SERJEANT DOUGLAS ALEXANDER, MM
LONDON REGIMENT (FIRST SURREY RIFLES)
12TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 25
BURIED: FLATIRON COPSE CEMETERY, MAMETZ, FRANCE
Serjeant Alexander's mother chose his inscription; it comes from the last verse of 'The Song of the Camp' by the American poet, Bayard Taylor (1833-1908). On the night before the attack on the Redan fortress, during the Crimean War (1853-56), the soldiers ask for a song: "'Give us a song!' the soldiers cried" ...
There was a pause. A guardsman said,
"We storm the forts tomorrow;
Sing while we may, another day
Will bring enough of sorrow."
So the soldiers sing, not of fame and glory but of love:
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang 'Annie Laurie'.
Voice after voice caught up the song,
Until its tender passion
Rose like an anthem, rich and strong, -
Their battle eve confession.
The next day they stormed the Redan fortress and many of the soldiers who had been singing tenderly of love, and thinking of their girlfriends back home, were killed:
Sleep, soldiers! still in honoured rest
Your truth and valour wearing:
The bravest are the tenderest, -
The loving are the daring.
An insurance clerk in civilian life, like his father, Alexander served with the First Surrey Rifles. The regiment went into the line on 10 September 1916, near High Wood on the Somme. Five days later it was involved in the taking of High Wood but by that time Alexander had been killed.