NO SOUR SORROW
STAINS OUR THOUGHT OF THEE
YOU LIVE IN HAPPY MEMORY

PRIVATE JOHN FRANCIS WILLIAMS

CITY OF LONDON YEOMANRY (ROUGH RIDERS)

21ST APRIL 1917 AGE 19

BURIED: GAZA WAR CEMETERY, ISRAEL


To be called John Francis Williams makes it very difficult for anyone to track you down, as has been the case with Private JF Williams. This despite the fact that his parents stated in the War Grave Commission records that he was born in Cardiff and lived in Blaina, Monmouthshire.
Williams appears on the war memorial in St Peter's Church, Blaina as Trooper JF Williams of the 1/3rd Co. of London Yeomanry. But the 1/3rd County of London Yeomanry were not in Palestine in April 1917, nor were either the 1st or the 2nd. His medal card indicates that he was entitled to the 1914-15 Star and that he entered the theatre of war in Egypt on 28 April 1915. But that is the end of the information on him.
It's a shame not to have been able to pin him down as I rather admire the inscription his parents chose; their insistence on not letting grief cloud their happy memories. It is not a quotation so they composed it themselves. Where did they get 'sour sorrow' from? It's a telling phrase and makes a good contrast with Shakespeare's 'sweet sorrow'.