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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 10h

A little something useful for when you’re next looking at a First World War #map and wondering what all the Cabarets and Carrières are.
Translations of common geographical features found on French #FWW #1GM maps. Printed on the reverse.

A brief list of translations of French terms used on First World War maps and printed on the reverse of a map sheet.
It reads:

TRANSLATIONS
Auberge, Aube - Inn.

Bac - Ferry.

Cabaret, Cab. - Inn.

Carrière - Quarry.

Cheminée - Factory Chimney.

Déversoir - Weir.

Écluse - Lock.

Étang, E - Pond.

Fontaine, Font. - Spring.

Gué - Ford.

Marais - Marsh.

Moulin, M - Mill.

Nacelle - Ferry.

Puits - Well, Shaft.

Source - Spring.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 12h

A further possibility occurs to me - that he’s been assigned to divisional or corps headquarters and is there to get info to report back. But I’ve seen things saying he was ‘attached to’ 226e RI so I think that’s out.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 14h

@wherrypilgrim.bsky.social Are you familiar with this #WW1 poem?

Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

5/ REQUIESCAT IN PACE
À Alec Carter
Mort au champ d’honneur (1914).
(Qu’il repose en paix !).

« Où donc repose-t-il à présent, l’être cher ?
Dans le creux de quel arbre ou sous quelle colline ?
Quel oreiller soutient son beau visage clair ?
Sur quels draps argileux crispe-t-il ses mains fines ? »

Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 14h

3/ He’s just joined and being briefed and assigned duties as ‘agent de liaison’ when he’s fatally wounded.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 14h

2/ … he’s only just joined one unit and just left the other. The former doesn’t yet have him on their strength, and the other knows that he’s gone so doesn’t consider him part of “them“ anymore.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 14h

Yes. Sometimes such things are a complete flight of fancy for ‘home consumption’ but, in this case, it seems to match what other ‘evidence’ (in this case, stuff that’s missing) suggests.
Neither of the 2 units he was attached to list him as one of ‘their’ dead in their ‘Historique’. So …

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

#WW1 #FWW #FWWHist #History 🗃

Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

#OTDiH 1914: Death of Georges Alexandre (Alec) Carter, a hugely successful pre-war jockey. Born into a British horse racing family in Chantilly, he’d been maréchal des logis with 23e Dragons but died of wounds received while serving as agent de liaison with 226e Régiment d’infanterie. #1GM
[more] ⬇️

A French Newspaper article reporting the death of Alec Carter and his achievements as a jockey.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

9/ Mais non ! le lit est fait de feuilles et de terre,
C’est un lit à la fois, étroit, vaste et glacé…
Sans couronnes de fleurs, sans cierges mortuaires,
Je ne sais où – là-bas – est mort le bien-aimé !

#FWW #poetry #poésie

Newspaper cutting and photograph of Alec Carter [source: Wikipedia]

Description
Français : extrait du journal "le miroir".
Date: 15 November 1914
Source: Le Miroir
Author: inconnu.

{{PD-US-expired}}

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

8/ Que n’ai-je pu du moins, charmer sa dernière heure !
Eclairer la douleur et l’ombre du chemin ;
Pour qu’il sente qu’une âme est près de lui, qui pleure,
Que je borde son lit de mes tremblantes mains.

⬇️ #poetry #poésie

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

7/ Je n’ écarterai plus ses cheveux sur sa tête,
Je ne le verrai plus sourire en s’éveillant,
Je ne connaîtrai plus la délicate fête
De prendre, en un baiser, la gaîté de ses dents.

⬇️ #poetry #poésie

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

6/ « Autrefois, sur mon bras, il dormait tendre et fier ;
Je voyais son regard à travers ses paupières,
A-t-il pris, pour mourir, sa pose familière ?
Et ses yeux sans regards, peut-être, sont ouverts ? »

⬇️ #FWW #poetry #poésie

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

5/ REQUIESCAT IN PACE
À Alec Carter
Mort au champ d’honneur (1914).
(Qu’il repose en paix !).

« Où donc repose-t-il à présent, l’être cher ?
Dans le creux de quel arbre ou sous quelle colline ?
Quel oreiller soutient son beau visage clair ?
Sur quels draps argileux crispe-t-il ses mains fines ? »

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

4/ Her life ended sadly in poverty and drugs but she was clearly intelligent and thoughtful as in 1918 she produced a volume of #poetry entitled « Sous le masque » which included this tribute to her lover killed in the early months of the #FWW, Alec Carter:

⬇️

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

3/ She was beautiful & ambitious & benefited from an age where her beauty became widely known through diffusion of her image in press photographs. She was one of the « Trois grâces de la Belle Epoque » and as a « horizontale » her relationships with women and men enhanced her notoriety.

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

2/ He was the lover of Emilienne d’Alençon, wife of another jockey, Percy Woodward. Several years older than Alec and described as ‘dancer, actress and courtesan’, this barely does justice to a remarkable woman whose life and career is often described in judgemental terms by many (male?) writers.

Emilienne d’Alençon
Cabinet Photograph
c.1900

Gabrielle Enthoven Collection
V&A Museum
Accession Number: S.506-2021

Full-length studio costume photograph by Reutlinger of dancer and actress Emilienne d'Alençon.

URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1627376/emilienne-dalencon-cabinet-photograph-reutlinger-studio/

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Debout les Morts ! @vingtfrong.bsky.social · 1d

#OTDiH 1914: Death of Georges Alexandre (Alec) Carter, a hugely successful pre-war jockey. Born into a British horse racing family in Chantilly, he’d been maréchal des logis with 23e Dragons but died of wounds received while serving as agent de liaison with 226e Régiment d’infanterie. #1GM
[more] ⬇️

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