Words of war run in Marlborough family (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Words of war run in Marlborough family

7:00am Friday 6th November 2009

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The rector of Marlborough, Andrew Studdert-Kennedy, whose grandfather was a First World War trench poet, is hosting a reading of war poetry in Marlborough on Armistice Day.

The Pity Of War will take place in St Peter’s Church on November 11 and will include work by war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Charles Sorley who had both been students at Marlborough College Mr Studdert-Kennedy’s grandfather Geoffrey was an Army chaplain in the First World War and earned the title of Woodbine Willy for his habit of handing out Woodbine cigarettes, along with spiritual aid, to injured and dying soldiers.

Woodbine Willy’s poems will be among the war prose to be read by his grandson and Marlborough College students.

On Remembrance Sunday there will be a family service in St Mary’s Church at 5.30pm, following which Air Commodore Jerry Witts, president of Marlborough Royal British Legion, will talk about his experiences in the first Gulf War.

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