LIEUTENANT ALBERT EDWARD KINGHAN
ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS
6TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 24
BURIED: SERRE ROAD CEMETERY NO. 2, SOMME, FRANCE
On 7 August 1929 the body of an unidentified British officer was exhumed from an unmarked grave in Leuze Wood, Combles. The exhumation report listed a description of the 'uniform, boots, badges etc.' that had been found with the body:
"Officer's tunic. Bedford cord breeches. Collar badges. Buttons. Leg boots with three straps (size 8). Cuff with braid and trace of one star. G.S. equipment with Officer's revolver holster."
And there was also a ring. Thirteen years after his death the body of Lieutenant Albert Edward Kinghan had been found, the identification probably effected by the dental chart on the exhumation form.
Kinghan was the son of the Revd D Phan Kinghan, Rector of Swinford, Co. Mayo. Born and educated in Dublin, in June 1913 he began work with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Toronto. He volunteered on the outbreak of war in August 1914 and returned to Britain, taking a commission in the Royal Irish Fusiliers that December. He was killed on the Somme in a German counter-attack at Leuze on the 6 September 1916.
His mother chose his inscription. It had been published in The Times on 16 February 1918 under the heading: 'For a Memorial Tablet' together with the initials A.C.A. Excellent detective work by members of the Great War Forum have identified the probable author as Arthur Campbell Ainger a one-time assistant master at Eton. This is the inscription as it appeared in The Times:
True love by life - true love by death is tried:
Live thou for England - we for England died.