TOPIC:

He was born 17th November 1877, and died at Mount Sorrel, Belgium, on 5th June 1916.



....A well-dressed, well-groomed man called at the office of Mayor Markbreit, of Cincinnati, on Saturday, and said: -
...."Sir, I have just 15 cents. On Saturday night my room rent is due, and I have not a friend in the city. I want work, work - any kind. Lambart is my name - Charles E. Kilcoursie Lambart - Oxford graduate, lieutenant in Boer War, cousin of Earl Cavan, best man at the wedding of the Duke of Manchester
...."I am not looking for charity. What I want is work. I am not out to fleece anyone. Get me a place washing dishes. I have not had a substantial meal for a week.
...."Ten years ago I had £7,000. Horses ran through my money, and my people turned me off. I came to America and tried acting - did juvenile leads in a Quebec company. Got stranded, and then came here. I inquired for the British Consul, and was told there was none here.
...."I answered an advertisement for a dishwasher, but found twelve men were ahead of me at six in the morning. Pawn my clothing and dress less expensively? Yes, I could; but my clothes are the sole link between me and the past. Drop them, and I become a tramp, like dozens I see sleeping in the parks. With them I can make what the Americans graphically call a 'front.' No, I shall stick to them to the last."
....The Mayor promised to see what he could do.
The Weekly Mail, Saturday 12th September 1908

* Leopold Markbreit was mayor of Cincinnati in 1908-09; he died in office, July 1909.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Markbreit


Lieutenant Charles Edward Kilcoursie Lambart, "B" Company 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion. Died at the Battle of Mount Sorrel, near Ypres, Belgium, on 5th June 1916, aged 38. Son of the late Major Frederick Lambart and Catherine Lambart; husband of Isabel Dora Lambart. Remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.

Berenice
Colin Walker's Mafeking Siege Register shows "Lambart, Chas. Kilcoursie, L/Cpl., 390" as serving with the Protectorate Regt's B Sqn. He appears to feature in Maj. Baillie's diary as "Tpr. LAMBERT" when competing in a sporting event. He was awarded clasps "Defence of Mafeking", "Orange Free State" and "Transvaal" on his QSA and a marginal note says he was one of four men to go into Baillie's new Regt. after M'king.
Always sad to see a man reduced to those circumstances. Times were obviously very hard in the United States in those days. Evidently, he did "bounce back" later.
Regards
IL.

Berenice.....
He originally enlisted here in Calgary in the 31st Battalion..... Transferred to 1st CMR and was posted Missing / Dead June 5th, 1916.....
Mike

There was a big jump in the US unemployment rate in 1908, so Lambart had chosen a bad time to be in Cincinnati. That continued, with some variations, through to 1916.
www.nber.org/chapters/c2644.pdf (see page 6)




"The Tramp" (1913) is – together with "The Preacher and the Slave" – one of labor organizer Joe Hill's most well-known songs. The lyrics tell about an able-bodied but unemployed man who wanders around looking for work, but is not welcome anywhere – even in church, Heaven, and Hell – and thus must "keep on a-tramping".

The tune is borrowed from the song "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", a Civil War song written in the 1860s by military songwriter George F. Root. Root wrote it for Union soldiers, but the song was so popular that Confederate soldiers wrote their own words, and both sides sang it while marching. That song has appeared in several movies, including Gone with the Wind, and the tune is well-known today as the melody of the Sunday School standard "Jesus Loves the Little Children".

"The Tramp" was first published in the March 6, 1913, edition (fifth edition) of the Little Red Songbook of the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the Wobblies). The Wobblies used songs – parodies set to traditional melodies – to help unionize workers. Hill wrote more than 25 such songs and was considered one of the Wobblies' best lyricists.
(from Wikipedia)

'Tramp, tramp, tramp, keep on a-tramping / Nothing doing here for you / If I catch you 'round again / You will wear the ball and chain / Keep on tramping, that's the best thing you can do.'

I have just been writing the biography of this man for the Mafeking book so this article came in very handy. Thank you, Berenice.

djb wrote: I have just been writing the biography of this man for the Mafeking book so this article came in very handy. Thank you, Berenice.

I do come in useful sometimes.

By the way, David, I've corrected a transcription error I just noticed - 'the' should have been 'them,' which it now is.