PRIVATE NATHAN DOUGLAS TEALE
COLDSTREAM GUARDS
14TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 22
BURIED: GUARDS' CEMETERY LESBOEUFS, FRANCE
'Passed' is not how the King James Version of the bible spells the word, but plenty of Christian writers do when they quote the extract:
"For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of the birds is come,"
Solomon's Song 2: 11/2
I wonder what Private Teale's mother meant by her choice of inscription? I can't imagine she was saying that the worst part of her mourning was over but it could be that she can take comfort from the fact that whatever happens, spring follows winter, seedtime gives way to harvest, night will follow day and sadness will give way to joy when she is reunited in death with her son. It's this passage from Solomon's Song that ends five verses later with one of the most popular of all headstone inscriptions: 'Until the day break, and the shadows flee away' Solomon's Song 2:17.
Nathan Teale was the seventh of his parents' thirteen children, eight of whom were boys. And it seems as though he was the only one to die in the war. At the age of 17 he was a pupil teacher in Garforth, Leeds. He joined the Coldstream Guards and served with 3 Coy 2nd Battalion. He was killed on 14 September 1916, the day before the Guards Division attacked at Lesboeufs, perhaps he was caught by shell fire as the battalion took up their battle positions. This is all the war diary says:
"14 September 1916 - At 8 pm the Battalion moved up to Ginchy and took over trenches from 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards. Relief completed about midnight."
The Battalion attacked at 6.20 the following morning and by the end of the day had lost 417 officers and men killed, wounded and missing.