PRIVATE ALTON DANIEL BENEKE
SOUTH AFRICAN INFANTRY
24TH MAY 1916 AGE 24
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
The inscription is Africaans for 'Thy will be done'. However, because Private Beneke's parents have specified the biblical reference we know that it's not the 'Thy wlll be done' of the Lord's Prayer but of Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemene. Christ, knowing that his betrayal, arrest and crucifiction are imminent, prays, "O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done". "Unless I drink it" ... for both soldier and next-of-kin there was no other option.