AIR MECHANIC 1ST CLASS WILLIAM ALFRED SAMWAYS
29TH NOVEMBER 1917 AGE 20
BURIED: CAMBRAI EAST MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Twenty-year-old William Alfred Samways' active service career was very brief. He served with No. 49 Squadron RFC, which was formed in April 1916. In November 1917 No. 49 went to France as a day bombing squadron. The squadron made its first raid on 26 November and met no opposition but three days later, on another bombing raid, it ran into von Richthofen's Flying Circus. Despite a fierce battle only one British plane was shot down, DH4 A7704. Both the pilot and the observer were killed: Lieutenant Charles Campbell and Air Mechanic First Class William Samways.
Samways' inscription quotes a line from a poem by Maurice Baring (1874-1945), which he wrote for his friend Julian Grenfell. The poem was first published in The Times on 5 June 1915, nine days after Grenfell's death.
To Julian Grenfell
Because of you we will be glad and gay,
Remembering you we will be brave and strong;
And hail the advent of each dangerous day,
And meet the great adventure with a song.
And, as you proudly gave your jewelled gift,
We'll give our lesser offering with a smile,
Nor falter on the path where, all too swift,
You led the way and leapt the golden style.
Whether you seek new seas or heights unclimbed,
Or gallop in unfooted asphodel,
We know you know we shall not lag behind,
Not halt to waste a moment on a tear;
And you will speed us onward with a cheer,
And wave beyond the stars that all is well.