Valley of Kilbride, The

DESCRIPTION: On a French battlefield, a soldier from Newfoundland thinks back to "boyhood days in the valley of Kilbride." A dying soldier asks him to comfort his parents, sister, and the girl he used to walk with "in Bowring Park."
AUTHOR: probably John Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: war dying France soldier death family farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1, 1916 - Battle of Beaumont Hamel, at which the Newfoundland Regiment was slaughtered.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 113, "The Valley of Kilbride" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #28, pp. 46-47, "Valley of Kilbride" (1 text)
Roud #18245
RECORDINGS:
Jacob Noseworthy, "Valley of Kilbride" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (III)" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "Soldier's Last Letter" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The July Drive" (subject of Beaumont Hamel)
NOTES [700 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou speculates that "this song was possibly written by Johnny Burke." If [this] is right, the ballad refers to World War I. Burke died in 1930.
Bowring Park in Saint John's was opened in 1911 (Source: Tide's Point Magazine site for the "Newfoundland and Labrador Magazine for Workers"). GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site includes the following note for "The Valley of Kilbride," but does not claim the battle is the inspiration for the Ballad: "Between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., on July 1, 1916, the First Newfoundland Regiment, part of the 29th British Division, was virtually annihilated at Beaumont Hamel as they advanced into point-blank enemy fire. Of the 801 who went into battle, only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next day."
Kilbride is a suburb south of St John's. I don't know about a Valley of Kilbride. - BS
This doesn't feel like the work of Johnny Burke to me, but I can't prove it; it certainly looks like an imitation of many other soldier's-last-message songs such as "Bingen on the Rhine," and Burke wrote many imitations of folk songs. And, of course, it *is* in a Burke collection.
I think it pretty clear that it's about World War I rather than World War II. The song refers to No Man's Land, and there wasn't much trench warfare in World War II. And Kilbride, Newfoundland, borders Bowring Park.
And Newfoundland's losses in the war were indeed severe -- the Newfoundland Regiment (renamed the "Royal Newfoundland Regiment" during the war due to its high distinction; according to Major, p. 332, the Newfoundlanders were the only regiment to be given that distinction during the war) had 6242 men serve in its ranks during the war, and 1305 were killed, 2314 wounded, and 180 captured. That's more than 20% killed and more than 50% wounded (Noel, p. 122). Even in World War I, that's an extremely high rate. Major, p. 333, claims that one in seven men from St. John's aged 18-22 was killed during the war.
The "July Drive" of the song fits well with the Beaumont Hamel attack, which took place on the very first day of the Battle of the Somme. Cadigan, pp. 187-188, has this to say of Beaumont Hamel:
"The Newfoundland Regiment acquitted itself well through many of the toughest battles of the war. It fought the Turks at Gallipoli and the Germans in the muddy trenches of France in the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916.... Allied command assigned the regiment a leading role by asking it to capture an area in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel, behind the German front line. On 1 July 1916, about 810 officers and men of the Newfoundland Regiment went over the top against the Germans.... Within minutes the regiment was nearly annihilated. Only two officers and 95 of the men of the regiment answered roll call the next day. Fifteen officers and 95 other men lay dead on the field, while 16 officers and 479 men were wounded. One officer and 114 soldiers were missing somewhere among the mud, blood, craters, spent shells and barbed wire. The attack was a military disaster.
"Almost everyone in St. John's lost a family member or friend at Beaumont Hamel.... The myth of Beaumont Hamel quickly emerged, 'emphasizing bravery, determination, imperial loyalty, Christian devotion, and immortal achievement' on the part of the Newfoundland Regiment."
Chadwick, p. 126, gives slightly different numbers, but the distinction hardly matters:
"Of 5,482 [Newfoundland] men who went overseas, close on 1,500 were killed, 2,314 wounded and 234 decorated or mentioned in dispatches. The massacre at Beaumont Hamel remains, even today, a proud, sad memory to sacrifice. On 1 July 1916 753 Newfoundlanders went into action there. Next morning only 68 were left to answer the roll-call."
Major, p. 330, has similar numbers: "Left to answer the roll call the next day were 68 men. The battle buried 272 of their comrades, and wounded the rest. It is the single greatest tragedy in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. For a country of a quarter million, still reeling from the great seal hunt disasters of two springs before [for which see "The Southern Cross" and "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"], it was a monstrous cruelty to bear. - RBW
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File: LeBe113

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