GUNNER WILLIAM ST JOHN WILSON
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
19TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: LOCRE HOSPICE CEMETERY, BELGIUM
William Wilson's inscription comes from the last verse of John Masefield's Sea Fever:
I must go down to the sea again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
It's an appropriate epitaph for a man who began life in the Merchant Navy. He transferred to the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war, served on HMS Tiger, and then transferred to the Royal Field Artillery in October 1916.
He died on 19 September 1917 of wounds received the previous day. His brother Humphrey was killed in action on 19 February 1918.