LANCE CORPORAL S.J. CLEGG
LONDON REGIMENT ROYAL FUSILIERS
21ST AUGUST 1918 AGE
BURIED: GOMMECOURT BRITISH CEMETERY NO. 2, HEBUTERNE, FRANCE
The Great Sacrifice by James Clark, painted in 1914, shows a dead British soldier lying out on the battlefield at the foot of a ghostly image of Christ on the cross. The message is obvious - the soldier's sacrifice and Christ's are as one. The painting was sold to raise money for a war relief charity and Queen Mary bought it for her husband's aunt, Princess Beatrice, whose son, Prince Maurice, had been killed on 27 October. The painting hangs as a memorial to him in St Mildred's Church Whippingham on the Isle of Wight.
Numerous prints were made from the painting, and several of them can still be found in churches where they were hung in memory of the dead. The painting was also the inspiration for many memorial stained glass windows.
Mrs ME Franklin, Lance Corporal Clegg's mother, chose the inscription. I have not been able to discover either his Christian names or his age.
Paul Breen has written an article about the painting on the Imperial War Museum War Memorials Archive Blog.
