GUNNER LOUIS GOLDIE VICTOR BALDING
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
7TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 30
BURIED: BARD COTTAGE CEMETERY, YPRES, BELGIUM
Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington offers the assurance that glory is achieved by doing your duty.
Yea, let all good things await
Him who cares not to be great,
But as he saves or serves the state.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory:
Louis Balding did his duty. He was called up on 22 July 1916. He was 29, which means that he was conscripted, conscription having been introduced in March 1916. The March act applied only to single men; Balding had got married on 26 December 1915. However, in May 1916 conscription was extended to include married men; Balding signed up in July. He went to France in October 1916 and served with the 185th Siege Battery. He died of wounds along with three other men of the Battery on 7 August 1917.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
(Elegy Written in a country Churchyard by Thomas Gray 1716-1771)
The path of duty leads to glory, and the path of glory leads but to the grave.