LIEUTENANT JAMES FRANCIS SIMPSON
MACHINE GUN CORPS
27TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 19
BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
This abbreviated inscription, chosen by Lieutenant Simpson's mother, comes from verse XXII of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage rolling time has prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.
Fitzgerald's poetry beautifully captures the fleetingness of both life and youth. James Simpson was 19. The mother of another very youthful officer quoted from another verse of the poem for her eighteen-year-old son Warren Kemp Smith's inscription.