PRIVATE PETER CROSSAN
AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY
8TH JUNE 1918 AGE 19
BURIED: CROUY BRITISH CEMETERY, CROUY-SUR-SOMME, FRANCE
The words are an English version of an old Scottish lament. The tune was originally composed for the bagpipes and tradition has it that it is a lament for the flower of Scotland, the 10,000 men who were killed at the battle of Flodden in 1513. There are two sets of lyrics that accompany the song. Jean Eliot's words, for the relevant verse, read:
We'll hae nae mair lilting at the yowe-milking,
Women and bairns are dowie and wae.
Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning,
The flowers of the forest are all wede away.
There's another popular version by Alison Cockburn:
O fickle fortune! why this cruel sporting?
Why thus perplex us poor sons of a day?
Thy frowns cannot fear me, thy smile cannot cheer me,
Since the flowers of the forest are a' wede away.
Peter Crossan was born in Scotland, in Carluke, Lanarkshire. He emigrated to Australia with his parents when he was 13. He enlisted in April 1917. Rather poignantly, he gives his age on his attestation form as 18, and beside this there are brackets containing the words, 'parent's consent'. All soldiers had to be 19 before they could go on active service - unless they had their parents' permission. Crossan's mother, a widow, had given her consent. Peter's brother, William, who also served in the Australian army, chose his inscription.
I've seen the forest adorn'd of the foremost,
With flowers of the fairest, both pleasant and gay;
Full sweet was their blooming, their scent the air perfuming,
But now they are wither'd and a' wede away.