SERJEANT DANIEL SMITH
NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS
15TH FEBRUARY 1915 AGE 29
BURIED: YPRES TOWN CEMETERY EXTENSION, BELGIUM
Not only did the relatives of the dead receive a memorial plaque and a letter from the King but also a memorial scroll. The wording on the scroll had been very difficult to compose: Rudyard Kipling, Montague Rhodes James and King George V all made their suggestions. Charles Keary finally modified the last lines, changing them from, "The remembrance of them shall long be honoured in the land which they loved and died to save," to, "Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten". Judging by their popularity as an inscription, the words obviously struck the right cord. The whole scroll reads:
He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom
Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten.
There is an excellent article on the plaque, letter and scroll at www.greatwar.co.uk