DAVID BELOVED

DRIVER DAVID WILLIAM SULLIVAN

ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY

16TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 20

BURIED: VLAMERTINGHE NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM


This is a very neat epitaph since the name David is thought to derive from the Hebrew word 'dwd', which means beloved. David Sullivan's mother, Evelyn, chose it, perhaps fully aware of its meaning when she first decided on the name at his birth - never thinking it would make a suitable inscription for his grave.
Fourteen-year-old Sullivan, the son of a glass embosser, gave his trade as 'messenger' in the 1911 census. He served with "B" Battery, 173rd Brigade Royal Field Artillery, part of the 36th Division. The Division took part in the attack on Langemark on 16 August 1917; Sullivan was killed that day.