GUNNER ERNEST TOMSETT
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
4TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 26
BURIED: MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, PROVEN, BELGIUM
This sounds as though it's a rather stilted extract from a letter of condolence, but it isn't, it's a quote from the Old Testament book of Maccabees. Eleazor, an old man in his eighties, is a supporter of the Maccabees, defenders of the Jewish faith. He refuses to obey an order from the Seleucids, who are trying to suppress Judaism, despite the fact that he knows this means he will be put to death. Eleazor even refuses to pretend to comply with the order as well-meaning friends suggest he does. No, he says:
I will shew myself such an one as mine age requireth, and leave a notable example to such as be young to die willingly and courageously for the honourable and holy laws.
2 Maccabees 6.27-8
Eleazor dies with the following tribute from the writer:
And thus this man died, leaving his death for an example of a noble courage and a memorial of virtue, not only unto young men, but unto all his nation.
Gunner Tomsett's wife chose his inscription. It's the dedication on the Douglas Head Memorial on the Isle of Man but otherwise, for all its appropriateness, it's quite rare. So is the address she gave: 2 Married Quarters, Detention Barracks, Windmill Hill, Gibraltar. I can only assume that Tomsett had been stationed on Gibraltar before being posted to France.