CAPTAIN ADIE WALE
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
30TH MAY 1918 AGE 24
BURIED: BAGNEUX BRITISH CEMETERY, GEZAINCOURT, SOMME, FRANCE
My interest in Adie Wale was aroused by his exquisite stained glass memorial window by Richard J. Stubington in St Mary's Church, Lapworth, Warwickshire, which features in Peter Cormack's equally exquisite book Arts & Crafts Stained Glass. If he had such a beautiful and original memorial did he have an equally original inscription? It certainly comes from an unusual source even if the sentiment isn't unusual.
It comes from Killed in Action, by the writer and Liberal politician R.C.Lehmann, 1856-1929. Lehmann was a major contributor to Punch and this is where the poem originally appeared. It was then included in 'The Vagabond and Other Poems from Punch', published in 1918. 'Rupert', the subject of the poem, was a mature, married man killed leading his men over the top in an attack, Adie Wale was a single man aged 24 who was killed when a German plane bombed No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Doullens on the night of 29-30th May 1918. But despite these discrepancies, there are similarities that Adie Wale shares with 'Rupert':
"When the great summons came he rushed to arms,
Counting no cost and all intent to serve
His country and to prove himself a man."
Wale was an undergraduate at Oxford when the war broke out - a panel in the window shows him, encouraged by an angel, discarding his gown in order to join up. Wale abandoned his studies and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 13 October 1914. The window shows a gun crew in action and in another panel the wounded Wale being blessed by Christ.
Adie Wale, educated at Uppingham School, was the only son of William Henry Wale a Birmingham mattress manufacturer, who chose his inscription.
