The Ballad of Ensign Joy

By E. W. Hornung

Excerpt: "It is the story of Ensign Joy And the obsolete rank withal That I love for each gentle English boy Who jumped to his country's call. By their fire and fun, and the deeds they've done, I would gazette them Second to none Who faces a gun in Gaul!"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
• Release date: Oct 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9783985315468

E. W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung (1866 –1921) was a prolific English poet and novelist, famed for his A. J. Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late 19th century London. Hornung spent most of his life in England and France, but in 1883 he traveled to Australia where he lived for three years, his experiences there shaping many of his novels and short stories. On returning to England he worked as a journalist, and also published many of his poems and short stories in newspapers and magazines. A few years after his return, he married Constance Aimée Doyle, sister of his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with whom he had a son. During WWI he followed the troops in French trenches and later gave a detailed account of his encounters in Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front. Ernest Hornung died in 1921.

Book preview

The Ballad of Ensign Joy

E.W. Hornung

The Ballad of Ensign Joy

        I T is the story of

Ensign Joy

And the obsolete

rank withal

That I love for each gentle English

boy

Who jumped to his country's

call.

By their fire and fun, and the

deeds they've done,

I would gazette them Second to

none

Who faces a gun in Gaul!)

        IT is also the story of Ermyntrude

A less appropriate name

For the dearest prig and the

prettiest prude!

But under it, all the same,

The usual consanguineous squad

Had made her an honest child

of God—

And left her to play the game.

        IT was just when the grind of

the Special Reserves,

Employed upon Coast Defence,

Was