CAPTAIN KENNETH ALGERNON BROOKE MURRAY
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
23RD SEPTEMBER 1918 AGE 25
BURIED: BOULOGNE EASTERN CEMETERY, FRANCE
Captain Brooke Murray was flying with Second Lieutenant Vinson on an artillery spotting mission when their plane was attacked by three German fighters over Miraumont. Brooke Murray was shot in the leg and the plane was forced to land. Vinson, the pilot, survived but Brooke Murray died seven days later in hospital in Boulogne.
A professional soldier, he had been at the Front since August 1914 with the Army Service Corps, where he had reached the rank of captain. His transfer to the Royal Flying Corps as an Observer was announced on 12 September 1916 and published in 'Flight' two days before his death.
His inscription, chosen by his father, was written by J. Maxwell Edmonds, a Classics don at Cambridge. It was originally published in The Times on 6 February 1918 as being suitable for 'some who died early in the day of battle'. There were four epitaphs in all, under the simple headline: Four Epitaphs, among them was one that became popular on village memorials, for which it was written:
Ye that live on 'mid English pastures green,
Remember us, and think what might have been.