PRIVATE WILFRED EDMUND BELL
WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT
11TH APRIL 1918 AGE 29
BURIED: ENGLEFONTAINE BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
Commonly used today as a plea not to forget those who lost their lives in the First World War, this was not the original meaning of the words. They come from Rudyard Kipling's poem Recessional, written in 1897 the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. However, the poem was not a celebration of the Jubilee and of the Empire it was more a warning against pride, complaceny and jingoism. What Kipling intended his readers not to forget was what they owed to Christ, both by way of his teaching and his sacrifice. For, when 'the Captains and the Kings depart' and 'our navies melt away', the British Empire, like all other Empires, will pass away and may God forgive us for our boastfulness and arrogance if we have forgotten him. Interestingly, Kipling is seen as the poet of Empire, the proponent of the values he warned against - his detractors obviously haven't studied his poems very closely.