RIFLEMAN JAMES ALEXANDER WALTER ORBELL
KING'S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS
17TH NOVEMBER 1916 AGE 18
BURIED: BOULOGNE EASTERN CEMETERY, FRANCE
Eighteen-year-old James Orbell was the son of a tobacconist in Lee High Road, Lewisham, London SE. Mrs J Neil of Coodham, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire chose his multi-layered inscription. I do not know who she was. Duty, honour and Christ are given as the motivators of this boy who was 'young, beautiful and brave'.
There are several literary sources for this phrase: Alexander Pope in his translation of Homer's Iliad describes Euphorbus as "thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus", and then several lines later as "brave Euphorbus". A Gothic tale, 'The Fortunes of de la Pole', which appeared in 'Tales of the Wild and Wonderful' published in 1825 and sometimes attributed to George Henry Borrow describes the murdered de la Pole, a popular and much-loved young man, as 'young, beautiful and brave' and there are other examples of poets using the phrase, but when it comes down to it the most likely source of this inscription is a verse referring to dead soldiers that sometimes appeared in newspaper 'In Memoriam' columns:
He died in the midst of his duty, young, beautiful and brave,
Like Christ he thought first of others, but himself he could not save.