CAPTAIN REGINALD SHERMAN
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
10TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 30
BURIED: CANADA FARM CEMETERY, ELVERDINGE, BELGIUM
To love your fellow man is evidence of your love for God, and it's the way that God likes you to love Him. This certainly was the conclusion of the poet Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) in his famous poem, Abou Ben Adhem. In the poem, an angel appeared to Ben Adhem one night. It was writing in a book and when asked what it was writing it replied, "the names of those who love the Lord". Ben Adhem asked if his name was there and the angel replied that it was not. Ben Adhem was not unduly concerned and replied, "cheerily", "I pray thee, then, write me as one that loves his fellow men". The next day the angel appeared again:
"And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest."
The poem was far and away Leigh Hunt's best-known work, and the words, 'One that loved his fellow men' were not only carved on his headstone in Kensal Green Cemetery but became a popular tribute to men who were thought to have done good in their lives.
Captain Sherman had been married for nearly a year when he died. However, it wasn't his wife, Mrs Dorothy Raffles Sherman, who signed for his inscription but his mother, Mrs Marion Elizabeth Sherman.
As for having done good in his life, Sherman was a doctor. Trained at St Batholomew's, he joined the RAMC in December 1914 and went to France the following February. He served with the 4th Field Ambulance throughout 1915 and 1916 including at Loos and the Somme. A letter from his colonel to his family, published as part of his obituary in The Times on 23 October 1917, described how he met his death:
"He was shot in the chest while visiting the forward aid-posts and died peacefully in the dressing station some hours later".
Another officer and friend told them:
"Everyone is quite heart-broken and everywhere you hear nothing but words of regret at his death. He was always the centre of any fun or frolic and always ready to take a large share of any hardships that were going.He was a large-hearted, generous man, and as brave as a lion."