Poet: A rare handwritten draft of A E Housman's most famous First World War poem that derided the Germans for suggesting the British soldiers were mercenaries is set to sell for £15,000

A rare handwritten draft of A E Housman's most famous First World War poem that derided the Germans for suggesting the British soldiers were mercenaries is set to sell for £15,000.

‘Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries’ was written by the poet and is an angry denouncement of German propaganda stating that British troops fought for money not patriotism.

Housman was a favourite of the troops serving in the trenches, and the draft is expected to attract a number of bidders when it goes under the hammer at Auction house Bonhams's First World War Centenary sale in London on October 1.

The eight line poem was published in The Times in October 1917 and the draft, which was written in pencil, shows Housman’s deletions and revisions.

It was intended as a response to the German propaganda insult at the start of the conflict, which claimed the British Expeditionary Force was made up of professional soldiers who were out for themselves, unlike the German army mainly consisted of conscripts and fighting for the Fatherland.

Alfred Edward Housman uses the concept of mercenary ironically to honour the small force of professional soldiers sent to Belgium at the start of the war who fought and died at the Battle of Ypres in October 1914.

They were pitched against a well-equipped and larger German army suffering heavy losses.

These ‘Old Contemptibles,’ adopted from a slur from the Kaiser when he described the BEF as a 'contemptible little army' for holding up the German advance, saved the nation and paid with their lives.

Working drafts by the classical scholar and poet are very rare because he left instructions to his brother Laurence to destroy them on his death.

Although he did give his brother discretion to retain any documents he felt would be worth keeping and the poem was probably saved because another poem. ‘Oh Were He And I Together’, was written on the back of it.

Draft version: ‘Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries’ was written by the poet and is an angry denouncement of German propaganda stating that British troops fought for money not patriotism

Saved: The draft (left) may have survived because another poem, ‘Oh Were He And I Together’, (right) was written on the back of it

The text, again in pencil, is very faint and a deliberate attempt has been made to erase it but Laurence Housman clearly felt it should be retained and some experts believe it referred to Housman’s other brother Herbert, who died in the Boer war.

Others suggested it was connected to his unrequited love for his Oxford University friend Moses Jackson who had married and emigrated in 1897.

This second poem was never published in Housman’s lifetime though he did consider including it in his 1922 volume, Last Poems, only to withdraw it at the proof stage.

EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES, BY A E HOUSMAN These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth’s foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead. Their shoulders held the sky suspended; They stood, and earth’s foundations stay; What God abandoned, these defended, And saved the sum of things for pay. Advertisement

'Whichever interpretation is correct, the poem clearly caused some soul searching for both Housman and his brother,' said a Bonhams spokesman.

'Housman’s family and friends almost certainly knew of his deep attachment to Moses Jackson.

'On A E's death in 1936, Laurence consulted another of the poet’s close friends, Alfred Pollard, about what to do with the more intimate material in his brother’s papers.

'Pollard recommended that he keep them which accounts for the fact that this very personal hand written work survives.'

The poet was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 1859 and is best known for his cycle of poems called 'A Shropshire Lad'.

His work has inspired a broad range of writers, from American crime writer James Ellroy to the production team behind the James Bond film Die Another Day.

Houseman is considered one of the most prominent English classical scholars of the early 20th century.

He was also Professor of Latin at University College London and later Cambridge where he died aged 77 in 1936.