PRIVATE MICHAEL ALFRED STANTON
CANADIAN MACHINE GUN CORPS
9TH APRIL 1917 AGE 19
BURIED: NINE ELMS BRITISH CEMETERY, WEST FLANDERS, BELGIUM
This inscription does not mean what it looks as though it means. It has nothing to do with death and glory, quite the opposite in fact. What Kipling is saying is - we all must die, much of what we do on earth is pointless, death can come from anywhere, any time, the dead are soon forgotten and we are all replaceable.
These be the glorious ends whereto we pass -
Let Him who Is, go call on Him who Was;
And He shall see the mallie* steals the slab
For currie-grinder, and for goats the grass.
A breath of wind, a Border bullet's flight,
A draught of water, or a horse's fright -
The droning of the fat Sheristadar**
Ceases, the punkah stops, and falls the night
For you or Me. Do those who live decline
The step that offers, or their work resign?
Trust me, Today's Most Indispensables,
Five hundred men can take your place or mine.
* the cemetery gardener
** the court clerk
The Last Department, 1899 (verses 7-9)
Rudyard Kipling
This is a very different sentiment from Kipling's 'If' in which he claimed that:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - what is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Michael Stanton's father chose his inscription. Did he know how Kipling meant it? I think he did, and that he meant us to know too otherwise he wouldn't have shown so clearly that it was a quotation, nor identified the author as he did. This is a very disillusioned father who does not think his son's death was worthwhile.
Nineteen-year-old Michael served with the 3rd Company Canadian Machine Gun Corps and was killed in action in the attack on Vimy Ridge.
War Diary 3rd Company Canadian Machine Gun Corps
Trenches Roslincourt Sector
April 9 1917
At 3 am, in accordance with attached Operation Orders and with Brigade Operation Orders our 12 mobile guns Commanded by Major E. H. Houghton proceeded through Douai and Bentata tunnels to the Assembly trench. ... At zero hour, 5.30 am. Artillery opened up Barrage on Enemy front line and at zero plus 3 minutes our Infantry advanced. All our 12 mobile guns going forward with the second wave. The infantry reached and captured the Black line at about zero plus 36 minutes ...
[At the end of the day] Total casualties 4 killed, 13 wounded, 4 missing.