Anthony and Mary Jane
©2006 words & Music P J Skinner
Two years before the first world war, in a village in the Fylde
A peaceful time for young and old before the world went wild
A morning dawned the sun it rose, like any other day
The men they worked as mothers cooked and children went to play
In summer sun and fields of green, streams of cool clear water
Children laughing as they play, a happy son and daughter
Hide and seek, playing tag climbing trees for fun
Holding hands and linking arms and running just to run
Young Anthony went out that day to play with Mary Jane
They met up with their other friends, walking in the Lane
The birds sang in the hedgerow, as in the grass they rolled
The July sun shone down so bright it filled the fields with gold
Chorus
A stream of cool clear water they splashed upon their faces
They raced the boats made out of twigs and sailed to far off places
The stream they followed to the pool, where newts and fish they saw
Skimmed stones across the water, bouncing three or maybe four
Chorus
Mary Jane she heard her name, and looked around to see
The water covering up the head of six year old Anthony
Without a thought then for herself and where it all could end
This 10 year old went in to try and save her younger Friend
Chorus
Their hands met in the water and if love could have saved the day
They wouldn’t be in Singleton, where their young bodies lay
There in the Village Church yard, stand grave stones side by side
For no greater love can one man have, and for that friend she died
Chorus
To the memory of Mary Jane Cowell & Anthony Bond, who died on the
20th July 1912
Ten year old Mary Jane died in the attempt to save her Six year old
friend Anthony from drowning
“Greater love hath no man than this than a man laid down his life for
his friends”
