Epitaphs for first world war fallen offer glimpse of unprecedented loss

Thank you sharing my friend CW5 Jack Cardwell my paternal Grandfather and his brother were British Lance Corporals in WWI from Gallipoli to France and Belgium.
My grandfathers brother was killed with his wife when their home was hot by a Luftwaffe bomb in the Battle of Britain. The British Army registry building which housed the enlisted records from WWI was largely destroyed during the Luftwaffe incendiary bombing in London.

"Carved in stone, the epitaphs on the graves of the first world war fallen captured the nation’s pain 100 years ago.
Now, a century on, these poignant parting words from families to their loved ones offer researchers a glimpse of how a past generation came to terms with the unprecedented loss of life.
Historians at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have examined the personal inscriptions on many thousands of headstones, which demonstrate that the public response to the war was not straightforward. Some turned to humour, others were defiant. Yet others betray painful details of futures sacrificed.
When the CWGC began its work to locate and rebury the war dead from the first world war, next of kin were offered the chance to add a personal inscription to headstones, limited to 66 stone-engraved characters.

FYI LTC Jeff ShearerSGT Philip Roncari Lt Col Jim CoeCWO3 Dennis M.SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold Sgt Albert Castro PO3 Phyllis Maynard Maj Robert Thornton SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence PVT Karl Goode CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker SGT James Murphy SrA John Monette

Moving epitaphs, CW5 Jack Cardwell. Whenever I think of the loss of life associated with the Great War, I'm always drawn to the poem "In Flanders Fields" written on May 3, 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McRae of the Canadian army.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lt Col Charlie Brown 1SG Clifford Barnes SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq.

Unbelievable what people do to each other