Rain falling on the grave of Edward 'Bim' Tennant, Guillemont Road Cemetery
"I feel rather like saying "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me", but the triumphant finish nevertheless not what I will but what "Thou Willest" steels my heart and sends me into this battle with a heart of triple bronze...I always carry four photies of you when we go into action, one is in my pocket-book, two in that little leather book, and one round my neck, and I have kept my little medal of the Blessed Virgin. Your love for me and my love for you, have made my whole life one of the happiest there has ever been. Brutus' farewell to Cassius sounds in my heart : ' If not farewell, and if we meet again, we shall smile.' Now all my blessings go with you, and with all we love. God bless you, and give you peace - Eternal Love, from BIM."
Lt The Hon Edward Wyndham ('Bim') Tennant, was the son of 1st Baron Glenconner. A deeply sensitive yet phenomenally brave 19 year old, loved by his men and fellow officers, he had served on the front since 1915, having been commissioned into the Grenadier Guards at the age of 17. He had written daily to his mother whenever away, reassuring her always that he was safe and well. However, some premonition - undoubtedly inspired by the deaths of so many friends and contemporaries - must have entered into his last letter to her, written the night before the attack onto the 'hogsback', and from which the final excerpt above is taken.
'Bim' Tennant was killed close to the present site of the Guards Memorial on the Ginchy Hogsback, where his company was holding part of a sap occupied by both the British and the Germans. After his death his mother self-published a book of his extensive poetry, and of the many shocked messages of love and affection that she received.
Lt The Hon Edward Wyndham ('Bim') Tennant, was the son of 1st Baron Glenconner. A deeply sensitive yet phenomenally brave 19 year old, loved by his men and fellow officers, he had served on the front since 1915, having been commissioned into the Grenadier Guards at the age of 17. He had written daily to his mother whenever away, reassuring her always that he was safe and well. However, some premonition - undoubtedly inspired by the deaths of so many friends and contemporaries - must have entered into his last letter to her, written the night before the attack onto the 'hogsback', and from which the final excerpt above is taken.
'Bim' Tennant was killed close to the present site of the Guards Memorial on the Ginchy Hogsback, where his company was holding part of a sap occupied by both the British and the Germans. After his death his mother self-published a book of his extensive poetry, and of the many shocked messages of love and affection that she received.
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