CAPTAIN OWEN ROBERT LLOYD, MC
KING'S SHROPSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
20TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 25
BURIED: CEMENT HOUSE CEMETERY, LANGEMARK, BELGIUM
Owen Lloyd's father chose his inscription, adapting a line from Joseph Lee's, 'Our British Dead'. The poem was first published in the Spectator in January 1917 and opens with a quote from Simonides:
"O stranger, bring the Spartans word, that here,
Obedient to their command we lie."
Here do we lie, dead but not discontent,
That which we found to do has had accomplishment.
No more for us uprise or set of sun;
The vigilant night, the desperate day is done.
To other hands we leave the avenging sword,
To other tongues to speak the arousing word.
Here do we lie, dead but not discontent,
That which was ours to do has had accomplishment.
Forget us not, O Land for which we fell -
May it go well with England, still go well.
Keep her bright banners without blot or stain,
Lest we should dream that we have died in vain.
Brave be the days to come, when we
Are but a wistful memory ...
Here do we lie, dead but not discontent,
That we which found to do has had accomplishment.
Simonides' dead simply ask that their country is told that they have done what was asked of them; Lee's dead, who have also done what was asked of them, want to feel that the country they have died for will be worthy of their deaths, "Lest we should dream that we have died in vain".
Lloyd was wounded on 20 September, the opening day of the Battle of Menin Road. He died two days later. An obituary in The Times on 5 October gave the details, quoted from the letter Lloyd's colonel had written to his parents:
"He was a very gallant soldier and an exceptionally fine leader of men. We attacked on the 20th ... Captain Lloyd saw the attack developing on his right, and got up and led his company on, and it was as he was doing so that he fell, hit by two bullets. The ground was open and raked by machine gun fire, and the advance by Captain Lloyd was a very fine effort. Although not immediately successful, it all bore good fruit, because next day ... we not only captured the mound and its garrison, but absolutely wiped out the whole storm troops of the division opposite us. The men of his company, at the risk of their lives, went to your son, bandaged him up, and took him to the aid post. He died there, after thanking the men who took him down ... I liked him personally so much. I think he would rather have died that way than any other."