"BUT O THE HEAVY CHANGE
NOW THOU ART GONE
... AND NEVER MUST RETURN"
MILTON

SECOND LIEUTENANT VALENTINE LANG STUART SEARLE

22ND JUNE 1916 AGE 18

BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM


The quotation comes from John Milton's Lycidas, his lament for a young friend who drowned in 1637 when crossing the Irish Sea.

"For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:" [8/9]

"But O the heavy change, now thou art gone,
Now thou art gone, and never must return:" [37/8]

Eighteen-year-old Valentine Searle died of wounds at a Casualty Clearing Station in Belgium and was buried in the big hospital cemetery at Lijssenthoek. His mother confirmed his epitaph.