SECOND LIEUTENANT HUGH WILLIAMS
SOUTH AFRICAN INFANTRY
17TH APRIL 1917 AGE 38
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Hugh Williams' older brother, Richard, chose his inscription. Their parents were both dead. Richard still lived in Wolverhampton, where he and his siblings had been born. Hugh had gone to South Africa, from where he enlisted in the 4th South African Regiment. He fought at Delville Wood as a lance corporal during July to September 1916, but by the time he died of wounds in a base hospital at Etaples, he had been commissioned.
I haven't found anything to say where and how Williams was wounded but on 12 April 1917 the South Africans took part in a costly attack at Fampoux for which the regimental history (page 124) was forced to conclude that the enemy must have known they were coming. Added to this was the fact that the men were tired having worked hard for three days under heavy shell fire, that they had had no sleep for four nights, three of which had been spent lying in the snow without blankets. The South African fought hard for little gain, the 1st, 2nd and 4th regiments suffering 720 casualties between 12 April and their relief on the 15th
Hugh Williams' inscription quotes the last lines of a poem by the popular American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), Whatever is - is best:
I know there are no errors
In the great Eternal plan,
And all things work together
For the final good of man.
And I know as my soul speeds onward,
In its grand Eternal quest,
I shall say as I look back earthward,
Whatever is - is best.