Lord's Prayer

THY WAY, NOT MINE, O LORD
HOWEVER DARK IT BE

LIEUTENANT ERNEST LAWTON HARGRAVE

Just six graves down from Ernest Hargraves's, Walter Pawson's mother chose 'Thy will be done' for her son's personal inscription. These words from the Lord's Prayer are those most frequently used on war-grave headstones. However, Ernest Hargrave's mother makes an even more emphatic statement of submission to God's will with her choice from the first verse of a mid-nineteenth-century hymn by Horatius Bonar:

Thy way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be;
Lead me by thine own hand,
Choose out the path for me.

Mrs Hargrave's was a widow who kept a boarding house in Clapham. Ernest was the eldest of her two children; Arthur, her other son, would have been 8 when Ernest died. God's 'way' must have felt very dark to her.
There are twenty war graves in East Boldre Churchyard, nineteen of them relate to accidents at the Flying Training School there. According to a newspaper report, Hargrave's was one of two fatal accidents within twenty-four hours of each other. In Hargrave's case:

"On Saturday, Second Lieutenant Ernest Hargrave ascended, but when at height of 200 ft his machine nose-dived and crashed to the earth, resulting in his death from fracture of the skull."

The verdict of a subsequent inquiry concluded that it had been 'death by mis-adventure'.

EI EWYLLYS EF A WNELER

BOMBARDIER DAVID WILLIAM DAVIES

'Dy ewyllys di a wneler' translates as 'Thy will be done' from The Lord's Prayer, 'Ei ewyllys ef a wneler' as 'His will be done'. Whatever the language this acceptance of God's will, sometimes amended to read 'Thy will not ours be done', seems to be the most common of all headstone inscriptions.
Bombadier David Davies's parents lived in Barry Dock, South Wales, which is where he was born in 1891. At some point he emigrated to Canada as that is where he was living when he enlisted.

AGE 17 YRS. 1 MON. 10 DYS.
IN THY KEEPING
OUR FATHER

GUNNER HAROLD MAITLAND GORING

On Harold Maitland Goring's attestation papers his date of birth is clearly given as 9 September 1898, but he was lying, Harold Goring was born on 9 September 1900. This must be why his mother was so specific on his headstone inscription stating his age as exactly 17 years, one month and 10 days. This made him 16 when he enlisted in January 1917, and still 16 went he went overseas on 23 March 1917.
He served with the 4th Division Ammunition Column of the Canadian Field Artillery and was killed outright by a German bomb dropped on the parade ground just as the men had been dismissed.

O GOD GIVE ME
THE HERO'S MOTHER
STRENGTH TO SAY
THY WILL BE DONE

PRIVATE THOMAS ELWELL

'Thy will be done' was one of the most popular of all headstone inscriptions. Mrs Elwell's variation shows how hard it was for her to accept her son's death, even if it was God's will.