cold and mis'rable, And all the world is wet,
You'll always get through somehow, if you've got a cigarette."
Every WW2 movie I have seen always has soldiers (sea men/air men) smoking incessantly. Some even want a drag of a cigarette when they are dying! Frank's six stanza poem indicated how reliant the soldier of WW1 was on having a cigarette when dealing with all the miseries of trench warfare: the cold, the stench, the lice, the rats, the mud the terrible food - not to mention the fear of being killed and the general hell a soldier had to put up with. For me, his poem told it like it was.
In this book, the editors had included biographies on the poets and writers. For Frank, they indicated he had served with the 10th Brigade of the Canadian Artillery. He was born in Elkhorn. His mother, Ellen M. Dixon published a slim, posthumous volume of his poems written in the trenches, War-Time Memories in Verse in 1937.
I have been interested in Canada's involvement in the First World War for a number of years. Years ago, I had worked on family genealogy research including some trips to Connecticut and one to England. My Great Uncle Fred (Sgt. W.A.) Glover had been killed on Aug. 26, 1918 in the same battle that Frank Dixon died in on Aug. 29. I went to his grave in France back in 2002 and again in 2015 when I took a WW1 Battlefield Tour with Canadian historian, Norm Christie.
In the past five or six years, I have given PowerPoint presentations on the First World War at Legions and Rotary clubs, some libraries, etc. I often include a slide with the opening stanza from Frank's poem "Cigarettes."
I was surprised there wasn't more of a buzz about Frank's poetry. I made several half-hearted attempts to find his mother's book but . . .
With the pandemic, I decided to update my genealogy history. I joined Ancestry.com to fill in some of the gaps. I discovered a side benefit with Ancestry.com - you can search for people unrelated to you with other members. I searched for Frank Percival Dixon - put in the dates of Frank's birth and where he was born and his year of death and discovered Carol Ogaranko's on-line research of the Dixon family which included some photos of Frank and many of his poems from the 1937 book!
She agreed to allow me to copy some of his poems and shared some detail on how the Dixon family came to Manitoba in the 1880s when the railway was being built.
She has some incredible photos of the Manitoba Hotel (also known as the Dixon Hotel) that was located in Elkhorn. The Dixon family owned and operated it.
She also shared that she had another relative on her grandmother's side named Roy Stubbs who had also served in WW1 - from Miami, Manitoba. He too wrote poetry! She shared an incredible poem he wrote when he was in the Ypres sector of Belgium on Nov. 11, 1915. The poem was never published, but it is now located on Roy's tribute page on the Veterans Canada, Canadian Virtual War Memorial along with some photos Carol allowed me to share. Roy Stubbs was killed in the Battle of the Somme in September, 1916.
MORE TO THE STORY
Steve Glover’s efforts have produced a link to a recently re-published book of Dixon’s poetry.
A researcher of war writings from the UK named Lucy London had found Frank's poem “Cigarettes” on Twitter. From there, London worked with her business partner and friend, Paul Breeze to have all of Frank's First World War poetry republished in 2022. It captures the life of a young soldier who was born in Elkhorn and died in Flanders, France.
Through painstaking research and effort, 39 pieces of poetry along with pertinent pages of history – both Elkhorn, war-time, and Dixon Family history - have been published in a small book entitled War-Time Memories in Verse; Written while overseas by Signaller Frank P Dixon.
The poems seem to be arranged in order and like a diary we read of young Frank Dixon’s enthusiasm as a new recruit in Winnipeg:
“A soldier’s life is the life for me,
It has all others beat.
They have my deepest sympathy,
The fellers on the street.”
Many months later a poem, “Advice for Mother” rings of bravado, but reveals a thinly veiled longing for home.
And then to the final poem, “Moore Barracks Hospital” which describes good care from ‘the sisters.’ It finishes off with poetic lines of unrequited love. (Posh Up North Publishing)
Frank Percival Dixon, born in Elkhorn, in April 1898 enlisted as an 18-year-old in December 1916, with the Canadian Field Artillery. He was shipped to France and was mortally wounded on Aug. 29, 1918 during the Second Battle of Arras.
This book of poetry really belongs in legion libraries. It can be found on Amazon (War-Time-Memories-Verse-overseas-Signaller) or purchased directly from the publisher at Posh Up North Publishing
April 16 is Frank Dixon’s birthday.
