PRIVATE JAMES WHEELDON
DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S WEST RIDING REGIMENT
4TH JANUARY 1918 AGE 19
BURIED: YPRES RESERVOIR CEMETERY, BELGIUM
James Wheeldon's inscription, chosen by his mother since his father was dead, is loosely based on Canto XXXI from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking;
Dream of battled fields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.
In our isle's enchanted hall,
Hands unseen thy couch are strewing,
Fairy strains of music fall,
Every sense in slumber dewing.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Dream of fighting fields no more;
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil nor night of waking.
James Wheeldon was born in Burton in Staffordshire in 1899 where his father, Thomas, was a brewers' labourer and his mother a dressmaker on her own account. By the outbreak of war he was living in Coventry and his mother was now Mrs Passam.