Dulce et Decorum Est...

[Langdon]

My great uncle (Lt. Ivan Townsend 2nd East Lancs) has the epitaph "Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori" on his headstone in the lovely Cabaret Rouge cemetary in Souchez. I think it unlikely that my great grandfather sourced it from Wilfred Owen ("the old lie") rather than from Horace, but it made me wonder whether this epitaph was popular in the CWGC cemeteries. Or was it tainted?

The burial return containing my great uncle appears to date from late 1924 - would anyone know when the next-of-kin were approached for the (max-66-letter) wordings? Was this done by cemetery or all at the same time?

Wilfred Owen's 'Poems' was published in 1920.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks,

Mike

Edited 11 May , 2018 by Langdon

[rolt968]

11 hours ago, Langdon said:

My great uncle (Lt. Ivan Townsend 2nd East Lancs) has the epitaph "Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori" on his headstone in the lovely Cabaret Rouge cemetary in Souchez. I think it unlikely that my great grandfather sourced it from Wilfred Owen ("the old lie") rather than from Horace, but it made me wonder whether this epitaph was popular in the CWGC cemeteries. Or was it tainted?

The burial return containing my great uncle appears to date from late 1924 - would anyone know when the next-of-kin were approached for the (max-66-letter) wordings? Was this done by cemetery or all at the same time?

Wilfred Owen's 'Poems' was published in 1920.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks,

Mike

I have seen it on the odd war memorial, I think.

 

I think that it was only tainted to those who saw it as tainted (if you see what I mean).

 

I thought that it appeared in one of Sarah Wearne's Epitaphs of the Great War books but cannot see it. I may have been thinking of the epitaph for Sgt Stuart Norman Spence AIF (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery) which is a partial translation "'Tis sweet to die for one's country".

 

I wonder if Owen was commenting on its use on pre-1914 memorials or on the original Horace.

RM

[Magnumbellum]

On 5/12/2018 at 11:36, rolt968 said:

I have seen it on the odd war memorial, I think.

 

I think that it was only tainted to those who saw it as tainted (if you see what I mean).

 

I thought that it appeared in one of Sarah Wearne's Epitaphs of the Great War books but cannot see it. I may have been thinking of the epitaph for Sgt Stuart Norman Spence AIF (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery) which is a partial translation "'Tis sweet to die for one's country".

 

I wonder if Owen was commenting on its use on pre-1914 memorials or on the original Horace.

RM

 

There is noting in the poem to suggest that Owen had in mind gravestone epitaphs, rather than schoolboys, in particular, being exhorted by having Horace  quoted to them directly.