PRIVATE ABRAHAM NATHAN
DEVONSHIRE REGIMENT
26TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Abraham Nathan's mother, Rachel, chose his inscription, identifying him as a Jew and declaring that he had died 'for the freedom of the world'. In this she was quoting the words on the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey,which was dedicated to:
" ... the many
Multitudes who during the Great
War of 1914-1918 gave the most that
Man can give life itself
For God
For King and Country
For loved ones home and Empire
For the sacred cause of justice and
The freedom of the world.
Although Private Nathan served with the 8th Battalion the Dorsetshire Regiment, he was a Londoner. He came from Shoreditch where there was a large Jewish community, and a fair amount of accompanying anti-semitism. Mrs Nathan lived in Sunbury Buildings, part of the Boundary Estate, one of London County Council's first public housing schemes. Today the accommodation would be thought very sub-standard as the flats were small and had no bathrooms. But they were intended to be an improvement on the Old Nichol slums they replaced.
Nathan was killed on 26 October 1916, a day described as 'disastrous' in the regimental history, which, it was keen to emphasise, was no fault of the men's.
"October 26th, 1917, stands out as the worst day the 8th and 9th Devons ever experienced. They had known heavy losses before, at Loos, at Mametz, at Ginchy, but they had never gone into an attack with the scales weighted so heavily against them. ... It was the mud that was Gheluvelt's most effective defence, and the failure of the 8th and 9th to take Gheluvelt was recognised by those in authority as due to no fault of theirs, rather their determination and gallantry were lavishly praised ... the spirit which had led these two battalions to advance so unflinchingly to an attack they could not but realise to be a forlorn hope, represents a triumph of discipline and of esprit de corps. The saddest day in their history, it was, nevertheless, the high-water mark of their endeavour."