PRIVATE WILLIAM PEATTIE
BLACK WATCH
18TH JULY 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, PROVEN, BELGIUM
I have to say that I admire Mrs Janet Peattie, Private Peattie's mother, she has not only chosen a beautiful inscription that is strangely uncommon, but in filling in the biographical information for the War Graves Commission she has managed to provide brief but pertinent information. Thanks to her we know that her son was an apprentice cabinet maker, that he enlisted on 1 June 1915, was wounded on 8 July 1917 and that therefore it took him ten days to die at a Casualty Clearing Station in Proven. Mendinghem, along with Bandagem and Dozinghem, were the popular names the soldiers gave to these hospitals
The inscription comes from the last line of the first verse of Sir Cecil Spring Rice's poem 'I Vow to Thee My Country'. Rice wrote the original poem in 1908 and called it 'Urbs Dei', the City of God. In 1918 he added a new first verse, the one Janet Peattie has quoted from. This replaced the old first verse and very movingly reflects the terrible sacrifice Britain has asked the nation, and especially its young men, to make. Set to music by Gustav Holst in 1921, and published in the hymn book 'Songs of Praise' in 1926, the hymn is now a firm favourite and for many years was a stalwart of Remembrance Day services. This link gives all three verses but Rice always intended the current first verse to replace the second verse that is shown in this link.
I said at the beginning that William Peattie's inscription was strangely uncommon, considering the poem's sentiments, and that it refers specifically to the war dead, I might have expected to have seen it more often, but I haven't. So this is something else I admire Mrs Peattie for. This is verse one:
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.