LIEUTENANT EDWARD WYNDHAM TENNANT
GRENADIER GUARDS
22ND SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 19
BURIED: GUILLEMONT ROAD CEMETERY, GUILLEMONT, FRANCE
A simple inscription, which speaks volumes about the soldier's parents. Edward Wyndham Tennant celebrated his nineteenth birthday on 1 July 1916, barely two months before he was killed. He had been at the front since August 1915, in other words, since he was just eighteen. Army policy decreed that no soldier should be allowed to serve overseas until he was nineteen, unless he had his parents' permission. Lady Glenconner, in her memoir of her son, says that, "On account of his efficiency as an officer he had the honour of being especially selected to go out to France, although Brigade Orders had just been issued that no one should leave England before nineteen years of age". Edward's parents would have had to have their permission too, just as John Kipling and Yvo Charteris's parents had done, with similar tragic consequences.
Edward Tennant left Winchester in the summer of 1914, a year early, with the intention of spending some time in Germany studying the language prior to a career in the Diplomatic Service. This meant he was free to join up the moment war broke out, when he was only just seventeen. Many of the first volunteers were similarly youthful and many of their parents felt angry with the Government because it had delayed introducing conscription until January 1916. This delay meant that it was their young sons who were bearing the brunt of the fighting rather than older men. From the inscription they chose, it looks as though the Glenconners felt this way too.
As socially prominent people, Lord and Lady Glenconner received many, many letters of condolence. All of them contained quotable extracts, any of which could have formed a headstone inscription, but they wanted to make their point. However, they did quote from a letter on their son's memorials in Salisbury Cathedral and in the churches near their family homes in Wilsford and Traquair. The letter came from a private soldier in his platoon - "When danger was greatest his smile was loveliest". The full extract reads:
"When things were at their worst he would pass up and down the trench cheering the men, and it was a treat to see his face always smiling. When danger was greatest his smile was loveliest. All was ready to go anywhere with him, although he was so young".
Edward's final letter to his mother was published by Laurence Weaver in his collection, 'War Letters of Fallen Englishmen'. Brief extracts illustrate his mind:
"tomorrow we go over the top ... I am full of hope and trust, and pray that I may be worthy of my fighting ancestors ... I feel rather like saying 'If it be possible let this cup pass from me,' but the triumphant finish 'nevertheless not what I will but what Thou willest,' steels my heart and sends me into this battle with a heart of triple bronze ... Brutus' farewell to Cassius sounds in my heart: 'If not farewell; and if we meet again, we shall smile',"
Edward was killed by a sniper two days later.