And We Were Young

"A boy, he spent his boy's dear life for England". These words from a poem of 1916 were written in reaction to the news that a young boy, who had left Oundle School just two years earlier, had shot himself, whilst stranded in the Libyan Desert. With his plane grounded, he took his own life hoping that the meagre supply of water they had left might save the life of his mechanic. The young boy was Stewart Ridley and he was 19 years old. The poet who wrote about him was John Drinkwater.