SECOND LIEUTENANT RONALD HOWORTH STOTT
THE LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
20TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: KANDAHAR FARM CEMETERY, WULVERGEM, BELGIUM
Stott - Killed in action on the 20th of September, 1917, Second-Lieutenant Ronald Howorth Stott, L.N. Lancashire Regiment, attached the Rifle Brigade, aged 21, the dearly loved only son of Mr. and Mrs C.H. Stott 112 Hare Street
"God grant the sacrifice be not in vain"
Rochade Observer 29 September 1917
For the announcement of their son's death Mr and Mrs Stott chose a line from John Oxenham's 'Epilogue 1914', but for his actual headstone inscription they quoted his own words: 'Carry On'.
According to a letter to his parents from Lt. Colonel Slogett, Stott was killed leading an attack on the opening day of the Battle of Menin Road, his body brought back and buried behind the lines in the presence of his company and brother officers.
It was only three weeks since Stott had been home on leave, celebrating his 21st birthday. Like all parents they must have feared the worst; the announcement of his death may have described him as their only son but he was in fact their only child. They describe him as a brave, bright spirit. The poet Gerald Massey (1828-1907) had described Nelson with these words, on the morning of the Battle of Trafalgar, as though he had foreseen his own death:
His proudly-wasted face, wave-worn,
Was loftily serene;
I saw the brave, bright spirit burn
There all too plainly seen;
As though the sword this time was drawn
Forever from the sheath;
And when its work to-day was done,
All would be dark in death.