A POEM written on a postcard describing training in an infantry regiment at Bovington during the First World War has been unearthed.

While searching in The Tank Museum archives, a member of staff came across the postcard, written by an unknown author, which originated after 1915, because it mentions the wooden huts, which were built early that year.

The archive department believes it would have been written before Bovington Camp became the home of the Heavy Section of the Royal Armoured Corps.

The poem describes the tough conditions in the camp at that time.

“There are lots of little huts, all dotted here and there,

“For those who have to live inside I’ve offered many a prayer.

“Inside the huts there’s RATS as big as any nanny goat,

“Last night a soldier saw one trying on his overcoat,

“It’s sludge up to the eyebrows, you get it in your ears,

“But into it you’ve got to go, without a sign of fear.

“And when you’ve had a bath of sludge, you just sit and groom,

“And get cleaned up for next Parade, or else its “Orderly Room.

“Week in, week out, from morn till night, will full Pack and Rifle,

“Like Jack and Jill, you climb the hills, of course that’s just a trifle.”,

“Slope Arms,” “Fix Bayonets,” then “Present,” they fairly put you through it,

n Read the full poem at tank100.com/headline-news/bovington-camp-poem/