JIMMY IN THE BOX
(22nd May 1915)
(Composed prior to 1971; from manuscript held by B. Burke)Jimmy in the Box on a bright May Saturday
chatting with the fireman of the “Six-ten “slow
Borrowing a paper for the news of a Saturday
Hearing all the gossip of a Cage-bird show
Coping with the local that you hold on a Saturday
Dealing with the traffic with a casual skill
Pulling off a lever in the box on a Saturday,
Signalling a “Special” into Quintinshill …
The Leith “Royal Scots” off to fight Gallipoli
doze away the night in a packed troop-train
Distant far is the Turkish enemy
- Everybody’s safe on the SOLWAY plain,
Safe in the care of a servant of the Company
signalling the traffic on a great Main Line
(Responsible men are the Servants of the Company)
The signal’s clear and the outlook fine
… Till the locomotive and the fifteen carriages
see in a moment of horrified shock
another locomotive and a couple of carriages
standing on the line like a big black ROCK!
The engine shrieks and the sleeping warriors
rouse for a second to its piping shrill,
Then eleven-score men of the Seventh Battalion
die in the Battle of Quinitinshill.
Jimmy in the Box, oh you couldn’t have FORGOTTEN it …?
You came to WORK on the old “Six-ten”!
You’ve held it and you’ve shunted it and BLOODY-WELL FORGOTTEN IT!
Bloody-well forgotten till the moment when -
A horrified shriek and a crash like a thunderclap …
Deathly silence in the morning sun.
Then a still small voice, that’s as shocking as a thunderclap …
“My God, Jimmy! Whatever ’ave you Done?”
[ALTERNATIVE VERSION:
St. 1 omitted.
St. 2, l. 2: “Doze away the night in the Railway train”.
St. 2, l. 5: “Safe in the care of the servants of the Company”
St. 2, l. 8: “The morning’s clear and the outlook fine”.
St. 3, l. 2: “… its fifteen carriages”
St. 4, l. 3: “You’ve stopped it and …”
Postscript, by the Lord Justice General of Scotland – “James Tinsley. On your conviction of the crime of Culpable Homicide, I sentence you to Three Years Penal Servitude. I shall now say nothing further to add to the lifelong remorse you must feel at the dreadful consequences of your gross breach of duties”.]
[AUTHOR’S NOTE: This goes to a Trad tune “Byker Hill”. Impromptu introduction given first of all to audience to explain more or less what the piece is about. For publication, piece probably needs an extra introductory verse, but Quintinshill accident was the effect of dozens of complicated causes. Last verse is a simplification, but a reasonably accurate one. Last LINE is direct quotation of the second signalman (who also got 3 years!) in Quintinshill box.]
