SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN PERCY HODGES
KING'S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS
25TH APRIL 1918 AGE 22
BURIED: LA CLYTTE MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
The phrase would seem to date from the sixteenth century where it appeared on jewellery, presumably worn by people prepared to declare their willingness to die for their faith. In the nineteenth century, it became the motto of Sir Walter St John School Battersea, although it does not seem to have been the motto of its seventeenth-century founder.
Percy Hodges was a pupil at this school, his name appearing on a plaque, now in St Mary's Church, Battersea. The plaque refers to a stained glass window, which doesn't appear to have survived. The motto appears at bottom of the plaque after the list of the 78 boys who "gave their lives for King and Country in the Great European War 1914-1919" - "Rather deathe than false of faith".
Hodges, the son of a commercial clerk, served with the 6th Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers and was killed in action on 25 April 1918 in a German attack on Kemmel. The 6th Battalion's two forward companies were all either killed or captured in the action. Hodges body was discovered at map reference 28/N.16.d.3.6 in November 1919. Although there was no marker on the grave the body still had its identity disc. His father chose his inscription.