Claude was born in Florida in America on 10th August
1893. His parents were Henry Hugh
“Harry” Penrose, a civil engineer and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, nee Lewis, who came from Kinsale in Ireland. Mary was a successful novelist who wrote under the name of
Mrs. H.H. Penrose.
The family went to live in England in 1897. Claude was educated at the United Services
College, a private school for the sons of military officers which was in
Westward Ho! In Devon, before going on to the Royal Military Academy in
Woolwich.
In 1911, the family lived at ‘Deepcut Bungalow’, Frimley
Green, Surrey. Claude was commissioned
into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a 2nd Lieutenant on 13th
July 1913.
Posted to the Western Front and slightly wounded during the
first days of The Somme Offensive in July 1916, Claude wrote a poem about his
impressions of the first day of the first Battle of the Somme. In September 1916, he was awarded the
Military Cross for actions during an attack on the village of Combles on 15th
September 1916.
In October 1917, Claude was promoted to the rank of Major
and given command of the 245th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison
Artillery. During the Battle of Arras in
March 1918, Claude won a Bar to his Military Cross. He was mortally wounded on 31st July 1918
while rescuing his wounded Subaltern.
He died at the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at 5.30 p.m. on
1st August 1918 and was buried in Esquelbecq Military Cemetery,
Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. He is
commemorated on the War Memorial – Heroes’ Column – at St. Fin Barre’s
Cathedral, Cork, Ireland.
After his death, Claude’s mother had his poems and some of
his art work published under the title “Poems; with a biographical preface” by
Harrison in 1919 (274 pages).
Sources: Information kindly
supplied by Claude’s relative and
http://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/pageturner.cfm?id=88179703Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 251.
“On The Somme” by Claude Quayle Lewis Penrose, MC and Bar
Who heard
the thunder of the great guns firing?
Who watched
the line where the great shells roared?
Who drove
the foemen back, and followed his retiring
When we threw
him out of Pommiers, to the glory of the Lord?
Englishmen
and Scotsmen, in the grey fog of morning
Watched the
dim, black clouds that reeked, and strove to break the gloom;
And Irishmen
that stood with them, impatient for the warning,
When the
thundering around them would cease and give them room
Room to move
forward as the grey mist lifted,
Quietly and
swiftly – the white steel bare;
Happy, swift
and quiet, as the fog still drifted,
They moved
along the tortured slope and met the foemen there.
Stalwart men
and wonderful, brave beyond believing –
Little time
to mourn for friends that dropped without a word!
(Wait until
the work is done, and then give way to grieving) –
So they
hummed the latest rag-time to the glory of the Lord.
All across
the No Man’s Land, and through the ruined wiring,
Each officer
that led them, with a walking-cane for sword,
Cared not a
button though the foeman went on firing
While they
dribbled over footballs to the glory of the Lord.
And when the
brought their captives back, hungry and downhearted,
They called
him “Fritz” and slapped their backs, and, all with one accord
They shared
with them what food they’d left from when the long day started
And gave
them smokes and bully to the glory of the Lord.
NOTE:
Pommiers is a town near Montaubon in the Somme, Picardie, France.
