MAJOR WILLIAM JAMES ROWAN-ROBINSON
KING'S SHROPSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
12TH MAY 1915 AGE 44
BURIED: SANCTUARY WOOD CEMETERY, YPRES, BELGIUM
I thought it was strange that two adjacent graves should quote from the same hymn - it's not the same inscription but the source is the same, Sir John Arkwright's O Valiant Hearts. Then I noticed that both men had been killed on the same day, 12 May 1915, both were 44-year-old majors and both had been serving with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. On investigating the War Grave Commission's records further, I discovered that both men had originally been buried under a single grave marker at map reference 28.1.11.b.5.3, both as unknown British majors. There was also another officer buried at the map reference, an unknown British lieutenant.
When the graves were exhumed on 13 March 1926 the bodies were identified by their badges of rank and their clothing as Major WJ Rowan-Robinson, Major CA Wilkinson and Lieutenant H de L Hulton-Harrop.
The website at King's School, Canterbury explains what happened: the King's Shropshire Light Infantry were in the Ypres Salient holding the trenches from Bellewaarde Farm to the railway line when on the 11th and 12th of May they came under very heavy bombardment, forcing the evacuation of Battalion HQ. When the shelling slackened Rowan-Robinson and Wilkinson went back to collect vital equipment and documents. Whilst they were inside the dugout it received a direct hit. Both men were killed together with four soldiers from the regiment and four men from other units.
What the King's School site doesn't tell you however is that one of the men from the other units was Lieutenant Hulton-Harrop, Major Rowan-Robinson's brother-in-law. Mrs Alyne Rowan-Robinson therefore lost her husband and her brother on the same day.
All three men have adjacent graves but it's Major Rowan-Robinson and Major Wilkinson who have inscriptons from the same hymn. The former's reads, 'O valiant hearts', and the latter's, 'Christ our redeemer passed the self same way'. Who knows if the relations conferred. Rowan-Robinson's was confirmed by Mr LC Rowan-Robinson, who was not his father, Wilkinson's by his widow.
O valiant hearts who to your glory came
Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;
Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.
Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war
As who had heard God's message from afar;
All you had hoped for, all you had you gave,
To save mankind - yourself you scorned to save.
Splendid you passed, the great surrender made;
Into the light that nevermore shall fade;
Deep your contentment in that blest abode,
Who wait the last clear trumpet call of God.
Long years ago, as earth lay dark and still,
Rose a loud cry upon a lonely hill,
While in the frailty of our human clay,
Christ, our redeemer, passed the self same way.
Still stands His cross from that dread hour to this,
Like some bright star above the dark abyss;
Still, through the veil, the Victor's pitying eyes
Look down to bless our lesser calvaries.
These were His servants, in His steps they trod,
Following through death the martyred Son of God:
Victor, He rose; victorious too shall rise
They who have drunk His cup of sacrifice.
O risen Lord, O Shepherd of our dead,
Whose cross has bought them and whose staff has led,
In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land
Commits her children to Thy Gracious hand.