TO HERO FROM VILLAIN

 

I have been researching my family history of late

And I have found an ancestor who was not great

Now his name was Captain Edward Stanton-Hyde

And he was a great, great uncle on my father’s side

Dishonourably discharged for stealing from the mess

He went to make his fortune in the old Wild West

He was lacking the most basic form of decency

And was hanged for horse theft and train robbery

On an old photograph he is pictured on the gallows

And a brief history of his life in crime then follows

In eighteen eighty-five convicted of Horse theft

Sent to Territorial Prison stayed two years and left

In eighteen eighty-seven he robbed the Flyer six times

Two years later he was hanged for his many crimes

This is all very embarrassing and not for circulation

However, this can be sanitized with a little imagination

I can easily scan and edit the infamous photograph

And rewrite his life story in as little as a paragraph

Captain Stanton-Hyde ex-soldier of the British army

And a very famous cowboy in the Wild West territory

His business included valuable equestrian acquisitions

And he dealt very closely with the railway institutions

In eighteen eighty-five he devoted his time it appears

To service in a federal facility for a number of years

In eighty-seven he resumed his work with the railways

And he spent long periods away setting the trail ablaze

At this time, he worked closely with the law throughout

Two years later his life was suddenly snuffed out

At a civil function held in the honour of the captain

The platform collapsed upon which he was standing