SERJEANT HENRY HARGREAVES
ROYAL FUSILIERS
8TH JUNE 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Serjeant Hargreaves died of wounds in a Casualty Clearing Station at Lijssenthoek. His inscription is both the title and the last line of each of the three verses of a poem by the hugely popular American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919). This is the final verse of the poem:
I know there are no errors
In the great Eternal plan,
And all things work together
For the final good of man.
And I know when my soul speeds onward
In its grand Eternal quest,
I shall say as I look back earthward
Whatever is - is best.
Wilcox's philosophy echoes that of Alexander Pope (1688-1744) whose 'An Essay on Man' states:
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see
All discord, harmony not understood,
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.