The Rose of Lancashire, Lieutenant Wall and Blackie
- Amanda T
- Sep 22, 2022
- 2 min read
The motto of the 55th West Lancashire Division is:
"They win or die who wear the rose of Lancaster"
The red rose of Lancaster (on a white background, within a red circle) was taken up quite early in the war as the symbol for the 55th division, it was marked on all equipment and after the First Battle of the Somme a red rose within a khaki circle was worn by all ranks on each sleeve, just below the shoulder.
The reason for the rose is clear, the story of the motto is as follows. Early in June 1917, a young officer of the 275th Brigade RFA was killed by a shell in a battery position at Ypres. He was Lieut. Leonard C.Wall, of Liverpool, who when the war broke out was a schoolboy at Clifton and who, despite his youth, had joined up forthwith and had received a commission in the 1st West Lancashire Brigade RFA. About a week after his death an officer of the divisional staff saw the announcement of Lieut Wall's death in a newspaper and beneath it the words "We win or die who wear the Rose of Lancaster." He mentioned the quotation next day to General Jeudwine [Divisional Commander], who was so impressed by it that he gave orders forthwith that the motto should henceforward encircle the divisional sign, and his orders were at once carried out.
It is believed that the quote comes from a poem, written in a dugout by Leonard Wall and printed a year after his death in Sub Rosa, Being the Magazine of the 55th West Lancashire Division, in June 1918.
When Princes fought for England's crown,
The house that won the most renown,
And struck the sullen Yorkist down,
Was Lancaster
And blood red emblem stricken sore,
Yet steeped her pallid foe in fore,
Still stands for England evermore,
And Lancaster
Now England's blood like water flows,
Full many a lusty German knows,
We win or die who wear the rose of Lancaster.
The June 1917 edition of Sub Rosa is available online, click here to open in a new tab.
Another interesting fact about Lieutenant Wall is that his horse Blackie was injured by shrapnel from the blast that killed the Lieutenant but Blackie survived and was returned to the UK after the war, Blackie died in 1942 and the following notice was placed in the Liverpool Echo:
"At the Horses' Rest (R.S.P.C.A.), Hunts Cross, on December 10, BLACKIE, truest comrade in England, France and Flanders (1915-1917), of the late Leonard Comer-Wall, Lieutenant, A Battery, 275th Brigade, RFA, 55th Division, and the late Driver Frank Wilkinson, his groom. Ubique."
Blackie's grave is a Grade II listed monument and has recently been the cause of some controversy as a new housing estate is being built around it. You can read more here (not my website, link opens in new tab):
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