The Emperor’s Meadow

In Gebze, anciently known as Libyssa, now an industrial district on the coast of the Sea of Marmora in northwestern Turkey-in-Asia, is a place called Hunkar Cayi, which translates to “The Emperor’s Meadow.”

This name seems to have come about because three of the most notable warriors in history seem to have died there.

• 83/181 BC – The great Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, then about 65, fearing capture by the Romans, ended his life by taking poison
• May 22, AD 337 – Roman Emperor Constantine I “the Great” (r. AD 306-337), no mean commander, died of an illness at 65
• May 3, 1481 – Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (r. 1451-1481), known as “The Conqueror” for his victories, died of an illness at 49

So if you’re an Emperor, it might be worth while to avoid visiting Hunkar Cayi.

Lieutenant Toland’s Legacy

First Lieutenant Benjamin Rush Toland, U.S.M.C.R., was killed in action on Iwo Jima, on February 21, 1945.  Toland, had been a brilliant scholar and athlete at St. Paul’s School, an Episcopal preparatory institution at which his father, a World War I veteran, taught history, and later at Yale, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1942.

Immediately after graduating from Yale, enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after basic training was sent to OCS.  Commissioned a second lieutenant in December of 1942, after completing the platoon leader’s course, he served as an aide to Brig. Gen. James Underhill.  He accompanied Underhill to Camp Lejeune, where the general served as Assistant Commander of the newly forming 4th Marine Division, and served as the general’s aid during operation in the Marshal Islands, including the landings at Roi- Namur, in February of 1944.

After Kwajalein, Toland was promoted to first lieutenant, secured command of an infantry platoon, and was wounded on the first day of landings on Saipan (June 15, 1944).  By February 19, 1945, Toland was back in command, heading a platoon of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines.  Two days later Toland and two of his men were killed by Japanese mortar fire.

Like all the many other talented and brave young men, officer or enlisted, who gave their lives in the war, Toland certainly deserves our honor and remembrance.  But something he did just a few days before he was killed marks him stand out from all those thousands; using a pencil, he wrote a brief will. 

Expressing the hope that his estate be used "to promote research toward the solution of contemporary problems", Toland made the following bequests,

• Congress of Industrial Organizations                          10 percent
• American Federation of Labor                                    10 percent
• National Association of Manufacturers                        20 percent
• St. Paul’s School                                                        20 percent
• Yale                                                                          10 percent
• The New York Times annual “Neediest” drive                5 percent
• The Episcopal Church                                                   5 percent

Perhaps the most interesting of Toland’s bequests was the final 20 percent, which he donated to the U.S. Congress, in order "to promote efficient government in the interest of all the people in the country . . . and a farsighted foreign policy".

Toland’s total worth was a little over $13,000 in money of 1945, which today appears modest to the vanishing point, but adjusted for inflation comes to about $138,000 on the basis of the CPI, and as much as $235,000 based on unskilled worker wages.