SECOND LIEUTENANT WILLIAM REGINALD HARTLEY
LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS
20TH DECEMBER 1915 AGE 33
BURIED: TWELVE TREE COPSE CEMETERY, GALLIPOLI, TURKEY
Before the sun rose on 20 December 1915, the last men slipped away from shores of Suvla and Anzac. But the killing went on at Helles, in fact it was stepped up in order to encourage the Turks to look in that direction rather than further north. On 19 December the British fired a series of mines and ordered the infantry, including the Lancashire Fusiliers, to occupy them. This is probably when Second Lieutenant Hartley was mortally wounded. He died the next day.
His widowed mother chose his inscription, which seems to accept her son's death if it meant that England would survive. It's not actually a quote but it's close enough to assume that it's based on Kipling's 1914 poem, For All We Have and Are, which ends:
No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
Bur iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all -
One life for each to give.
What stands if freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?