LIEUTENANT CHARLES ARNOLD GRANT
PRINCESS PATRICIA'S CANADIAN LIGHT INFANTRY
2ND SEPTEMBER 1918 AGE 38
BURIED: LIGNY-ST FLOCHEL BRITISH CEMETERY, AVERDOINGT, FRANCE
When you go home, tell them of us and say
"For your to-morrows these gave their to-day"
The most famous use of this inscription is on the Kohima Memorial which marks the point at which the Japanese advance into India was halted in April 1944. The words were composed by a Cambridge Classic's don, J Maxwell Edmonds, and included in a 1919 HMSO publication titled, 'Suggested Inscriptions for War Memorials'. However, the words on the Kohima Memorial are slightly different, which is how they are usually found:
When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.
A Miss M Grant chose Charles Grant's inscription. His parents were both dead and it's not possible to tell whether this was an aunt or a sister.
Grant was a barrister, a partner in the firm of Parker, Grant, Freeman and Abbott, when he enlisted in December 1915. Badly wounded on the Somme in September 1916, he didn't return to the front until early in 1917. He was wounded again in June 1917, but less seriously less time. He was wounded again on 28 August 1918 in the Canadian action at Jigsaw Wood. (The diary entry for the action has been transcribed and can be read here).
It wasn't until 4 September that Mrs James Grant received a telegram informing her that her step-son had been wounded. This was quickly followed a few hours later by one saying that he was dangerously ill and within hours another one to say that he had died on 2 September.