PRIVATE THOMAS PERCEVAL BLAKEMAN
SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT
24TH FEBRUARY 1915 AGE 28
BURIED: BOULOGNE EASTERN CEMETERY, FRANCE
This inscription quotes Philippians 2:8.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The concept might have been doctrinally completely unsound but this did not stop families equating the sacrifice their menfolk had made with that of Jesus Christ. Christ had died to save mankind on the cross, these men had died to save mankind on the battlefield. Sir John Arkwright's poem, O Valiant Hearts, encouraged the view:
All you had hoped for, all you had you gave,
To save mankind - yourselves you scorned to save.
... Christ our redeemer passed the self same way.