PRIVATE RONALD CARPENTER BAND
SOUTH WALES BORDERERS
9TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 18
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
"Our Ron", one can still sense his parent's heartbreak, their son, just eighteen and a half years old, dead. Official government policy was that you had to be 18 to sign up and 19 to serve abroad, unless you had your parent's written permission - or the written permission of one parent, although you could of course have simply lied about your age. The fact that Mr and Mrs Band give their son's exact age, and that they complete the inscripton with a reference to the hymn 'Fight the Good Fight', all incline me to think that they had given their permission.