SECOND LIEUTENANT ERIC RUPERT HEATON
MIDDLESEX REGIMENT
1ST JULY 1916 AGE 20
BURIED: HAWTHORN RIDGE CEMETERY NO. 1 AUCHONVILLERS, SOMME, FRANCE
Eric Heaton's inscription is taken from the last letter that he wrote to his parents, the day before he was killed in his first action.
"Tomorrow we go to the attack in the greatest battle the British Army has ever fought. I cannot quite express my feelings on this night and I cannot tell you if it is God's will that I shall come through but if I fall in battle then I have no regrets save for my loved ones I leave behind. It is a great cause and I came out willingly to serve my King and Country. My greatest concern is that I may have the courage and determination necessary to lead my platoon well."
[Quoted from 'If You're Reading This ...: Last Letters from the Front Line' by Sian Price]
Heaton's job was to attack towards the Hawthorn Redoubt and capture the crater created by the blowing of a huge mine. He was wounded minutes after the attack began. A convincing case has been made that he is one of the soldiers seen falling to the ground in Geoffrey Malins' film 'The Battle of the Somme'. Initially listed among the missing it wasn't until November that his body was found. He is buried in Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery in the same grave as Lance Corporal JS Heape.
Eric Heaton, who was studying dentistry at the University of London, volunteered on the outbreak of war. He was the youngest of the fours sons of the Revd Daniel Heaton a Wesleyan minister.