Lives of the First World War

'If I ask my men how they like it compared to India, they all say they like it better. “Why, you gets a decent dinner here, Sir.” My experience quite confirms that of Sir Redvers Buller and other great authorities. If you feed T.A. well you can put him in slimy trenches and he’ll be perfectly happy, but he’d never be contented in Buckingham Palace on Indian rations.' Robert Palmer – Mesopotamia, November 1915

Photograph of the Palmer memorial / dedication panel in the war memorial cloisters in Blackmoor, Hampshire. The panel wording is "IN MEMORY OF/ ROBERT STAFFORD/ ARTHUR PALMER/ KILLED IN BATTLE HIS/ PARENTS HAVE CAUSED/ THIS CLOISTER AND FOUNTAIN TO/ BE MADE".

Photograph of the war memorial cloisters in Blackmoor, Hampshire, which Robert's parents had constructed in his honour. Situated between the school and the church, the cloister arches have commemorative metal plaques on their walls. The central plaque is in the form of a niche forming a wall fountain with lion’s mouth as water spout, listing names beneath the heading “CHILDREN REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THE MEN/ FROM THIS VILLAGE WHO FEARLESSLY GAVE THEIR/ LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN THE WAR OF 1914-1918”. There is an additional plaque with further names for WWI and WWII inset into a brick arch, headed “IN SACRED MEMORY/ OF THE MEN FROM/ THIS PARISH WHO ALSO/ GAVE THEIR LIVES IN/ TWO WORLD WARS/ 1914 – 1918”. In the centre of the cloister is a stone wheel cross on a tapered column and plinth.

Photograph of the main panel of WW1 names in the war memorial cloisters in Blackmoor, Hampshire. The first name listed is "Captain Hon R S A Palmer".