Two noble boys, good and true.
They were comrades through and through,
And in death they are not divided
He has finished his part. I must still live on.
Trying like him to be brave:
My sacrifice is in what, I have lost.
His was in what he gave.
No one knows the silent, heartache,
Only those can toll
Who have lost their best and dearest
Without a last farewell.
But, God is kind, He gives me strength
To bear my heavy cross;
He is the only one who knows
My loneliness and loss.
He never shunned his country's, call,
He gave his life, he gave his all;
He died the helpless to defend
An Australian soldier's noble end
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends,
They gave their country all—their body's might.
Their lives, success, home, love, their splendid youth;
They cast them all, the offering of a. knight,
Into the altar flame of right and truth
Their dust is holy, and their deed survive,
Their destiny is crowned;
May we be worth the glory
And immortal sacrifice.
Their loving voices, are silent,
Their loving hands are still:
Their places, vacant in our class,
Which never will be filled.
Duty nobly done.
Edgar Briton Penaluna and William Alfred (Fred) Rowe were from Bendigo and killed in action at Fleurbaix on the night of the 19th July 1916.
