Name
OUR BOB, ONE OF THE BEST
PRIVATE ROBERT AMBROSE HORROCKS
This is such a lovely, homely tribute from a mother to her eldest son. 'Bob', a lithographer in Liverpool in the 1911 census, served with the 19th battalion The King's (Liverpool Regiment), which would suggest that he joined up in August 1915 when it was formed. The battalion arrived in France in November 1915 and on the 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, took part in the successful assault towards the town of Montauban. One hundred and fourteen men from Liverpool died that day; Bob Horrocks was one of them.
AFTER TWO WEARY YEARS
GOD TOOK HIM
TO HIS TWIN BROTHER
MY HAWTON
CORPORAL MATTHEW HAWTON MITCHELL
Corporal Mitchell's twin brother, Frederick, died of wounds on 1 July 1916. Hawton followed him two years later. The Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau found witnesses who could tell his mother what had happened:
"I knew casualty. He was a well built man, 5 ft. 5 ins. dark complexion, about 19 years of age. Casualty was in advance at Peronne Road. He was leading his machine gun team in attack when an H.E. shell exploded a piece entering his leg. I was 20 yds. away at the time. He was carried to hospital."
Pte. A.G. Thornton
16.5.19
The Registrar of No. 1 South African General Hospital finishes the story:
"This man was admitted to this hospital from No. 53 Casualty Clearing Station on the 24th August, 1918. He was suffering from a severe wound on the thigh with fracture of the femur. He had two attacks of secondary heamorrhage, the second of which rendered amputation of the limb necessary. The operation took place on the 1st September 1918. He recovered slightly on returning to his ward but collapsed later and died at 6.30 pm on the 1st September, 1918."
MY DEAR SON FRED
OH! THE PAIN
WHAT JOY WHEN WE MEET
AT JESUS' FEET
PRIVATE FREDERICK SUMMERSGILL MITCHELL
For Private Mitchell's mother the pain was doubled when Frederick's twin brother died of wounds in September 1918. The brothers have consecutive service numbers - 3541 and 3542 - even though from the embarkation rolls it looks as though Frederick joined up on 21 July 1915 and his brother, Matthew Hawton Mitchell, on 1 December 1915. They left Australia together on 5 January 1916.
By the time Mrs Mitchell chose her sons' inscriptions she was a widow. Like many, many relations her consolation in her grief came from the belief that they will all meet again in the afterlife. Her reference to Jesus' feet comes from the chorus of the hymn God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus' feet,
God be with you till we meet again.
IN GLORIOUS MEMORY OF
OUR BILL
DRUMMER WILLIAM MARK NORTHCOTT
In the 1911 census, William Northcott was an errand boy living at home with his parents and two of his younger brothers. In August 1917 he was serving with the 24th Battalion London Regiment where he held the rank of Drummer. As a bandsman he would have been used in action either as a messenger or as a stretcher bearer. He died of wounds, "gunshot wounds chest penetrating, on left thigh, fractured femur" at No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, Lijssenthoek on 30 August 1917.
His mother, Mary Anne Northcott, chose his inscription. Her use of the word 'glorious' is interesting. In November 1920 the cenotaph, the Empire's memorial to its dead, was unveiled in Whitehall: a spare, understated monument, heavy with emotion but carrying only a few brief words - The Glorious Dead MCMXIV - MCMXVIII. Glorious - deserving of admiration, worthy of fame, honoured, a word appropriate to describe all the dead, which included Mrs Northcott's son - 'Our Bill'.
GOODBYE AND GOD BLESS YOU
DEAR ERN AND SID
TILL WE ALL MEET AGAIN
PRIVATE ERNEST PALK
"Palk was a Signaller in C Coy. 9th Battn., tall, stoutly built, fresh complexion, rather large head, wore glasses, a proper cockney, not long joined up. They were in a dug out in a trench on telephone duty. I was close by in a small dug-out. I went to do my shift on phone and found the phone dugout had been blown up by a shell. Palk's body was lying on top of the wreckage, hit all over. I got a shovel and started digging to see if anyone else was underneath, and found Marsden's body also badly smashed."
Witness L/Cpl G.A. Simpson 7057
Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Report
Born in Fulham, London, in the 1901 census Ernest Palk was 8 and his mother was dead. His brother Sidney was 5. In the 1911 census Ernest looks to have been a waiter at a London Club in Pall Mall. At some point he emigrated to Australia, joined up in 1917 and embarked for Europe in June 1917.
His inscription was chosen for him by his sister Rose. She makes reference to her other brother "Sid". Despite the fact that Palk is an unusual name it has not been easy to identify Sid but I think he has to be Lance Corporal S Palk, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, killed in action on 31 July 1917 and buried at New Irish Farm Cemetery, Belgium. My reasoning is that there are only two S. Palk's in the War Graves Commission's records and the other one, buried at Lijssenthoek, was called Stanley. However, the records make no mention of any family and he has no inscription.
WE ALWAYS THINK
OF YOU DEAR SAM
AND SHALL UNTIL WE DIE
SERGEANT SAMUEL GEORGE JUBILEE BEAUCHAMP
Sam Beauchamp died of gas poisoning in a Casualty Clearing Station near Poperinge on 15 October 1917. Whilst there is no specific information about when exactly he was gassed, the Germans had launched a mustard gas attack on the British trenches in the region on the night of 11/12 October 1917 so it could have been then.
I like this inscription. So many families used deeply conventional, poetic phraseology when they picked an inscription that this is refreshingly simple.
Beauchamp's father chose it, his mother having died in 1912. So who were the "we" who would always think of him? The answer is Amelia, Frederick, George, Victor, Gladys, Eric, Florence, John and Sydney, his nine brothers and sisters, the last of whom died in the 1980s.
CHARLEY, YOUR PLACE IS VACANT
IN OUR HOME
WHICH CAN NEVER BE FILLED
PRIVATE CHARLES JOHN MANN
The vacant place or vacant chair was once a common euphemism for death. The idea probably predates the American Civil War but a song from that era, recorded in 1915 by John McCormack, spread its popularity beyond the shores of America. It was originally written to mourn and honour a dead Union soldier:
At our fireside, sad and lonely, often will the bosom swell,
At remembrance of the story how our noble Willie fell;
How he strove to bear our banner though the thickest of the fight,
And uphold our country's honour in the strength of manhood's might.
And it kept that association into the First World War. The original song referred to the family gathering for Thanksgiving but is relevant to all family occasions. These are the words of the chorus:
We shall meet but we shall miss him
There will be one vacant chair.
We shall linger to caress him
While we breathe our evening prayer.
Charles Mann was killed in action in January 1917. Buried close to the front line, his body was exhumed in August 1920 and reinterred in Lesboeufs. 'Charley's' father confirmed his inscription - giving it added poignancy by addressing his son rather than the reader.
DEAR FRANCIS
LOVE TILL WE MEET AGAIN
UNCLE, AUNTIE
WILLIE, ELEANOR
SERJEANT FRANCIS WILFRED HOLT DYSON
The Eleanor on this inscription was Francis Dyson's only child and his next-of-kin, a fourteen-year-old daughter who by her father's death became an orphan. Willie was his brother, an officer in the East Yorkshire Regiment, and Uncle and Auntie were Walter and Marion Rowley of Alder Hill, Meanwood, Yorkshire, who brought the brothers up after both their parents died.
Francis, who was born in Riga then in Russia, was educated at St Edward's, Oxford. He emigrated to South Africa, where he worked as a mining engineer, married, had a child, was widowed, and served in the Boer War. However, by the time war broke out in 1914 Francis Dyson was farming in Australia. He enlisted within days of the outbreak and sailed for Egypt on 20 October. He served in Gallipoli throughout the campaign and after further service in Egypt was posted to Europe in June 1916. Having spent three years almost constantly in action, he was killed by a shell at Villers Bretonneux on 24 April 1918. A shell exploded yards from him whilst he was taking an ammunition column up to the batteries. He was hit in the chest, fell from his horse and "died one minute later".
After the war, in memory of their nephew, Walter and Marion Rowley paid for a memorial shrine to the forty-eight men of Meanwood who'd lost their lives in the war. Eleanor continued to live with the Rowleys. She married in 1927 and died at the age of 30 in 1935.
We have very little personal information about Francis Dyson but it's worth noting that his daughter's full names were Emma Winifred Eleanor, Emma having been the name of his mother who died when he was born. And, the name of his farm in Konagaderra, Victoria, was Alder Hill, the name of his uncle and aunt's house in Yorkshire. So this rolling stone, whose life took him from Riga to England, South Africa, Australia, Egypt, Gallipoli and France, remained sentimentally attached to his mother and to the home of his youth.
GOOD OLD FRANK
AU REVOIR FROM ALL AT HOME
PRIVATE FRANK STRANGER
Private Stranger was admitted to hospital on 15 March 1918 suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, legs and right forearm. He died of wounds eight days later. He was one of three brothers originally from Guernsey who were all killed within two months of each other: Frank on 23 March, George on 11 April and Harry on 11 May.
DEAR OSCAR
ALWAYS REMEMBERED
PRIVATE OSCAR GRIMES
Oscar Grimes was reported wounded, missing in action on 5 November 1916 during the Battle of Flers. A month later his mother, Martha Grimes, instituted a Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau search. Confirmation of Oscar's death didn't come until August 1917 but by this time Martha Grimes was dead having died two weeks after instituting the search. Since Oscar's father was already dead it was his brother who chose his inscription, "Dear Oscar always remembered".
THE LORD GAVE AND
THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY
OUR DEAR NORMAN
PRIVATE NORMAN DONALD MCPHEE
Private McPhee's parents quote the Old Testament, Job 1 21-2. On receiving the news of the death of all his children and the loss of all his possessions, Job falls to his knees saying:
Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Three weeks after Norman's death, his brother William James McPhee was killed, the same day that another brother was wounded, the 19 July 1916. A fourth of the McPhee brothers was wounded on 7 June 1917.