LANCE CORPORAL FRANK MAYO DALE
DUKE OF CORNWALL'S LIGHT INFANTRY
30TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 31
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
'Deeds not words' is the maxim George Washington attempted to live by, based on the words of St Matthew 7:20, 'By their fruits ye shall know them'. 'Deeds not words' was also the motto of the Women's Social and Political Union, the Suffragettes. Fed up with the slow progress of the negotiations to get them the vote, they decided that direct action would be more effective.
'Let us do or die', quotes the final verse of Robert Burns' poem, 'Scots Wha Hae' (1793) in which Robert Bruce addresses his soldiers on the eve of the Battle of Bannockburn:
Lay the proud Usurpers low
Tyrants fall in every foe
Liberty's in every blow
Let us Do or Die.
'Let us do or die' also comes from a poem by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), 'Gertrude of Wyoming'. Here the speaker is less confident of victory but still prepared to risk death.
Obed Oldfield Dale, Frank's father, chose his son's inscription. I do not imagine for a moment that he had the Suffragettes in mind when he chose it but rather that was by his son's deeds, being prepared to die for his country, that we should judge him.
Dale served in the 6th Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and died of wounds in a base hospital at Etaples. The battalion had taken part in a costly attack at Gelncorse Wood and Inverness Copse on 22 - 24 August losing seven officers and 55 Other Ranks killed, eight officers and 252 Other Ranks wounded, with 28 Other Ranks missing.
Before the war, Frank Dale had been an assistant in his father's pawnbroking business.