The Forfar Bus

“On Armistice Day,” remarks Patrick Anderson of Letham, “readers may like to note this Great War poem written by Arbroath-born Lieutenant James Bell Salmond of the 7th Battalion The Black Watch. It is called The Forfar Bus: On the Forfar ‘bus in a morn of spring, A nipping wind and the frost’s sharp sting; And I can’t tell why, but you want to sing If your heart’s like the heart o’ me. The folks in the ‘bus, they stretch their legs, And talk of the fall in the price of eggs, Of milk by the pint, and butter in kegs, With – “drop in some day to your tea.” And my mind goes back to the days that were – Days of turmoil and days of stir, And a ‘bus from Albert to Pozieres, And fellows that rode with me. We cursed the night, and we cursed the wet; We envied the luck of the men we met Coming out of the trenches at Courcelette – A hell of a place to be. The Forfar ‘bus brought me back once more As the clock of the Pillars was striking four; Though the wind may blow and the rain may pour, There’s a chair and a fire for me. But the lads that jumped off at the duckboard track – (Cold was the night, and heavy the pack) They didn’t join on when the ‘bus went back – And they’ll never come in for their tea.”

“James Bell Salmond was the son of James Boath Salmond, editor of the Arbroath Herald. He was Dux at Arbroath High School in 1909 and went to University College, Dundee, for a year before moving to St Andrews University to study English. He then took up a career in journalism in London.

“But war broke out and he was commissioned into the Fife battalion of The Black Watch, seeing action in France. For several months he was a patient in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh where he was editor of the hospital magazine.

“Capt Siegfried Sassoon MC and Lieut Wilfred Owen were patients at the same time. After the war, Lt Salmond returned to Angus and became a journalist with DC Thomson, latterly taking over the editorship of the Scots Magazine.”