When Lines Become Crossed. How The British Government Shaped The British Red Cross' Humanitarian Aid Efforts During World War II

He claims he doesn't "smoke, swill, or touch gin." "Swill" was street slang for excessive drinking, which Sickert certainly did not do at this stage in his life. If he drank at all, he wasn't likely to touch rot-gut gin. He did not smoke cigarettes, although he was fond of cigars and became rather much addicted to them in later years. "Altho, self taught," the Ripper says, "I can write and spell." The poem is difficult to decipher in places, and "Knacker" might be used twice or might be "Knocker" in one of the lines. "Knacker" was street slang for a horse slaughterer. "Knocker" was street slang for finely or showily dressed. Sickert was no horse slaughterer, but the police publicly theorized that the Ripper might be one. Sickert's greatest gift was not poetry, but this did not deter him from jotting a rhyme or two in letters or singing silly, original lyrics he set to music-hall tunes. "I have composed a poem to Ethel," he wrote in later years when his friend Ethel Sands was volunteering for the Red Cross: With ...»