AMAVIMUS, AMAMUS, AMABIMUS

COLONEL FRANK RIDLEY FARRER BOILEAU

ROYAL ENGINEERS

28TH AUGUST 1914 AGE 46

BURIED: TERLINCTHUN BRITISH CEMETERY, WIMILLE, FRANCE


This is the same epitaph as the one on Charles Kingsley's grave. The author of 'The Water Babies', who died in 1875, is buried with his wife Fanny in the churchyard of St Mary's, Eversley, Hampshire. The Latin words translate as 'We loved, we love and we shall love', the implication being that their love is eternal. The words are also the title of a poem written in 1890 by Arthur Shearly Cripps. One of the verses ends with the lament: "Ah! the golden years have fled; Thee have reft, and me have left here alone, thy loss to mourn".