LIEUTENANT THE HON. ALBERT EDWARD KEPPEL
RIFLE BRIGADE
31ST JULY 1917 AGE 19
BURIED: AEROPLANE CEMETERY, WEST-VLAANDEREN, BELGIUM
Lieutenant Keppel was killed on the opening day of what became known as the Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele. A friend, writing anonymously in The Times on 23 August, said that, "many a tear will be shed in his memory; many a pulse will quicken when it is known how and where this gay and debonaire spirit vanished from our midst". A wonderfully attractive character, both physically and by temperament, the writer describes how:
"During his short life, from his earliest childhood, his high spirits and joie de vivre, gave an impression of sunshine and joy wherever he went, and this is shown in the dark hour of his death by the spontaneous testimony of many of his companions, both boys and girls, not to mention older people, officers of standing in the Army, and the pastors and masters under whose guidance he so lightly trod the paths of this world here below".
On the morning of 31 July, Keppel was well out in front of his men with a sergeant "running forward with a Lewis gun which he was about to use on some Germans who were running away".
Keppel was so far out in front that the British never consolidated that part of the line and his body was initially unburied although it was discovered and buried later. Another friend told how he had taken communion with Keppel on the Sunday before the attack. Keppel had told the friend that he was "so looking forward to a real fight", which forced the friend to conclude, "I do not think he knew what fear was".
The final word of the inscription, "Resurgam" means I will rise again and implies a Christian belief in the resurrection of the body after death.