DRIVER ERIC ROBERT LANGE
AUSTRALIAN FIELD ARTILLERY
13TH JUNE 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: ESTAIRES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE
Driver Lange was "dangerously wounded" on 8 June and died five days later "of gunshot wounds". Australian born, his mother, who chose the inscription, stated that he died that Britons still might live, a huge, all-embracing cause. At that date, the word Britons referred to the people of the British Empire. It was a slightly archaic word; the term 'the British' or even 'the English' being more usual. The word does however have echoes of 'Rule Britannia' with its proud refrain - "Britons never shall be slaves".