POST TENEBRAS LUX

PRIVATE HARRY LEONARD

THE KING'S LIVERPOOL REGIMENT

23RD SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 23

BURIED: GUARDS' CEMETERY LESBOEUFS, FRANCE


The Latin phrase translates as, after darkness light. It's a comforting phrase in itself, referencing the old proverb that the darkest hour is just before dawn. More particularly however, Post tenebras lux was the watchword of the sixteenth-century Reformation. It referred to the light Luther and Calvin brought to the world with their religious reforms. Private Leonard, who was born in Edinburgh, is described by his mother as a native of Auchterarder, a small town in the Scottish Highlands. Does his inscripton say something about either his or his mother's religious allegience since the Church of Scotland, the Kirk, draws its principles from Calvin's reforms?