PRIVATE ALEXANDER MCGECHIE
ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS
4TH AUGUST 1915 AGE 27
BURIED: FOSSE 7 MILITARY CEMETERY (QUALITY STREET), MAZINGARBE, FRANCE
Alexander McGechie's inscription was chosen by his wife and comes from an old Irish ballad, Lament of the Irish Emigrant written by Helen Selina Blackwood, Lady Dufferin (1807-1867), at the time of the Great Irish Famine. The singer, on the verge of emigration, addresses his dead wife who he will leave behind in the churchyard where they were married:
I'm bidding you a long farewell,
My Mary - kind and true!
But I'll not forget you, darling!
In the land I'm going to;
They say there's bread and work for all,
And the sun shines always there.
But I'll not forget old Ireland,
Were it fifty times as fair.
In other verses the husband expresses what his wife's loss means to him, and there's no reason to doubt that Mrs McGechie felt the same about the loss of her husband:
But I miss the soft clasp of your hand,
And your breath warm on my cheek,
And I still keep list’ning for the words
You never more will speak.
And you were all I had, Mary,
My blessin’ and my pride:
There’s nothin’ left to care for now,
Since my poor Mary died.