Harry Fellows was not a Welshman, nor was he even numbered among those from further afield from the Welsh borders who made up the numbers of the 38th Welsh Division. He was, though, always moved by the memory of what he experienced and in particular the task of burying the dead. In later years he returned to Mametz Wood and came to love the now peaceful valley and the rich and verdant countryside. The Wood itself restored and full of birdsong moved Harry to write one of his many poems.
Harry died not long after the Red Dragon was dedicated on 1 September 1987. He was present at the ceremony and spoke then of Mametz Wood as being ‘no finer resting place’ for the men he had buried. Through the efforts of his family and the generosity of the Comte de Thézy who owns the wood and who also gave the land on which the Red Dragon stands, Harry’s ashes were interred in the wood as he had requested and a special memorial was erected. It stands where the central ride came out at the northern edge of the wood, close to Middle Alley and where Harry and Private Templeton held their lone vigil. It can be viewed by walking down the track leading into the wood off the Contalmaison-Longueval Road which lies east of the access road to Flat Iron Copse Cemetery. The memorial is on the right soon after the wood is entered.
Mametz Wood 1916 and 1984
Shattered trees and tortured earth
The acrid stench of decay
Of mangled bodies lying around
The battle not far away
This man made devastation
Does man have no regrets
Does he pause to ask the question
Will the birds sing again in Mametz?
This Welsh lad lying near my feet
With blood matted auburn hair
Was his father proud when he went to the war
Did his mother shed a tear
Did he leave a girl behind him
Awaiting the postman’s knock
Oh! The sadness when they learn of his death
Dear God help them to bear the shock
That German boy, his bowels astrew
Fought for his Fatherland
That he fought to the last is obvious
A stick bomb is still in his hand
Did he hate us so much as we thought
Was our enmity so just
On his belt an insignia GOT MIT UNS
Did not the same God favour us
As far as the eye can see
Dead bodies cover the earth
The death of a generation
Condemned to die at birth
When comes the day of reckoning
Who will carry the can
For this awful condemnation
Of man’s inhumanity to man
What a wondrous pleasant sight
Unfolds before my eyes
A panoply of magnificent trees
Stretching upwards to the skies
Did someone help Dame
Nature The sins of man to forget
Where once there was war now peace
reigns supreme
And the birds sing again in Mametz!
HARRY FELLOWS 1896 – 1987