THE INFAMOUS RONALD LIGHT...

Ronald Light: The Postcard, The Great War & The Legacy

Ronald Light was a trained engineer,

Whose crass behaviour had brought dismissal and disgrace;

Yet as war broke out he acquired an officer’s rank

In the army and was posted to France apace…

Trench construction was his Great War contribution

But within weeks back to England he was ordered,

For ‘lacking initiative’ it was officially reported

But the truth was buried, for upon embarrassment it bordered…   

Soon though, his father would ‘fall’ from a window

At his home and he tragically died, 

Perhaps as a result of his son’s awkward predicament…

 Was it an accident, or was it suicide?

Light laboured on a farm, then re-enlisted as a gunner,

A reserve, which would bring him further demise;

Twice his regiment was called up to leave for France,

Yet twice the orders were curiously revised…

Light had apparently written the new orders himself, 

So that his regiment was stood down both times;

But his handwriting proved that he was the forger

And he was imprisoned for his unusual but heinous crimes…

A one year sentence was subsequently curtailed

To four months, after which the infamous Ronald Light

Was sent back to the Front in France as a gunner again,

But within ten months he was sent home, unfit to fight…

Deafness and ringing in his ears were his ‘Blighty’ symptoms,

He spent twelve weeks in a military hospital to recover,

By which point the First World War had ended

And his army career thus officially over…

The surviving postcard had been sent by his father

In December of 1915;

The image features Leicester’s old town hall,

A particularly incongruous scene…

Had 2nd Lieutenant Light not replied to previous letters?

Were his parents despairing, yet ashamed

Of their son who had been sacked from his job?

Could Ronald for his father’s imminent death be blamed?

The message on the postcard is pleading, almost, 

As if his worried parents desperately needed

To know that their wayward son might make them proud

But their messages had simply gone unheeded…

Ronald’s life would be littered by inappropriate behaviour,

 Protected by the privilege of his ‘class’ of course,

Even escaping a murder charge in a shocking case,

Yet he remained free and showed not the slightest remorse…

Pete Ray

March 2020…

The postcard is in the possession of Vicki Walker and her article about Ronald Light appeared in a postcard magazine recently…

I wanted only to feature the postcard in the verses above but Light did appear to have a bit of a charmed life, falling on his feet when seemingly doomed and in all sorts of trouble.

He had been expelled from school at 17 for inappropriate behaviour with a younger pupil, then whilst working for the Midland Railway Company in Derby, he was dismissed for setting fire to a storeroom and also daubing graffiti upon bathroom walls.

His inappropriate and fraudulent behaviour during the Great War is hinted at above. (It is said that he assaulted a French postmistress whilst based in the country, hence the early return to England…)

The main feature of his life though due to his involvement in the notorious ‘Green Bicycle Case’, for he was charged with murdering Bella Wright in 1919 and the evidence certainly pointed to him as being the assailant. 

His barrister was brilliant however and Light was acquitted…

Please check the story out, for it is truly remarkable…