LIEUTENANT DOUGLAS OLIPHANT CONSTABLE
GRENADIER GUARDS
25TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 28
BURIED: GUARDS' CEMETERY, LESBOEUFS, FRANCE
Douglas Oliphant was a publisher who joined the Inns of Court OTC on 1 February 1915 as a private. He was later promoted sergeant and in November 1915 was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards. He was killed leading his men in an attack on the Somme. Douglas Oliphant's inscription comes from a twelve-verse ode by Ben Jonson, 'To the immortal memory and friendship of that noble pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H Morison'. The relevant verse reads:
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make a man better be;
Or, standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log, at last, dry, bald, and sear:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far, in May,
Although it fall, and die that night;
It was the plant, and flower of light.
In small proportions, we just beauties see:
And in short measures, life may perfect be.