Mexborough & Swinton Times — Saturday, 12 June 1943
A Gunner’s Poem
A poem written by Gnr. Bert Barlow, of Conanby, is being recited frequently by Miss Anna Neagle, stage and screen star, at concerts.
The poem is about the Merchant Navy, and Miss Neagle has written to Gnr. Barlow’s mother at Conanby describing how she met him on the way back from America. She wrote that she was so impressed when she heard Gnr. Barlow recite his poem that she obtained a copy of it.
“The poem was wonderfully received wherever I recited it,”
she wrote.
Miss Neagle recited the poem during a broadcast of a “Shipmates Ashore” programme in which she took part, and at Doncaster and Leeds.
Gnr. Barlow is married and has two sons and a daughter. At the outbreak of war he was in the Territorials and a miner at Cadeby Colliery. He has been on convoy duties about 2½ years, and has been to Canada, America, and several times to Russia.