Mademoiselle From Bluff?
AUCKLAND, Mon. (Sp) — That the famous Mademoiselle from Armentieres was written by an Australian “bush poet" now living at Bluff, is the claim of Mr C. V. Goddard, assistant registrar of the Social Security Department, in Auckland.
He says the writer was Mr Cecil Winter, an accountant of a freezing works at Bluff. Mr Winter, who used to write under the pseudonym of "Riverina,” has lived in New Zealand since 1914. Mr Goddard read the published cable from Mr E. C. H. Rowland, a retired theatre manager, wrote the song, and a Canadian composer, Lieutenant Gritz-Rice, the music. He said the original verses were written by Mr Winter while serving with the New Zealand forces in France, and were later collected in a volume of his poems. Pat Hanna, of "The Diggers" vaudeville show, which toured after the First World War, obtained the rights to the song from Mr Winter. Mr Goddard produced a statement from Pat Hanna disputing a claim by an American writer that he wrote the song. The tune has been used for hundreds of years as the Duke of Marlborough’s men marched to it with the words "A German Officer Crossed the Rhine." and the words changed through the years until Mr Winter wrote the verses so well known to the men who fought in France in the First World War. -Northern Advocate, 7/11/1949.
“MADEMOISELLE FROM ARMENTIERES”
AUTHOR OF EIGHT VERSES
“The Press" Special Service INVERCARGILL, November 10.
The claim that the man who wrote the words of “Mademoiselle from Armentieres” lives in Bluff, made by Mr C. V. Goddard, assistant registrar of the Social Security Department at Auckland, has been confirmed by the man himself, Mr Cecil Winter. The claim was prompted by a cabled report. from London published last week, in which it was stated that the writer of the words of the song was Mr E. C. H. Rowland, of Sutton, Surrey.
Mr Winter says he wrote eight verses under the pseudonym of “Riverina” for an Australian magazine. The verses were adapted for the Diggers’ show by Pat Hanna, and provided the theme song for the show.
Mr Winter is an Australian, but he has been living in New Zealand for many years. Every Anzac Day in Australia his “Mademoiselle from Armentieres” verses are broadcast over the Australian radio. -Press, 11/11/1949.
Writer Of Songs And Verse Dead
(New Zealand Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, July 20.
The man credited with writing the famous song of the First World War, “Mademoiselle from Armentieres,” the Australian-born Mr Cecil Winter, of Bluff, died at Riverton last week, aged 86.
Mr Winter was known much further than Bluff, as a poet and as a singer of Australian songs. He grew up on the Riverina and it was under the pen-name "Riverina” that he wrote most of his verse.
joined the Post Office, but the call of the outdoors was too insistent and be went droving.
Later, driving Cobb and Company’s coaches, he knew Tom Gorman, the last of the Hatfield bushrangers who had served 12 years in prison. Mr Winter began writing for the “Bulletin” while he was still at school and was just a youth when his first contribution was accepted.
Most of his songs, like Banjo Paterson’s, were of the Australian outdoors or about typical Australian people, although he had lived in Bluff since 1913. His father, William Winter, was a head cattleman on one of the big Riverina stations.
He served with the New Zealand forces during the First World War, and on his return continued to write verse, winning a number of competitions.
Mr Winter began work as a school teacher, then he (story incomplete) -Press, 21/7/1969.
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