CORPORAL TOM DENTON HEPWORTH
KING'S OWN ROYAL LANCASTER REGIMENT
31ST JULY 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: POTIJZE CHATEAU GROUNDS CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Tom Hepworth's inscription comes from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 'The Musician's Tale; the Saga of King Olaf'. The poem challenges mankind's traditional way of fighting evil - with weapons of war - and recommends instead that it should be:
Cross against corselet,
Love against hatred,
Patience is powerful;
He that overcometh
Hath power o'er the nations!
The 'weapons' of faith are more powerful than conventional weapons:
Stronger than steel
Is the sword of the Spirit;
Swifter than arrows
The light of the truth is,
Greater than anger
Is love, and subdueth!
Tom's father, a furniture salesman in Halifax, Yorkshire, chose the inscription. Tom himself had been a cabinet maker before he joined up. He served with the 1st/5th King's Own Royal Lancashire Regiment and was killed on 31 July 1917 when the 55th Division attacked at Pilkhem Ridge.