PRIVATE P.F. HISLOP
MACHINE GUN CORPS
23RD AUGUST 1918 AGE 35
BURIED: RAILWAY CUTTING CEMETERY,, COURCELLES-LE-COMTE, FRANCE
The quotation marks are definitely there but what are the words a quotation from? Perhaps this is just what everyone said about Private Hislop, whose Christian names I haven't been able to discover. However, there's just a chance that they are a quote from a popular song.
It took years for the War Graves Commission to complete these cemeteries and one of the wonderful thing about their records is that all amendments and alterations show on the original document - unlike today when an amendment to a Word document overwrites what was there before. There are numerous dated amendments to the Railway Cutting Cemetery report forms, the latest being 6 May 1925. This would mean that there was plenty of time for Hislop's next-of-kin, Mr D. Hislop - who was not his father - to quote from a song written in 1920. The song is called 'Everybody's buddy'. It may not be exactly 'everybuddy's buddy' but it's close, and the lyrics are very appropriate. This is an extract:
Buddy, he was everybody's Buddy from the time he was a kid.
He'd get the coal, chop the wood, he'd even run the errands for the neighbourhood.
Buddy, he would help the kids to study, he was everybody's friend.
One day the angels in the heavens above
Found out they needed someone up there to love -
They called for Buddy, our Buddy - I wish they'd send him home again.