PRIVATE JOHN TELFER HIDDLESTON
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
22ND AUGUST 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: TYNE COT CEMETERY, BELGIUM
John Hiddleston's inscription comes from the fourth line of the last verse of George Matheson's hymn, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. This statement of total despair is followed by the final two lines of the hymn which speak of resurrection and eternal life. Neverthless, these were not the lines Hiddleston's father chose:
O Love that will not let me go:
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.