PRIVATE ROBERT WILLIAM MELVILLE
THE BLACK WATCH
20TH SEPTEMBER 1918 AGE 19
BURIED: TERLINCTHUN BRITISH CEMETERY, WIMILLE, FRANCE
Private Melville's parents adapted this verse from St John 15:13, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends'. This was one of the most popular of all war memorial inscriptions. Although the quote comes from the bible it sounds secular, which could explain its universal acceptability. On the whole when people abbreviated it they chose the beginning of the quote, 'Greater Love hath no man'. This acknowledged that the deceased had died for a cause but left the actual cause unspecified, it could have been his country, his king, his God or any of the other myriad causes. Mr and Mrs Melville were happy to specify that their son had died for his friends.