In memoriam ...

More delving into the box of books. This is a copy of "A general survey of the history of the canon of the New Testament" by Brooke Foss Westcott, published by Macmillan in 1896. I like the marbled paper and the worked leather cover - the design even includes the bottom edges.

On the inside cover I discovered that the book had been presented to Norman Gawan-Taylor as a prize for Hellenistic Greek at Durham School (where he was a King's Scholar) in July 1912. This and a number of other books were subsequently given to my wife's grandfather, also a Durham scholar. On the bookplate he has written 'N.G.T in memoriam April 24th 1917'. This I discovered is the date on which 2nd Lt Norman Gawan-Taylor of the 3rd Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment was killed in action near Ypres aged 23. His brother Francis Gawan-Taylor, aged 22, in the same regiment had been killed in action two years earlier. My wife's grandfather named his first son, born just after the war, Gawan.