AustLit

Editor's note: A most singular coincidence is attached to the poem "The Mothers' battalion"...it first appeared in the Perth "Sunday Times" on June 30, 1915, subsequently appearing in the "Sydney Mail" and widely reprinted (in the)East(ern States newspapers)...(at Gallipoli) a familiar scrap of the "Sunday Times", evidently a bit torn off, floated round and was blown into the dugout by a high explosive shell. (Sid Johnstone) picked it up and saw there a copy of Mrs Kidson's verses, "The Mothers' Battalion" written by the mother of his pal (Noel Doyle Kidson) to whom he handed it...(Kidson) never received by ordinary channels one copy of (the newspapers) containing (the poem) that were posted to him.