LIEUTENANT GEOFFREY WINDEATT DAMAN
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
24TH MAY 1915 AGE 21
BURIED: CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ, FRANCE
Geoffrey Daman was the author of a small collection of poems privately printed in 1915 under the title, 'A Few Verses'. From the initials G.W.D. at the bottom of this inscription I am assuming that the words come from one of his own poems. It has to remain an assumption as the book is incredibly rare and I have so far not found a copy of it other than in the library of Magdalen College, Oxford. It would be good to see this as it might help explain what exactly Damon meant. Perhaps he was saying, what many other young men said in one way or another, that he felt calm knowing that by participating in the war he was doing the right thing.
Geoffrey was the eldest of his parents' three children. In the 1901 census he was 7, his sister Katherine was 4 and his brother John was 1. By the 1911 census John must have been dead because the census asks ask how many children have been born alive, how many are still living and how many have died. The answers are 3,2 and 1 and we can tell that both Geoffrey and Katherine are definitely still alive.
Educated at Repton and Magdalen College, Oxford - which explains why they have a copy of his book of poems - Damon joined up on the outbreak of war without finishing his degree. In September 1914 he was commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders and went with them to France on 5 November 1914. He fought in the battle of Neuve Chapelle and was killed by a sniper on 24 May 1915.