Sir, - In his interesting article "Thinking Anew: Remembering" (The Irish Times, November 8th) your correspondent W.W. quotes two well-known commemorative poems especially associated with Remembrance Day. One, by Laurence Binyon, is: "They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old", etc. The other is the Kohima Epitaph: "When you go home, tell them of us and say", etc. Although W.W. draws on the Bible Reading Fellowship notes for "a delightful and informative account of the origin of the [latter work]", he nevertheless fails to provide your readers with its author's name.
This is not the first time that the author of this fine epitaph has failed to receive the recognition he deserves. When the tablet bearing the inscription was erected at Kohima (the city in north-east India near the Burmese border, which was the centre of fierce fighting in the second World War, when surrounded but not captured by Japanese), the author's name was omitted. Yet, we know much about the man. He was John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), born at Stroud in Gloucestershire, the son of a schoolmaster. Although of poor health, he became a Classics don at Cambridge, being appointed a Fellow of Jesus College in 1914 and University Lecturer in Classics in 1926. He was the author of a number of works (mainly textual and translation) in the classical field, together with the small but more popular Twelve War Epitaphs whose contents first appeared in the London Times and Times Literary Supplement. It is to this latter work that the Kohima Epitaph belongs.
Although the epitaph was frequently quoted, the quotations were often (to Maxwell's annoyance) inaccurate. In fact, the version inscribed at Kohima was itself inaccurate - having the singular "tomorrow" (as had your correspondent) instead of the plural "tomorrows". Maxwell's sister wrote to the Times in October, 1956, pointing this out. The correct version is:
When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrows these gave their today.
-Yours, etc.,
Department of Classics, UCG, Galway.