"I MUST GO!
I AM ASHAMED TO BE SEEN
WITHOUT A SOLDIER'S UNIFORM"

PRIVATE ALFRED KINGSNORTH MALLYON

AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY

3RD MAY 1918 AGE 22

BURIED: ADELAIDE CEMETERY VILLERS BRETONNEUX, FRANCE


This is a difficult inscription. It was chosen by Private Mallyon's father and as the words are in quotation marks they presumably belong to Private Mallyon himself. I used to think that he must have been admitting to having been constrained by public opinion into enlisting. However, I now don't think this can be the case. If it was, why did his father say on the form for the Roll of Honour of Australia that his son had been deeply impressed by the tombs of "England's noble sons" in St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Alfred had gone on to tell his father that, when you remember what they stood for, coupled with the high traditions of our country "one needs no further inspiration to fight for them, and if need be lay down one's life for them". Maybe the two sentiments - headstone inscription and Roll of Honour quote - are not incompatible, but if so the former is easily misunderstood without the latter.