Paths of Glory

This is a painting by CRW Nevinson completed around 1917 which depicts the horrors of war. Two dead British soldiers lie face down in the mud. They have been left behind and their bodies are awaiting collection, identification and then their nearest and dearest will be informed of their fate. Its title is derived from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which includes the line: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave”. The painting is a lament for the British dead of the First World War.
Yesterday I blipped a photo of my great grandparents. They experienced, as so many parents did, the loss of one of their sons who didn't return from the Great War. He died on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. I remember my old aunt telling me that as a very small girl she was taken to wave him and his brother off to war as they marched through the town with their HLI Battalion. It became a lasting memory for her.