LIEUTENANT LELAND KELLY WILLSON BARRETT
ROYAL AIR FORCE
24TH APRIL 1918 AGE 24
BURIED: ABBEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE
Leland Kelly Willson Barrett, the son of a Canadian father and an American mother, served in the Royal Air Force.
Barrett was born in Texas, attended Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. America entered the war on the side of the Allies on 4 April 1917. Three months later, Barrett enlisted in the British Royal Air Force in Canada. Why he didn't join the American forces isn't clear. He served with 82nd Squadron in France on artillery spotting and photo reconnaissance duties and was killed when his plane crashed flying into fog just after take off. He and his observer died in the subsequent explosion and fire.
It isn't immediately obvious what his inscription means: "Thine is a living way in death it hath no part". It's based on Hebrews 10:19/20:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
There is no death because Christ's death has bought man eternal life.