UNTIL THE DAY BREAK
AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY

LIEUTENANT GEORGE NEVILLE PATRICK YOUNG MC

LEINSTER REGIMENT

25TH JULY 1915 AGE 23

BURIED: WIMEREUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY, FRANCE


Lieutenant Young's inscription comes from the Old Testament, The Song of Solomon 2:17 and 4:6. It's a popular inscription even though the songs appear to be a series of erotic love songs. George Young's father quotes the biblical phrase exactly, most inscriptions add an 's' to the end of the word break. As used in memorial inscriptions, the phrase refers to the breaking of the day when the speaker will be reunited with the person he mourns, i.e. at his own death.
George Young was wounded on the night of the 10/11 July 1915. His friend Dennis Barnett reported to his mother that Young "got a shrapnel bullet nicely through the shoulder, and insisted on walking round the line to say good-bye to everyone before starting for the dressing station. There was no despondency there. He'll get a good holiday which he's earned if anyone did."
Unfortunately Young didn't get a good holiday, he died from gangrene two weeks later on 25 July.