O Valiant Hearts

THE SUPREME SACRIFICE

CORPORAL ROBERT JAMES ANDREW

Corporal Robert James Andrew was killed in action at the retaking of the summit of Mont St Quentin on 1 September 1918. The next day the Australian Infantry took Peronne. These were among the finest actions of the Australian forces during the whole war and their casualties were very high.
Corporal Andrew's wife instigated an Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau search for her husband. The results show how difficult it was to ever ascertain exactly what had happened to a soldier. Added to this was the fact that a Private GV Andrews, who also served with the 24th Infantry, in the same Company, was killed during the same battle on the same day. However, it seems as though witnesses were all speaking about the same man: "Andrew was from Victoria, tall, very thin, fair hair, about 26 years" [Sgt JH Bond 14.11.18.] but there is not much agreement about he died.
"I didn't see Andrew, who was a M/Gunner in my D.XV. killed instantly by a m.g.bullet through the head at Mont St Quentin about 4 pm."
"Andrews was in the trench waiting to go over when he was hit by a piece of shell and killed right out. I saw this."
"He was killed with four others by a shell in the dugout ... It happened about 4.10 pm before our hop over, and Fritz was busy strafing us at the time."
"I saw Morris D.Coy. S/B and Andrew D.XVI both killed instantly by the same shell alongside of me at Mont St Quentin about 6 pm in front line of trenches before the hop over."
"Casualty was advancing at Mont St Quentin when a machine gun bullet entered his side killing him instantly."

Corporal Andrew's wife, Rhoda, used the title of Sir John Arkwright's famous poem, 'The Supreme Sacrifice' for her husband's headstone inscription. The poem is much better known as the hymn 'O Valiant Hearts', which for many years was sung at Remembrance Services until its sentiments went out of fashion.

O VALIANT HEARTS

MAJOR WILLIAM JAMES ROWAN-ROBINSON

I thought it was strange that two adjacent graves should quote from the same hymn - it's not the same inscription but the source is the same, Sir John Arkwright's O Valiant Hearts. Then I noticed that both men had been killed on the same day, 12 May 1915, both were 44-year-old majors and both had been serving with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. On investigating the War Grave Commission's records further, I discovered that both men had originally been buried under a single grave marker at map reference 28.1.11.b.5.3, both as unknown British majors. There was also another officer buried at the map reference, an unknown British lieutenant.
When the graves were exhumed on 13 March 1926 the bodies were identified by their badges of rank and their clothing as Major WJ Rowan-Robinson, Major CA Wilkinson and Lieutenant H de L Hulton-Harrop.
The website at King's School, Canterbury explains what happened: the King's Shropshire Light Infantry were in the Ypres Salient holding the trenches from Bellewaarde Farm to the railway line when on the 11th and 12th of May they came under very heavy bombardment, forcing the evacuation of Battalion HQ. When the shelling slackened Rowan-Robinson and Wilkinson went back to collect vital equipment and documents. Whilst they were inside the dugout it received a direct hit. Both men were killed together with four soldiers from the regiment and four men from other units.
What the King's School site doesn't tell you however is that one of the men from the other units was Lieutenant Hulton-Harrop, Major Rowan-Robinson's brother-in-law. Mrs Alyne Rowan-Robinson therefore lost her husband and her brother on the same day.
All three men have adjacent graves but it's Major Rowan-Robinson and Major Wilkinson who have inscriptons from the same hymn. The former's reads, 'O valiant hearts', and the latter's, 'Christ our redeemer passed the self same way'. Who knows if the relations conferred. Rowan-Robinson's was confirmed by Mr LC Rowan-Robinson, who was not his father, Wilkinson's by his widow.

O valiant hearts who to your glory came
Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;
Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.

Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war
As who had heard God's message from afar;
All you had hoped for, all you had you gave,
To save mankind - yourself you scorned to save.

Splendid you passed, the great surrender made;
Into the light that nevermore shall fade;
Deep your contentment in that blest abode,
Who wait the last clear trumpet call of God.

Long years ago, as earth lay dark and still,
Rose a loud cry upon a lonely hill,
While in the frailty of our human clay,
Christ, our redeemer, passed the self same way.

Still stands His cross from that dread hour to this,
Like some bright star above the dark abyss;
Still, through the veil, the Victor's pitying eyes
Look down to bless our lesser calvaries.

These were His servants, in His steps they trod,
Following through death the martyred Son of God:
Victor, He rose; victorious too shall rise
They who have drunk His cup of sacrifice.

O risen Lord, O Shepherd of our dead,
Whose cross has bought them and whose staff has led,
In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land
Commits her children to Thy Gracious hand.

ALL THAT HE HAD HE GAVE
TO SAVE MANKIND
HIMSELF HE SCORNED TO SAVE

CAPTAIN JOHN FRANCIS

Captain John Francis's inscription comes from the second verse of Sir John Arkwright's 1919 poem O Valiant Hearts which, set to music, became a very popular remembrance hymn until it fell out of fashion.

Proudly you gathered rank on rank for war,
As who had heard God's message from far;
All you had hoped for, all you had you gave
To save mankind, yourselves you scorned to save.

John Francis, educated at Uppingham and Gottingen in Germany, was a director in the family jewellery firm of Deakin and Francis in Birmingham. He joined a territorial battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1907 and volunteered for foreign service on the outbreak of the war. He crossed to France on 5 March and was killed by a sniper just over three months later.
Originally buried in Rosenberg Chateau Military Cemetery, Captain Francis and the rest of the 475 soldiers buried there were exhumed in 1930 when the owner of the chateau decided, despite pleas from the highest level for the bodies not to be disturbed, that he wanted to rebuild his house and that the military cemetery "would detract from the amenities of his home". It was something of a cause celebre, and very distressing for the relatives, but The Times reported that "each body, as it was reverently taken from the earth, was placed in a coffin draped with a Union Jack and removed by motor ambulance to Berks Cemetery Extension".

SPLENDID YOU PASSED
THE GREAT SURRENDER MADE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL ARTHUR JEX BLAKE PERCIVAL

At mid-day on the 31 October 1914 the Germans broke throught the lines at Gheluvelt and, had they taken advantage of the situation, could have broken the British Army in Flanders. The situation was made even worse when a German shell hit Hooge Chateau killing six senior staff officers and seriously wounding several others just as they were meeting to confront the emergency. Lt Colonel Percival was one of the staff officers killed. The situation was saved by the Worcestershire Regiment who, in an incredible action, drove the Germans back and managed to close the gap.
Arthur Percival's inscription is taken from the first line of the third verse of Sir John Arkwright's poem 'The Supreme Sacrifice'.
Splendid you passed, the great surrender made,
Into the light that never more shall fade;
Deep your contentment in that blest abode,
Who wait the last clear trumpet call of God.