On Remembrance Sunday, Dr Vincent Argent, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Dorset County Hospital, sang at the German War Memorial in Fordington church burial ground.

The inscription on the memorial is ‘ Hier ruhen Deutsche Krieger in fremden Erde doch unvergessen (‘Here rest German soldiers in foreign soil yet unforgotten ).

The lament to fallen German soldiers who died at the Dorchester First World War prison camp is ‘ Ich hatt’einen Kameraden (I had a comrade ), an old Prussian song.

It does not glorify wars or battle and is not nationalist or political.

It is about the bond between a soldier and his dying comrade..

The words are: I once had a comrade No one better would you find Then the drum called us to battle And he marched there by my side In equal pace and stride A bullet came a-flying Is it meant for me or you Then it ripped his life away Now he is here at my feet As if a part of me Yet he reached his hand out to me As I had to now reload I cannot give you my hand Rest here in eternal life My good comrade

The song was sung in reconciliation and remembrance and it is sad that most of the young German soldiers died of Spanish ‘flu in the 1918/9 pandemic that ravaged the prison camp.

VINCENT ARGENT

Dorchester