‘And then he had to face the barbarities’

For Remembrancetide, words of Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry in his Director’s Address to the Royal College of Music on the 24th September, 1917:

I am afraid there is no longer any hope of young Purcell Warren being alive.  He has not been heard of for months.  It is a peculiarly tragic case.  He was one of the gentlest, and most refined and sensitive of boys, and was of that type which attracted people’s love.  He was a very promising violinist, and had also began to show characteristic qualities as a composer which were quite surprising, for there was a subtlety and a dexterity about his compositions which made us look upon him as likely to make a personal mark.  He endured bravely some very uncongenial experiences in the earlier stages of training, and then he had to face the barbarities, and one of humanity’s tenderest possessions was ruthlessly destroyed.

Francis Purcell Warren (1895–1916) was reported missing at Mons, during the Battle of the Somme, on the 3rd July, 1916; his body was never recovered.

(From https://www.warcomposers.co.uk/warren)