PRIVATE WILLIAM GARFIELD RANKIN
ROYAL CANADIAN REGIMENT
24TH APRIL 1916 AGE 18
BURIED: BRANDHOECK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
An enigmatic inscription that was confirmed by eighteen-year-old Private Rankin's mother. At his enlistment, William Rankin gave his religion as Baptist and I believe his inscription is a reference to a very popular Baptist hymn by Anne Ross Cousin, 'The sands of time are sinking', number 454 in the Baptist Church Hymnal (1900). The hymn anticipates the long-awaited joys of dying and meeting Christ face to face.
The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But day-spring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.
William Garfield's inscription references verse 3, which in itself references John 4:13, "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
O Christ, He is the Fountain
The deep sweet Well of love!
The streams on earth I've tasted,
More deep I'll drink above:
There to an ocean fulness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.
The regimental war diary for 24 April 1916 records: "At about 4.00 a.m. a Hostile aircraft drops 3 Bombs on Camp "E" occupied by R.C.R. One Bomb making a direct hit on one of the huts inflicting casualties to the extent of Killed 3 O.R. Wounded 31 O.R." William Garfield Rankin was one of the 3 soldiers killed. They were buried the same day.