IF I TAKE THE WINGS
OF THE MORNING
THERE SHALL THY HAND LEAD ME

LIEUTENANT EDWARD HORACE PEMBER

ROYAL FLYING CORPS

30TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 19

BURIED: AUBIGNY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE


This lovely inscription comes from the Book of Common Prayer version of Psalm 139 verses 8 & 9:

"If I take the wings of the morning: and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me."

It was chosen for nineteen-year-old Lieutenant Pember by his father, Francis Pember, Warden of All Souls College, Oxford.
Pember, who went to Harrow with a Classical scholarship, won a Mathematics exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford in December 1914 when he was still only 16. He never took up his place at Oxford but rather took a commission in the Royal Field Artillery in July 1915, when he was 17. He served in Gallipoli and Egypt and then joined the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916, aged 18. In May 1917 he joined 5 Squadron in France. Five months later he was killed when:

"On the morning of September 30th he was flying over enemy lines taking photographs when he was attacked by four enemy scout machines, who came down on him suddenly from a great height. His machine was brought down, and both he and his observer were killed."
Flight magazine 11 October 1917

"If I take the wings of the morning ..."