First World War Epitaphs That Have Endured

 

By James Patton

John Maxwell Edmonds

John Maxwell Edmonds (1875–1958) was a classical scholar and lecturer at Cambridge. The son of an Anglican clergyman whose wife was the daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant, he was educated at Oundle School (which was founded in 1556) and Jesus College, Cambridge, finishing with a first in 1898. He then taught at Repton and King’s School, Canterbury, the latter of which is the oldest school in the UK, before returning to Cambridge as a Lecturer in Classics. When not working with students he wrote poetry and translated Greek elegiacs into English, some of which are still available. During the war, both he and his wife Ethel worked in the War Office’s code breaking bureau, called M.I.1 (b).

In a role reversal, Edmonds also translated into a Greek elegiac his fellow Cambridge Don and well-known poet A. E. Housman's (1859-1936) “Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries,” which was "a tribute to the original British Expeditionary Force." The use of the term mercenary was taken from a derogatory comment made by the Kaiser. The poem was published in the Times on 31 October 1917, the third anniversary of the First Battle of Ypres. Edmond’s classical Greek version was published in the Classical Review 31 later that year. Here is the English text: 

Previously, in 1916, Edmonds had contributed his “Twelve Epitaphs, to be appropriate for use in a British Graveyard in France.” In 1919 the Imperial War Graves Commission included these on their approved list for their grave markers. Four of them had been published by the Times on 6 February 1918, page 7, headed "Four Epitaphs" composed for graves and memorials to those fallen in battle—each covering different situations of death. Here are the most well known:

And

These epitaphs were often quoted by the Times in the death notices of the fallen and also appear on municipal and institutional war memorials in the U.K.

Edmond's family later said that he was inspired by an ancient Greek elegiac of Simonides of Ceos (556–468 BCE) honoring the heroic last stand by Leonidas (540–480 BCE) and his Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. They also claim that Edmond’s permission was never sought to use his works (he didn’t die until 1958).

Fast forward about 25 years to a landing in the Naga Hills, Assam, India. The Battle of Kohima here took place from 4 April to 22 June 1944. Featuring colorfully labelled engagements such as the Battle of the Admin Box and the Battle of the Tennis Court, the 2nd British and 7th Indian Divisions turned back the spearhead of the Japanese XV Army, ending Japan’s last offensive of the war. Kohima was one of the bloodiest and most grueling battles fought by Commonwealth forces in the Second World War. 

There rises today, smack in the middle of that hard-fought-over Tennis Court, a stone monolith on which are inscribed Edmond’s famous couplet, known henceforth as the Kohima Epitaph:

The source of the textual changes, "your tomorrow" for "these tomorrows" and "our" for "their," was Maj. John Etty-Leal, the Indian Army staff officer responsible for erecting the original monument, who simply misremembered the words.  

Went the Day Well? was the title of a popular 1942 British movie based on a story by Graham Greene. As a text, it has also been set to music. You can listen HERE.  

Sources include the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The Burma Star Association  and The War Room, a blog by Maj. (ret.) Robert Lyman Ph.D., MBE, F R. Hist. S., author of popular press WWII books.