PRIVATE WALTER STEPHEN SPRINGETT
13TH KENSINGTON BTTN. LONDON REGIMENT
5TH OCTOBER 1916 AGE 23
BURIED: GUARDS CEMETERY LES BOEUFS, FRANCE
The inscription is Private Springett's parents own version of the lines from Tennyson's poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade':
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die.
If you think there is a whiff of bitterness about the inscription, I think you could be right, even though Tennyson wrote the poem in praise of military loyalty and obedience. Mr and Mrs Springett lost their eldest son, Walter, in 1916 and his nineteen-year-old brother, FW Springett, in 1918. The brother, for who we only know his initials, died whilst a prisoner of war. He was buried by the Germans but his grave cannot now be identified.