April 23, 1915

 
On April 23, 1915 one of the most famous poets of World War I died of blood poisoning en route to the Dardenelles Campaign.

He is forever remembered for the lines:

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home

It is not often realised that he was not a soldier but a Sub-Lieutenant serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve ashore. Brooke was originally buried by his fellow officers. His body was carried to the olive grove during the night and a simple stone cairn was constructed. A wooden cross bearing the above inscription was erected

Here lies the servant of God, sub-lieutenant in the English Navy
who died for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks

At the end of the First World War, at the instigation of his mother, this grave was replaced by the current tomb.

From Free Market Fairy Tales