Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
You'll need headphones to stand any chance of hearing my latest humble attempt at playing this record that really needs a Pathephone Sapphire stylus player to get the best sound out of this disc which alas I don't have. This recording is incomplete and skips as the disc would not fully scan even though I played it at 45 rpm and speeded up the recording to approximately 90 rpm using Audacity software. I would love to be able to play and record this amazing record properly using a Pathe Player if anybody can assist me in the London area please contact me via my e-mail at hyperbolelad@hotmail.com. hard on the ears as it is if you listen carefully wearing headphones you can just about hear most of the poem and I hope like me you may enjoy the experience.
H
This is probably the earliest World War One Poem recorded to Gramophone Record The Day written by Railway Porter Henry Chappell that was published having won a competition in the Daily Express a British newspaper and Recited by Robert Howe the baritone the poem is a rather crude rebuke at the German Kaiser for starting the First World War, it is fascinating that so early into WW1 a poem that is almost a protest poem about the Great war found its way onto this very rare 90 rpm Hilland & dale Pathé Disc.
Railway worker and poet Henry Chappell gained a degree of fame with the publication of this poem in the Daily Express of 22 August 1914. The poem is addressed to the German people, and concerns the supposed toast among German army officers in the lead-up to the First World War, 'Der Tag' (i.e. 'the day' on which the war with England would commence).
Henry Chappell 1874-1937
Henry Lang Chappell was born in 1874 at Sennen, Cornwall. His family came originally from Cornwall and were French Huegenots. He was married and had two daughters.
In1869, before Henry was born, Frederick Newell, an uncle of Henry’s was on board HMS Topaz when it went to Easter Island to collect one of the heads for the British Museum. He was a gunnery officer and sadly drowned while at sea. There is a family headstone near the road at Sennen Church which relates to the Chappell family. Henry was left an orphan and went to live with his aunt and uncle (by marriage) in Putney. The uncle, was a vintner and had a shop in Paddington, which is believed to be the link to Henry's love of the railways. Henry became a porter and worked on Bath Station. He must have seen many leave for the Great War from Bath station and very few returned.
Through his poetry, Henry became known as the 'Bath Railway Poet' and in fact he turned down promotion to station master so he could keep in contact with people as they were his 'inspiration'. Henry became famous overnight with his poem 'The Day' published in the Daily Express on 22nd August 1914. It was aimed at the Kaiser, and it is said the Kaiser actually read it and was ‘furious”. It was translated into many languages and posted in railway stations up and down the country.
He also had poems published in the Daily Express on a regular basis. He had a book published in 1918 entitled 'The Day and Other Poems’. He also wrote a book about the railways called ‘Life on the Iron Road’. Unofficially it was suggested he should became the new Poet Laurette. He was close friends with Rudyard Kipling, who travelled especially from London to meet Henry. They became firm friends. Henry knew other famous poets of the time, too.
You'll need headphones to stand any chance of hearing my latest humble attempt at playing this record that really needs a Pathephone Sapphire stylus player to get the best sound out of this disc which alas I don't have. This recording is incomplete and skips as the disc would not fully scan even though I played it at 45 rpm and speeded up the recording to approximately 90 rpm using Audacity software. I would love to be able to play and record this amazing record properly using a Pathe Player if anybody can assist me in the London area please contact me via my e-mail at hyperbolelad@hotmail.com. hard on the ears as it is if you listen carefully wearing headphones you can just about hear most of the poem and I hope like me you may enjoy the experience.
H
This is probably the earliest World War One Poem recorded to Gramophone Record The Day written by Railway Porter Henry Chappell that was published having won a competition in the Daily Express a British newspaper and Recited by Robert Howe the baritone the poem is a rather crude rebuke at the German Kaiser for starting the First World War, it is fascinating that so early into WW1 a poem that is almost a protest poem about the Great war found its way onto this very rare 90 rpm Hilland & dale Pathé Disc.
Railway worker and poet Henry Chappell gained a degree of fame with the publication of this poem in the Daily Express of 22 August 1914. The poem is addressed to the German people, and concerns the supposed toast among German army officers in the lead-up to the First World War, 'Der Tag' (i.e. 'the day' on which the war with England would commence).
Henry Chappell 1874-1937
Henry Lang Chappell was born in 1874 at Sennen, Cornwall. His family came originally from Cornwall and were French Huegenots. He was married and had two daughters.
In1869, before Henry was born, Frederick Newell, an uncle of Henry’s was on board HMS Topaz when it went to Easter Island to collect one of the heads for the British Museum. He was a gunnery officer and sadly drowned while at sea. There is a family headstone near the road at Sennen Church which relates to the Chappell family. Henry was left an orphan and went to live with his aunt and uncle (by marriage) in Putney. The uncle, was a vintner and had a shop in Paddington, which is believed to be the link to Henry's love of the railways. Henry became a porter and worked on Bath Station. He must have seen many leave for the Great War from Bath station and very few returned.
Through his poetry, Henry became known as the 'Bath Railway Poet' and in fact he turned down promotion to station master so he could keep in contact with people as they were his 'inspiration'. Henry became famous overnight with his poem 'The Day' published in the Daily Express on 22nd August 1914. It was aimed at the Kaiser, and it is said the Kaiser actually read it and was ‘furious”. It was translated into many languages and posted in railway stations up and down the country.
He also had poems published in the Daily Express on a regular basis. He had a book published in 1918 entitled 'The Day and Other Poems’. He also wrote a book about the railways called ‘Life on the Iron Road’. Unofficially it was suggested he should became the new Poet Laurette. He was close friends with Rudyard Kipling, who travelled especially from London to meet Henry. They became firm friends. Henry knew other famous poets of the time, too.
