 Oscar Hornung left Eton College in 1914 , intending to enter King 's College , Cambridge later that year . When Britain entered the war against Germany , he volunteered , and was commissioned into the Essex Regiment . He was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6 July 1915 , aged 20 . Although heartbroken by the loss , Hornung was adamant that some good would come of it and he edited a privately issued collection of Oscar 's letters home under the title <unk> and Well Beloved , released in 1916 . Around this time he joined an anti @-@ aircraft unit . In either 1916 or 1917 he joined the YMCA and did volunteer work in England for soldiers on leave ; in March 1917 he visited France , writing a poem about his experience afterwards — something he had been doing more frequently since Oscar 's death — and a collection of his war poetry , Ballad of Ensign Joy , was published later that year . 
