E'EN AS HE TROD
THAT DAY TO GOD
SO WALKED HE FROM HIS BIRTH
IN GENTLENESS AND SIMPLENESS
AND HONOUR AND CLEAN MIRTH

SECOND LIEUTENANT ALGERNON PERCY CLARKE

23RD BTTN LONDON REGIMENT

21ST JULY 1915 AGE 21

BURIED: CHOCQUES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE


Algernon Percy Clarke was killed by a German shell that burst in the room where he and two other officers were resting. His brother Harold Percival Clarke had been killed ten weeks earlier on the 9 May. Harold has no grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
Algernon's inscription comes from Dedication, one of Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads. In the realm of the dead -

'Beyond the path of the outmost sun through utter darkness hurled -
Further than ever comet flared or vagrant star-dust swirled -
Live such as fought and sailed and ruled and loved and made our world.'

These dead have been 'cleansed of base Desire, Sorrow and Lust and Shame', but the latest to join their number came just as he had been on earth -

'He scarce had need to doff his pride or slough the dross of Earth -
E'en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birth,
In simpleness and gentleness and honour and clean mirth.'