Descendant Death WW2
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NOW A' IS DONE
THAT MAN CAN DO
AND A' IS DONE IN VAIN
SERJEANT ALEXANDER ROUGH
Alexander Rough was a miner from Stirlingshire. Married on 31 December 1913, he enlisted on 31 August 1914. By the time of his death he was a serjeant, surely a testament to his qualities. He was killed in action at the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe on 23 April 1917.
His wife, Margaret Hall Begg Rough, chose his inscription. It comes from a poem by Robert Burns, It Was a' For our Rightful King. After the 1745 Rebellion, when despite all being done that a man could do it was all done in vain, two lovers are to be parted as the man faces exile. There were plenty of lines that one might have thought Mrs Rough could have used from this poem: 'With, Adieu for evermore, my dear!', 'But I hae parted frae my love, never to meet again', 'I think of him that's far awa the lee-lang night, and weep'. But she didn't, she chose to say that it had all been in vain.
Margaret Rough can have had no idea how 'in vain' her husband's death was. If she had thought it would help bring peace, it was only 22 years after Alexander Rough's death that Britain was again at war with Germany, and only 27 years before their son, Alexander Thomas Begg Rough, was killed in action at Rimini on 16 September 1944.
FAIS CE QUE DOIS
ADVIENNE QUE POURRA
CAPTAIN LUDOVIC HEATHCOAT-AMORY
This is an ancient French proverb, which translates as 'Do your duty come what may' or, less formally, 'do what you must whatever the results''.
By August 1918, Captain Amory, as he was generally known, was serving on the Staff of 32nd Division when on the evening of 24 August a German aeroplane bombed their Headquarters. Amory died of wounds a few hours later.
His wartime diary has survived and has been published in 'Artillery and Trench Mortar Memories - 32nd Division', edited by R Whinyates. Here a friend describes him in the foreword of the diary as being "characteristic of the best type of Englishman, no man more happy in temperament, more genuinely friendly in disposition". The friend mentions particularly that Amory was always anxious to "carry out his duties to the utmost of his ability" - 'Do your duty come what may'.
Amory's wife, Mary, chose his inscription. The proverb is not meant to be fatalistic but just utterly pragmatic - do your duty come what may. But Mary Heathcoat-Amory could never have guessed what was to come. She and her husband had three sons; Michael, the second son, was killed in an air crash in 1936; Patrick, the eldest, was killed at El Alamein in 1942 and Edgar was killed in Normandy on 23 June 1944. Edgar is buried in Ranville War Cemetery. His inscription reads:
Fais ce que dois
Advienne que pourra
Do your duty come what may.
OMNIA VINCIT AMOR
CAPTAIN CHARLES CADWALADR TREVOR-ROPER
The words for this inscription come from Virgil's Eclogue X, line 69, Love conquers all things. They were chosen by Charles Trevor-Roper's wife.
Charles Trevor-Roper was an actor. After taking his degree at Clare College, Cambridge he went on to study at the Academy of Dramatic Art. He toured Australia with Harry Irving's company during 1911, and at the outbreak of war was playing Captain Felix in 'The Grande Seigneur' at the Savoy Theatre.
On the death of his uncle in 1901, Charles had inherited the family estate of Plas Teg in Flintshire together with a large fortune. He was one of twelve children, ten of whom were older than him, but they were all girls. The twelfth child was another boy. Both boys, Charles and Geoffrey, were killed in the war.
Charles' only son, Richard, who had been the rear gunner in Guy Gibson's Lancaster bomber on the Dambuster Raid, 16/17 May 1943, was killed in action in another raid over Germany on 31 March 1944.