CAPTAIN CHARLES HUNTER BROWNING
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
26TH AUGUST 1914 AGE 36
BURIED: LE CATEAU MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Captain Browning, a professional soldier, was educated at Eton where he had been not only a King's Scholar and Captain of School but also a fine cricketer whom Wisden described as "a stubborn batsman and an excellent wicketkeeper with a quiet style".
His inscription displays the same quiet style and sounds as though it comes from something that Browning wrote or said himself - a letter, a diary entry or perhaps, and most likely, his instructions to his men on 26 August as the British II Corps were ordered to take a stand at Le Cateau in order to delay the oncoming German 1st Army.
The British were heavily outnumbered and exhausted after their defeat at Mons on the 23rd, since when they had been retreating with scarcely any rest. Browning, was a professional soldier. He joined the army in 1898 and served throughout the South African War. His words sound as though they come from someone who knows the odds: "We will go forward at whatever cost, quietly, untiringly, unalarmed".
Browning was killed when his battery came under direct fire from German artillery. Although British casualties were very heavy, and they were forced to withdraw by mid-afternoon, the delay at Le Cateau is considered to have made a significant difference to the ultimate outcome of the war.