Poems of a Yorkshireman 1908-1983

About the Book

The book contains poems written by my Grandfather George Denison during his life in Yorkshire before World War II, during WWII, after WWII and immigrating to Australia.

There are also some poems by my Great-Grandfather James William Denison to his son that were amongst the collection of old note pads and loose notes yellow with age.

The poems are regional to Yorkshire (and parts of the UK) and specific, speaking of old caves in the Dales to beautiful green glades.

They are also romantic at times and family sensitive speaking of his love for his wife and two sons. 

Many of his treasured memories of England are in these poems.

There are memoirs of WWII as a Royal Engineer and friendships developed with Canadian allies who came to help. He never spoke of the war when it was over like many others because of friends he lost and I believe he vented his memories in his poetry.

It was a great find as my wise old Grandmother kept all his words, which came to my possession in 2003.

I believed in rewriting these poems (probably because I am a biased grandson) mainly because of what I learnt from his words values and wisdom speaking from a generation long gone. I believe that these values and ideals should not be forgotten and that we all could benefit from reading an old Yorkshire mans wisdom and maybe reapply some old school values to our everyday lives.

About the Author

George Denison 1908 - 1983 born in Burnley. He spent a great deal of his life in Yorkshire and after WWII he moved to South Australia to start a new life with his family. The Denison family has lived in the Yorkshire west-riding area for over 500 years.

His occupation was a builder and stone mason and recreational poet.

While in Yorkshire with his young family he lived in Fern Terrace, Riddlestone (now Queensbury). He would regularly solder up the waterpipes for the tennants as they would burst form the winter cold.

Motorbikes were a passion of his and the most favoured was his Scott Flying Squirrel. He also once competed in the Isle of Man motor bike race.

He was very keen on caving in his younger life 'Pot-Holing' as the Yorkshire men of his time called it.

During WWII he served as a Royal Engineer , specialising in building bailey bridges for tanks and military equipment to roll over.

He loved reading including Shakespeare and many of the classics. Believed in education and was a well balanced man.

In South Australia after the war he re-commenced his trade as a builder and stone mason. His family lived in a tent for 6 months because of the expence and lack of bricks in Australia at the time. He ordered a few truck loads of regular stone and built the new family home completely out of the stone that he dressed  and carved himself, with 18 inch thick walls. He worked during the day and when he came home would build the house with the time he had left.

The family found his old poems including WWII pictures in 2003 in an old battered breif case.

Re-written by Peter Denison BEd, Dip. Aut. his Grandson.