SECOND LIEUTENANT WILLIAM ALEXANDER STANHOPE FORBES
DUKE OF CORNWALL'S LIGHT INFANTRY
3RD SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 23
BURIED: GUILLEMONT ROAD CEMETERY, GUILLEMONT, FRANCE
This beautiful inscription with its Shakespearian resonances was composed by Stanhope Forbes RA for his son. Although inscriptions were meant to be restricted to 66 characters this one has 91, and the small pencilled figures on the bottom of the War Graves' form calculate the total cost as £1 6s 6d.
William Alexander Stanhope Forbes, known as Alec, was the only son of Stanhope and his first wife Elizabeth, who were both artists and together founded the Newlyn School of Art. Alec was educated at Bedales and then went on to the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He was 21 when the war broke out but was initially declared unfit for military service. As a result, he joined the Railway Operating Division as a Railway Transport Officer, eventually securing a transfer to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He joined his regiment in France on 16 August 1916 and was killed eighteen days later leading his platoon in an attack on Guillemont.
After his death his father painted a portrait of his son of which there are two copies: one is still in the family and one is in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Museum at Bodmin Castle.
The portrait forms the basis of Alec's memorial plaque in St Creden Church, Sancreed, Cornwall. The plaque was designed by his father and features a tower and bridge behind the portrait, which were taken from two of Alec's own prize-winning drawings.