SERJEANT JOHN O'REGAN
18TH SEPTEMBER 1918 AGE 30
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Serjeant O'Regan - army service number 17144 - came from Glasgow and died from the effects of gas in a base hospital in Etaples. I have been unable to find out anything else about him, possibly because, as the War Graves Commission's records state, he was 'also known as John McKay'. It's certainly as Sgt John McKay - army service number 17144 - that he appears in the Clan Mackay Society War Memorial volume.
His wife, Isabella O'Regan, chose his inscription. It's based on a poem written in 1914 by a young Australian, James Drummond Burns, who died on Gallipoli in September 1915. The poem was extremely popular in Australia and is generally considered to have summarised of how many Australians felt in the early months of the war - and throughout it too. From Mrs O'Regan's choice of inscription it must have had an impact in Britain as well.
The bugles of England were blowing o'er the sea,
As they had called a thousand years, calling now to me;
They woke me from dreaming in the dawning of the day,
The bugles of England - and how could I stay?
The banners of England, unfurled across the sea,
Floating out upon the wind, were beckoning to me;
Storm-rent and battle torn, smoke stained and grey,
The banners of England - and how could I stay?
O England, I heard the cry of those that died for thee,
Sounding like an organ-voice across the winter sea;
They lived and died for England, and gladly went their way -
England, O England - how could I stay?