South African

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"TELL THEM
ENGLAND HATH TAKEN ME"
KIPLING

SECOND LIEUTENANT VINCENT TALLEMACH ANDERSON

Both Vincent Anderson's parents were born in England but he himself was born and brought up in South Africa. However, as his inscription hauntingly conveys - England took him.
Anderson's inscription comes from, Sir Richard's Song in Kipling's 'Puck of Pook's Hill'. Sir Richard is Sir Richard Dalyngridge, a Norman knight who comes to England with William the Conqueror. He comes as a conqueror but is conquered himself by his love for a Saxon lady - and for the country - and he sends back messages, each message a verse, to his father, mother, brother and sister, which each end telling them, 'England hath taken me'.

Anderson enlisted in the Inns of Court OTC in December 1915. He was 18. On 24 October 1916 he was commissioned into the Machine Gun Corps and joined the 1st Machine Gun Company in France on 31 July 1917. In February 1918 this became part of the 1st Machine Gun Battalion. Anderson died of wounds in a Casualty Clearing Station in Lapugnoy on 13 April. As the battalion were involved in the Battle of Estaires, 9-12 April, it is possible that this is when he was wounded.

I had my horse, my shield and banner,
And a boy's heart, so whole and free;
But now I sing in another manner -
But now England hath taken me!

SON OF JOHN M CLARK
BUTCHER
DUNDEE, SCOTLAND

SERGEANT ANDREW MURDOCH CLARK

Andrew Murdoch Clark was one of his parents ten sons. Sometime before the 1911 census he emigrated to South Africa and from there he joined the 4th Regiment South African Infantry known as the South African Scottish. The regiment was formed from the Transvaal Scottish and the Cape Town Highlanders and wore the Atholl tartan.
Clark was wounded in the South Africans first engagement at Delville Wood in July 1916 and then killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras, 9 April 1917.
It’s an interesting inscription firmly linking John Clark’s South African son back with his family and home in Scotland.

M.A. BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD
VICAR OF RANDFONTEIN
TRANSVAAL

PRIVATE THOMAS GRAY HOPKYNS

The Reverend Thomas Gray Hopkyns was the Vicar of Randfontein, a gold-mining community in the Transvaal. In 1917 he enlisted in the South African Infantry and served as a stretcher bearer with the South African Medical Corps. He was killed in action whilst on stretcher-bearing duties.
His father was the vicar of Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire. There is a stained glass window in the church commemorating both father and son, which shows soldiers receiving communion at the front. This would indicate that Thomas Hopkyns acted as a priest as well as a stretcher bearer. His headstone inscription shows the importance his parents placed on the fact that their son should be known as more than simply a private in the South African Infantry.

LALA-GAHLE, UMTA-GWETU
PRO ARIS ET FOCIS

SECOND LIEUTENANT AYLMER TEMPLAR WALES

The word typed onto the form is definitely 'gahle' but I wonder if it was a mistake and the word should have been 'kahle'. I believe that the first line of this inscription is written in Zulu in which language lala-kahle means something like Goodnight or perhaps even rest in peace. However, I've no idea what 'umta-gwetu' means, if indeed this is what it's meant to say.
The second line of the inscription is the Latin motto of Maritzburg College, Aylmer Wales's school in Pietermartzburg, Natal. It comes from Cicero's De Natura Deorum 111.94 and translates as, for our altars and fires. This of course means much more than just altars and fires, it is what the Romans held most sacred, most worth defending, the equivalent of hearth and home, King and country.
Second Lieutenant Wales was 'commissioned in the field' just before his death. This meant that he was identified as officer material and promoted without returning to Britain for officer training. His father, Lieutenant Colonel ATG Wales, makes a point of mentioning this in the War Cemtery Register. Aylmer Wales was killed in Deville Wood where the South African Brigade suffered huge casualties during the Battle of the Somme.
Thanks to Stuart Sinclair I now know that the Zulu translates as 'Goodnight, sleep well'. The difference between ghale and kahle being explained by the transliteration of the Zulu words into Roman characters. Thank you!

UW WIL GESCHIEDE!
MATT. 26:42

PRIVATE ALTON DANIEL BENEKE

The inscription is Africaans for 'Thy will be done'. However, because Private Beneke's parents have specified the biblical reference we know that it's not the 'Thy wlll be done' of the Lord's Prayer but of Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemene. Christ, knowing that his betrayal, arrest and crucifiction are imminent, prays, "O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done". "Unless I drink it" ... for both soldier and next-of-kin there was no other option.