CORPORAL RICHARD WHITAKER LEITH PEMELL
ROYAL FUSILIERS
25TH OCTOBER 1918 AGE 36
BURIED: HEESTERT MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Richard Pemell volunteered in August 1914 and look at the date he died - 25 October 1918, just seventeen days before the end of the war, killed in the capture of Heestert. His wife chose his inscription, drawing attention to the fact that he had been a very early volunteer. The rest of the inscription originally comes from a suggestion in The Times, which on 16 February 1918 published this little notice:
For a Memorial Tablet
True love by life - true love by death - is tried:
Live thou for England - we for England died.
It's signed A.C.A. who is thought to have been Arthur Campbell Ainger (1841-1919) who taught Classics at Eton for nearly 40 years. Ainger was the author of a number of hymns including, 'God Moves in a Mysterious Way'.
The inscription is not uncommon on war memorials where it reads "we for England died" as opposed to "I" as here.