The following poem is written by an anonymous soldier from Olinda who went under the pen name ‘Aussie’ and sent to The Lilydale Express to be published –

A ROSE OF FRANCE

It was the village of Bapaume,
A weeping maid I found;
All that was left of her old home –
A plot of garden ground.

 I spoke what French I could repeat,
From out my shoolboy’s store;
‘Ma Cere’ and ‘pleurez pas petite’ –
I wished that I knew more!

She pluck’d a lovely Dijohn Gloire,
Her maiden fears at rest;
And saying ‘Les Aussie’s que Padore’,
She pinned it on my breast. 

‘Press on! Press on!’ the orders bore,
But in that famed advance,
There was an ‘Aussie’ proud who bore,
On his breast a Rose of France!