Tributes in Manchester cathedral at an official commemoration service to the Somme were paid not just to fallen Britons but also to those on the other side, reports the Guardian’s Helen Pidd.
She says that a number of Germans were present to remember their dead, joining other attendees including the chancellor, George Osborne, and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
A letter from a soldier called Wilhelm Karl Scheuermann was read out in his native German, in which the young Gefreiter (corporal) told his parents that:
One has to say that the Tommy achieves very little — even though he has a superiority in everything, they are not getting past us Swabians.
Another reading, by Jack Benjamin, was a letter home from the front, written by 2nd Lieutenant John Sherwin Engall - 16th London Regiment. Dated 30 June 1916, Engall wrote:
I have a strong feeling that I shall come through safely but nevertheless, should it be God’s holy will to call me away, I am quite perpared to go; and, I could not wish for a finer death; and you, dear Mother and Dad, will know that I died doing my duty to God, my Country and my King, I ask that you should look upon it as an honour that you have given a son for King & Country.
Engall was killed the following day, 1 July, aged 20.
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The Independent has a list of well-known figures who fought at the Somme. It includes:
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Adolf Hitler
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Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Otto Frank
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Harold Macmillan
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JRR Tolkien
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Siegfried Sassoon
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Robert Graves
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Edmund Blunden
The Guardian’s Maev Kennedy has reported that scraps of ribbons, figurines and toys, and religious medals are among a collection of charms carried by soldiers a century ago at the Battle of the Somme that went on display in an exhibition at the Science Museum on Wednesday.
A trench from the Somme has also been recreated in the basement of a National Trust castle in Wales.
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Ceremonies are taking place around the UK.
Today we remembered the sacrifices made by the Bradford Pals on 1st July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/PmKQzTXMcN
— Bradford Council (@bradfordmdc) July 1, 2016
Civic dignitaries gather at the Town Hall to mark the centenary of the Battle of Somme https://t.co/0kYWw9TOhp pic.twitter.com/GaMfatWdj8
— Warrington Council (@WarringtonBC) July 1, 2016
Thank you to @WoodbrookVale for inviting me to their Battle of the Somme commemoration today pic.twitter.com/EzhXong0lA
— Nicky Morgan (@NickyMorgan01) July 1, 2016
Today's event in Manchester, remembering those who fought during the Battle of the #Somme. pic.twitter.com/QJzWzVjZUi
— GMP Rochdale East (@GMPRochdaleEast) July 1, 2016
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Images have been beamed on to the White Cliffs of Dover. The words “Lest We Forget” and “Battle of the Somme” were among images shone on to the cliffs in Kent overlooking the Channel.
As well as marking the Somme’s 100th anniversary, the event was staged to help launch a scheme to support Armed Forces veterans. Ex-Army corporal Hannah Campbell –who lost her left leg in a blast in Basra – is aiming to raise £1m to help veterans who have hit hard times.
Campbell said veterans sometimes face trauma, homelessness and poverty, as well as a need for retraining once they return to civilian life. With the help of the newly launched Veterans’ Lottery, she hopes to secure funding for projects to help change the lives of those who served their country.
Campbell, patron of the new Veterans’ Foundation, told the Press Association:
July 1, 1916 was the heaviest loss in British Army history and those heroes gave everything to ensure our freedom. It is essential all of us remember that sacrifice. Lest we forget. At the same time, we must also be aware of what’s happening today, and those veterans that are in desperate need for help and support. We can’t change the past, but can learn from it and shape the future.
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Manchester fell silent to mark a century since the start of the Battle of the Somme, the Press Association reports. Among the 60,000 casualties suffered on 1 July were friends, neighbours and workmates in towns and cities across Britain – particularly the north – who volunteered for the Pals battalions.
Thousands of men responded to the call of the Lord Kitchener Wants You poster at a time before conscription was introduced. Many of the Pals were involved in their first major action on that fateful first day of the first world war battle.
One hundred years on, thousands gathered in the city centre on Friday to pay their respects as Manchester hosted a series of commemorative events on behalf of the nation. A short service at the Cenotaph in St Peter’s Square started proceedings, which will culminate with an evening concert in Heaton Park which was used as a training camp for soldiers before they were sent to the trenches.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev David Walker, who led the service, said:
We remember those whose names are inscribed on the hearts of those whom they left behind as they departed for the battlefield. Names inscribed on memorials in this and many lands, names for whom there is no memorial, names of those known only to yourself, O Lord God.
We represent today the many peoples and creeds that were ensnared in this deadliest of conflicts that took more than a million lives from 50 nations.
We pledge ourselves afresh today to work for a world where justice, peace and mercy will be sovereign - and war shall be no more.
The Last Post was played followed by the firing of a gun to mark a two-minute silence from 1.38pm. Wreaths were laid by the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Warren Smith, representing the Queen, Chancellor George Osborne and the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Carl Austin-Behan, before they viewed a march past in nearby Albert Square.
The 1,000-strong parade led by a 32-piece band from the King’s Regiment involved serving military personnel, regimental associations, various Royal British Legion branches and descendants of those who fought at the Somme.
The parade made its way past the town hall on to John Dalton Street and along Deansgate to loud applause from onlookers.
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An Irish government minister joined the Lord Mayor of Belfast at City Hall to lay wreaths at the war memorial.
In the new spirit of cross-border co-operation and Anglo-Irish relations, Dublin Cabinet Minister Leo Vradkar laid a wreath at the memorial in Belfast city centre.
Meanwhile in Dublin at the national military memorial the Irish Defence Forces joined members of the British Legion to herald in the day at 7.30am.
The attendance of Minister Vradkar at Belfast City Hall is yet another sign post in the journey the Irish states has taken from the official policy of forgetting about the Irish who fought in British regiments in both world wars to the acknowledgement of their sacrifices.
All this is directly connected to the peace process in Northern Ireland over the last 25 years ushering in a new era of good relationships north and south, and on both sides of the Irish Sea.
A centenary event is now being held at Manchester Cathedral. You can watch a live broadcast on BBC News.
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The national archives, the official archive of the UK government, has today announced that its unit war diaries for the Western Front (WO 95) have now been digitised. For the first time you can research every diary, including all that relate to the Somme, and download online.
Men dressed as soldiers appeared in cities, towns and villages in a poignant memorial to those killed in the first world war battle, Charlotte Higgins reports.
Waterloo station, London: 8am. “I’m here, under the big clock,” said a man into his phone. So were about 20 young men, immediately conspicuous because they were dressed in the various dull-green uniforms of the first world war: boots and puttees; highland dress; flared breeches. They were just there: not speaking, not even moving very much. Waiting, expressionless, for who knows what. A small crowd started to gather, taking photographs. A woman caught the eye of one of the men in uniform. She tried to speak to him. He looked into her eyes and, without speaking, pulled a small card out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Lance Corporal John Arthur Green,” it read. “1st/9th Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles). Died at the Somme on 1 July 1916. Aged 24 years.”
You can read the full piece below.
Tending to the wounded, Ruby Chapman (née Cockburn) worked as a British Red Cross service nurse on the No 16 ambulance train which collected men from the frontline.
The train was fitted with wards, kitchens, a dispensary, office, storerooms and accommodation. Ruby worked on the train for six months travelling to and from the casualty clearing stations near the front. Her pay throughout the war was £1 1s 0d a week, which is roughly £370 in today’s money.
Working on an ambulance train was hard work and there was a high illness rate among the personnel. The train often travelled at a snail’s pace. Air raids were frequent and the windows blew in with the force of the explosions.
Coping with large amounts of wounded men on the move made work incredibly intense. When not needed Royal Army Medical Corps staff sometimes went on long walks or played cricket and football with teams from other trains. Unlike military nurses, Red Cross nurses were allowed a degree of freedom when it came to mixing with men. Sometimes personnel returned to find the train no longer in the sidings and had to hitch a ride to get back on board.
In June 1918 No 16 train was hit by a bomb during a heavy raid in Etaples and it caught fire but luckily nobody was killed or badly injured.
In 1918 Ruby was awarded a Royal Red Cross second class. After the war she married Lt Philip Chapman in June 1919 and they moved to Yorkshire. Ruby was widowed in 1923 and moved south to support her young daughter. She died in the late 1960s surrounded by family in Bournemouth.
You can share your photos and stories with us via GuardianWitness or by clicking on the ‘Contribute’ button at the top of the live blog.
Prince William also gave an address written by Birdsong novelist Sebastian Faulks for the occasion. Below is a segment:
By the end of the first of July the British Army had sustained almost 60,000 casualties, of whom nearly one third had died. We lost the flower of a generation; and in the years to come it sometimes seemed that with them a sense of vital optimism had disappeared for ever from British life. It was in many ways the saddest day in the long story of our nation.
Tonight we think of them as they nerved themselves for what lay ahead. We acknowledge the failures of European governments, including our own, to prevent the catastrophe of world war. We offer our humblest respects to each man who fought in the Battle of the Somme, from every corner of the British Isles and from across the Commonwealth. We honour those whose names are recorded on this memorial – more than 72,000 who have no known grave – and to those who lie buried in Commonwealth War cemeteries.
And tonight, we stand here with a promise to those men: we will remember you. The gift you gave your country is treasured by every one of us this day. The sacrifice you made will never, ever be forgotten.
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At Thiepval earlier, one of the pieces of music, called The Lads in Their Hundreds by A.E. Housman, was performed by Samuel Boden. The piece was composed by Lieutenant George Butterworth and goes:
The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,
There’s men from the barn and the forge and the mill and the fold,
The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there,
And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old.
There’s chaps from the town and the field and the till and the cart,
And many to count are the stalwart, and many the brave,
And many the handsome of face and the handsome of heart,
And few that will carry their looks or their truth to the grave.
I wish one could know them, I wish there were tokens to tell
The fortunate fellows that now you can never discern;
And then one could talk with them friendly and wish them farewell
And watch them depart on the way that they will not return.
But now you may stare as you like and there’s nothing to scan;
And brushing your elbow unguessed-at and not to be told
They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,
The lads that will die in their glory and never be old.
Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has revealed that her husband’s great-uncle was wounded at the Somme but survived the battle. Foster, who is in northern France today for the official commemoration on the battlefield, told the Belfast Telegraph this morning that Sgt Robert Devers was sent back home to Ulster after being wounded. However, Foster said he insisted on returning to fight in France and was killed in action on 29 January 1918.
Foster said: “While I will be at the Somme today, representing the people of Northern Ireland, I will also be there to remember a family member and an individual, who – like so many others – went over the top on that fateful day a century ago.
“While the name of my husband’s great uncle appears on a headstone in Lisnaskea, like so many others, his body rests in France.”
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Meanwhile back in Belfast the residents in and around Tower Street have transformed the area into a battlefield scenario.
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Here is how the Guardian and Observer originally reported the Battle of the Somme a century ago.
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Shane Hughes, a reader, has written in with a remarkable family coincidence involving the Battle of the Somme. Hughes said he discovered that his mother’s uncle, Lt John S Dagg, and his father’s uncle, Pt James Douglas Hughes, both fought in the 2nd Battalion Auckland Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Whilst we’ve no idea whether they knew each other or not, they were both killed on the same day, in the same battle on 15 September 1916 at Longueval.
Both soldiers’ names are inscribed in the wall at the Caterpillar Valley cemetery as having graves ‘known only unto God’. Yet John Dagg’s headstone is one of the 300 allied soldiers buried at Thiepval. We can only assume his body was found some years later but how he managed to be selected for burial at the Thiepval memorial is a mystery.
Of course we can’t help but think of the possibility my mum’s uncle sent my dad’s uncle over the top only for the pair of them to perish that same day. Another soldier reported later that he saw James fall suddenly as if he had been shot but his body was never found. Fortunately there were enough Daggs and Hugheses left to enable my mum and dad to be created, meet, marry and carry on the family line. They remain in New Zealand to this day.
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There is a pacifist view of the importance of the Battle of the Somme. It started just four months after conscription was introduced in the UK for most single men between 18 and 40.
Conscripts did not fight at the battle, they were still being trained, but Symon Hill, coordinator of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said: “The generals knew that the conscripts would soon be arriving at the front and thus they could ‘afford’ the deaths of British soldiers as they would soon be replaced.”
The Somme, Hill argued, is therefore inseparable from resistance to conscription and comprehensive objection. Most who applied for exemption as conscientious objectors were denied. In spring 1916, 35 were sent to France “in what appears to have been an attempt to break the resistance”. They still refused to obey orders and punishment for that was execution.
They were court martialled and between 15 and 30 June, death sentences were handed down to all. But lobbying by anti-war activists and others in Britain helped get these commuted to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Howard Marten, a Quaker bank clerk, was the first to be sentenced. His description of events appears in the White Feather Diaries, a four-year online project serialising the experiences of conscientious objectors being run by the Quakers in Britain. Remembering his sentencing in a newspaper interview nearly 50 years later, now stored in the Imperial War Museum, Marten told how an officer had read out his death sentence.
“There was a pause and one thought, ‘Well, that’s that.’ And then ‘confirmed by the commander in chief’. That’s double-sealed it now. Then, another long pause and, ‘but subsequently commuted to penal servitude for 10 years.’”
The battle on the Somme had started by the time the men were sent back to Britain to serve their sentences. Bert Brocklesby, a teacher from Yorkshire sentenced on 24 June and transported with others later, remembered: “We hugged each other and rejoiced at leaving that land of death behind.
“How much a land of death we were to learn later; about the time we were in Rouen military prison, one of the bloodiest battles of all history, the battle of the Somme, had been fought.”
Alfred Evans, a piano tuner, was the last of the original 35 objectors to be sentenced – on 30 June, the day before the battle started.
All the conscientious objectors were released in 1919.
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Year 10 pupils from Bangor grammar school in Northern Ireland were ready to lay wreaths at the Somme today. The school is twinned with the Lycée Thuillier in Amiens, and the Bangor students joined their French counterparts on the old battlefield.
The County Down school has a strong connection with the first world war, as 37 of its former students were killed in the conflict. The students are in northern France today with the support of the British Council.
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Surgeon-Major George Hayes survived the horrors of the Somme but never recovered from what he had seen on the western front, according to his granddaughter Marianne Palmer-Smith.
Hayes was an Anglo-Indian and a professional soldier-surgeon. Though his own diaries of the war years were lost in a family move, Palmer-Smith has her grandmother’s diaries of the time, addressed to her father, then a small boy, with the words: “I’m going to put the details down for you, my darling John. I want you to know in your afterlife that your father was one of the trench heroes in this awful war.”
As an experienced officer of almost 30 when the war began, Hayes was asked to run a field hospital near Passchendaele and Ypres, before moving south to the Somme valley. He had already been sent home after suffering shell concussion in 1915, returning to France late in the spring of 1916.
Palmer-Smith knows nothing of her grandfather’s experiences on 1 July. He never spoke of his war experiences. From testimonials of other soldiers, however, she knows he would insist on going out to the front in the field ambulances, praying that the Germans would recognise the red cross on the side and spare them, because, as her grandmother recorded, “he did not believe in asking a man to do what he would not do”. On the first day of the Somme, Hayes would have spent exhausting hours trying to do what little he could for those who survived the fighting, said his granddaughter. “It must have been hell on earth. You cannot imagine what it was like.”
He survived a second shell concussion later in the war but was never himself again, said Palmer-Smith, who has a heartbreaking collection of letters written by her young father, who had been sent away to Sussex with a nanny, asking plaintively, “Is daddie well again?”
After the war, the family moved to South Africa, then the south of France, Jersey, and finally Guernsey, but Hayes found no peace, and twice tried to take his own life. After taking comfort in whisky, he died aged 52.
Among Palmer-Smith’s prized possessions is her grandfather’s cigarette case, which he always carried with him in his top pocket during the war, and which still contains some of his favourite Craven A cigarettes. “When you open it,” she said, “it’s like going back in time.” It also holds a letter from the doctor’s two sisters in India, and a small photograph of his young son John, stained and crumpled from being held many times.
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Nine VCs were awarded for heroism among British armed forces on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. They included four Ulstermen.
Over 5,500 men of the the 37th Ulster Division that day were killed or wounded. The division was a rare part of the British army to reach its objectives early on. By 8am, its troops had reached part of the battlefield called the Schwaben redoubt and taken over 400 German prisoners. But forces elsewhere faltered, leaving the division cut off and exposed to ferocious German counter-attacks which forced its troops to abandon the position and retreat.
The whole island of Ireland was then British – and more than 200,000 men are thought to have served in the British army during the first world war, even though conscription was never introduced there. About 35,000 of them, Protestant and Catholic, unionist and nationalist, died in the war.
It is worth remembering that the Somme battle started just a few weeks after the Easter Rising in Dublin on 24 April 1916. The attack on the first day involved 13 Commonwealth divisions supported by a French attack to the south. Despite seven days of preliminary bombardment, there was little damage to German defences and losses were catastrophic.
The memorial at Thiepval bears the names of more than 72,000 British and South African soldiers killed mostly during the battle, but also up to March 1918, who have no marked grave.
The Thiepval memorial was built between 1928 and 1932, and designed by the architecht Sir Edwin Lutyens.
There is also small cemetery at at the foot of the memorial containing equal numbers of graves of Commonwealth and French troops.
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The service at Thiepval has been incredibly moving for a lot of viewers, who have expressed their mood on Twitter.
Abide with me...beautiful rendition at The Centenary Of the Battle of the Somme #Thiepval @BBCOne pic.twitter.com/EPwhdpUSYO
— Kim Hamilton (@KimHamilton8) July 1, 2016
The live BBC news coverage from Thiepval has broken me.
— Nina (@shit_ninja) July 1, 2016
Absolutely incredible service at the Thiepval memorial. Stirring stuff #Somme100
— Guy Ellis (@guyyellis) July 1, 2016
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The Press Association reports:
The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers will attend the Ulster Tower ceremony this afternoon with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster, will represent the Stormont executive. The Irish government will be represented by Heather Humphreys, minister for regional development, rural affairs, arts & the Gaeltacht.
“Around 35,000 Irishmen – Protestants and Catholics, unionists and nationalists – were killed in the first world war,” Villiers said. “Their contribution and their sacrifice was immense, and we should never forget it.”
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French & British school children marking each of the graves at Thiepval #Somme100 #lestweforget pic.twitter.com/sRUBVkJw2d
— Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) July 1, 2016
In Scotland, a whistle carried by an officer at the Battle of the Somme was blown by his descendant to commemorate the Scottish soldiers who fought in the Somme. It brought to an end an overnight vigil at the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle to mark the 100th anniversary of the battle.
Thousands of Scots from 51 battalions gave their lives and representatives of regimental associations from across the country gathered at the memorial to respect a two-minute silence at 7.30am - the moment when soldiers were led into battle a century ago.
Prayers were said at the vigil before candles were taken inside the war memorial and placed on a casket containing the original Roll of Honour for the fallen of the First World War. The candles were guarded overnight by representatives from units including the Wrens, the Royal Navy and several Scottish Army regiments, standing by the casket with their heads bowed.
Edinburgh Castle was also floodlit red to mark the anniversary.
Alan Hamilton, who blew his great-uncle’s whistle, said:
My great-uncle Robert Hamilton was an artillery officer at the battle. He was attached to a Scottish unit as an observation officer and he blew this whistle on 1 July at 7.30am 100 years ago to take his men over the top into action.
He went forward with the regiment and, because of the high rate of casualties among the officers, he ended up commanding the regiment until he was wounded and evacuated.
After the war, my father was given the whistle by uncle Robert and he then carried it through the whole of the second world war when he was in the RAF, and when I joined the army he passed it on to me. I carried it for 41 years and my son, who is a corporal in the army, will be getting the whistle once these commemorations are over.
It was quite emotional, the hairs on the back of my neck went up and I thought this was something really special.
It’s a big part of the family, with 100 years of history, and with a bit of luck that will continue on to future generations.
Nicola Sturgeon called for reflection on the “horrors of the Great War” as she attended the remembrance event at Thiepval. She said:
Barely a single community in Scotland was left untouched by the battle. Across Scotland communities are now remembering those who gave their lives, and a whole century on from the devastation and suffering of the Battle of the Somme, we should all reflect on the horrors of the Great War and give thanks that our continent now lives in peace.
The Press Association contributed to this report.
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François Hollande, David Cameron and Prince Charles have all given a reading now.
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Charles Dance is now reading the poem Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon. It goes...
Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same--and War’s a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz--
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench--
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack--
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads--those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.
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A newly discovered minute-by-minute eyewitness account of the first day of the battle of the Somme described how British infantrymen were quickly cut down by enemy shells and machine gun fire amid utter confusion while smoke and gas enveloped the ground between the opposing trenches.
The diary of Major Francis Meynell of the disastrous day in which 19,240 British soldiers were killed and more than 38,000 wounded – the bloodiest day in the history of the British army – was uncovered in Staffordshire’s county archives. Meynell, from Burton-upon-Trent, was stationed at the northern end of the battlefield where the 137th Staffordshire Brigade attacked the German-held village of Gommecourt.
The 1/6th North Staffords and 1/6th South Staffords formed part of the brigade and were in the first wave of attacks on 1 July 1916. Of the 523 officers and men of the 1/6th South Staffords, 239 were killed, wounded, or were missing. The 1/6th North Staffords lost 170 officers and men of whom 126 were never found.
On the day of the attack, Meynell kept a diary of events as they unfolded from his position in a cellar in the nearby village of Foncquevillers.
Meynell wrote his first entry at 6.25am. It simply read “bombardment begins”. By 6.47am, he noted “the drift of shell smoke” obscuring important landmarks. At 4.34pm, after 10 hours of battle, Meynell reported: “First absolute silence of 20 seconds since 6.50am.”
6.53am: B.232 (O.P.[observation post] reported “Observation poor. Enemy shelling frontline with whizzbangs and crumps. Two 5.9. shells just fallen in front of battery.”
7.15am: C.232 [an observation post] could not tell me the direction enemy fire was coming from.
7.33am: We tried to get in touch with Right F.O.O. [forward observation officer] and Battalion Liaison Officer, but were unable to get any reply.
7.45am: A.232 (O.P.) reported that enfilade gun in ORCHARD (HANNESCAMP road) was being whizzbanged.
7.46am: Two infantry officers who came into HQ reported that there appeared to be more heavy enemy guns in action than on any previous occasion
7.52am: Out of communication with R battalion on artillery wire.
7.56am: Out of communication with L battalion on artillery wire.
8.08am: The orchard was reported as being shelled by 4.2 and 5.9.
8.11am: The 139th Bde Major reported that most of the infantry casualties were being caused by a machine gun on their right.
8.55am: Lt. Villa of 5th batt. Came in to HQ and reported that he had got into enemy first line which he found to be very strongly held. He was wounded in arm and in a bad way. He told us that the enemy came out of their dug outs after the first waves had passed over.
9.35am: Col. Goodman reported, “Things have gone badly. Scott (M.O.? [medical officer]) says first two waves started, but 3 and 4 were cut down before they got to first line as smoke apparently thinned.”
10.36am: The information at this time 3 hours and 6 minutes after 0.0. [ie zero hour] seemed very conflicting and no conclusion as to what had actually happened could be come to.
1.12pm: C.232 (O.P.) reported “Fancy infantry seen moving between little Z towards big Z. Cannot say for certain whether hostile or friendly. Could we say for certain.” We reported had no knowledge.
1.15pm: C.232 (O.P.) reported they thought above were English.
4.34pm: First absolute silence of 20 secs since 6.05am
5.15pm: Bdr. Hale and Gr. Richards, A.323 battery, two of Lt. Clarke’s party came to report themselves to me. Their account was as follows: - Just before the attack started they were both put out of action by gas shells....They discovered the wire smashed to atoms for some distance. The reels of wire having been taken over by Lt. Clarke they returned to the battery, procured some more and went down again to the sap head to relay the missing part. Meeting with much difficulty in carrying out the work because of snipers and realizing the impossibility of getting across they decided to return and report to their battery commander who sent them to me. These men appear to have behaved extremely well under great difficulties. This is the second time that Gr. Richards has proved his excellence and courage as a wire-man.
9.52pm: C.232 (O.P.) reported, “Bombing seen and heard in German second line also flashes and smoke.” Further orders for the artillery in connection with the proposed attack in the evening...The proposed attack was not successful.
Gill Heath, a Staffordshire councillor responsible for the county’s first world war commemorations, said: “Meynell’s diary was a really exciting discovery for our archives staff and gives us a frightening insight into how things unfolded on that terrible day. Publishing the diary for the first time is all part of our plans to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and highlight Staffordshire’s many contributions.”
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This was the reading by Sol Campbell.
Reading by Sol Campbell about former Clapton Orient (now Leyton O) player Willie Jonas #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/yCr8rexA5y
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
As letters are being read out at Thiepval (currently actor Jason Isaacs is narrating the proceedings), readers are sending in their own stories.
Harry Norman Snape, born in 1893, was a prisoner of war after being captured at the battle of Trônes Wood. He wrote many letters during his time at the front until his capture on 10 July 1916. One of them, dated 20 June, refers to “the day”, which was to become the first day of the battle of the Somme:
We are training for ‘The Day’. We are only here for a day or two and then back. I can’t say when it’ll come off but when it does I think that we all shall be ready. Honestly, kid, I am going to try and do something. Nothing rash of course but I’m going to have a good try for honours. There are three of us here pals together, Clem Nixon, a chap we call ‘Ginger’ (H Rogers) & myself. The aforesaid Ginger is in for a Military Medal for attending the wounded under shell fire … This is the last letter I can write for a bit for post is stopped from here after tonight.
Best Love Harry.
Don’t worry. I shall be A1.
Love to all.
A few days later Harry’s battalion assembled in Maricourt, just west of Trônes Wood, as part of a strategic offensive to capture the village of Guillemont. Although they crossed the first 200 yards of no man’s land without incident, they encountered heavy shell fire from the Germans.
The Germans retaliated and Trônes Wood came under heavy bombardment. The allied troops found themselves locked in and were eventually bombed out. All were killed or, as in the case of Harry Snape, captured. Over 200 men were missing after the battle of Trônes Wood.
Due to wounds on his hands and wrist Harry was in hospital before being transferred to the POW camp in Hammelburg. He continued to write during his time there until his release and subsequent return home.
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A century after the Somme, another war now seems less unimaginable, writes Simon Tisdall.
Opinions vary about the origins of the first world war, but there is no doubt that the rise of aggressively chauvinistic nationalism in Britain and across Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, dressed up as respectable flag-waving patriotism, was a key factor.
As Britain and its erstwhile allies and foes commemorate an awful byproduct of that phenomenon on Friday – the 1916 battle of the Somme – the spectre of unthinking, potentially violent nationalism and its ugly sister, hatred of foreigners, is once again stalking Europe.
Read the full piece below.
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Here is a picture of Cameron, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Tte Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Hollande arriving.
Hollande-Cameron-PrinceCharles-PrinceWilliam-Kate-Camilla-PrinceHarry... BreKing news ;-) #Thiepval cc @BFMTV pic.twitter.com/TUXhPEfOI3
— Adrien Gindre (@agindre) July 1, 2016
The new Europe. Francois Hollande not seeing eye-to-eye with David Cameron. Or the royals. #Thiepval #Somme pic.twitter.com/0tHBGlXAfs
— Tony Connelly (@tconnellyRTE) July 1, 2016
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Celebrities including Charles Dance and Sol Campbell are narrating the event. Letters and stories are being read out to the crowd.
I’ll be reading a heart-breaking letter shortly, written by a footballer in the trenches, from The Thiepval Memorial @BBCOne #Somme100
— Sol Campbell (@SolManOfficial) July 1, 2016
The Guard of Honour arrives at the #Somme100 commemorations at the Thiepval Memorial in France, ahead of VVIPS. pic.twitter.com/34w8108rHS
— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) July 1, 2016
Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s far-right National Front, is at Thiepval.
Je suis présente au mémorial de #Thiepval pour la commémoration de la Bataille de la Somme. #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/wlnKA47yNP
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 1, 2016
Michael D Higgins, the Irish president has arrived.
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David Cameron has also arrived. This will be one of the last commemorative events he attends as prime minister. No doubt Cameron and Hollande have plenty to talk about …
Angela Merkel is not expected today, but a former president of Germany will attend.
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François Hollande has arrived at Thiepval and is meeting part of the British delegation and French armed forces. Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have also arrived. The heads of state will gather and wait until all the principal guests arrive. The national anthems will be played before the heads of state take their place in the crowds, which have been waiting for up to three hours at this point.
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At Thiepval, the band of the Welsh Guards have just finished performing and given way to the French military band. You can watch the proceedings live on BBC 1.
Arrivée dans la Somme pour la commémoration de la Bataille. Très impressionnant. @Mission1418 @IWM_Centenary pic.twitter.com/0PPs9cp4wt
— Axelle Lemaire (@axellelemaire) July 1, 2016
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Students have made a life-size paper recreation of the Battle of the Somme.
In 2014, dozens of students on Birmingham City University’s theatre, performance and event design course worked tirelessly to craft the installation out of paper and cardboard. The items were originally on show to mark the start of first world war, but today the images and time-lapse video of the exhibition are being revisited by students and graduates paying their respects on the Battle’s centenary.
Each figure, setting and item was made out of brown paper to portray a typical day on the battlefield. It featured trenches, poor outdoor sleeping quarters, injured soldiers and reproductions of the weaponry used during the conflict. It took students four weeks on a budget of only £450 to transform the exhibition space into a recreation of the first world war’s largest battle.
After completion, the Royal Air Force, who visited the site, took the full installation to its base at RAF Shawbury.
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It’s worth noting that when François Hollande attends the centenary today he will be the first French head of state at a Somme commemoration in more than 80 years.
As the BBC reports, Charles De Gaulle did not attend the 50th anniversary in 1966 and his successors have not been at any subsequent event. The last time a French head of state went to a Somme commemoration was in 1932 when Albert Lebrun helped inaugurate the Thiepval memorial alongside the future King Edward VIII.
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French & British flags on Lutyens's vast memorial to 72,000 UK & S African men whose bodies never found #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/wVXMAO2NpP
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
This is the famous mud of the Somme valley. 10.000 visitors have been given rain ponchos #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/B6Fe9fmMFO
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
Diane Freeman @ #somme100 for gt uncle Walter Clapperton, close to tears. His name is on memorial to 72,000 missing pic.twitter.com/W43IJXY5uC
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
Kelly McKenna, 27, from Luton. At #Somme100 remembering gt-gt uncle who died during Great War, his body never found pic.twitter.com/277rJ4i5i4
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
Kelly McKenna, 27, from Luton, first became interested in the first world war on a school trip to the battlefields of northern France when she was a teenager. She had not wanted to come at first, she said, but as soon as she saw the monuments, she said they captured her. Why? “It’s the sheer scale of it, of the loss. These men didn’t know what they were going into. They thought they would be home by Christmas,” she said.
She later discovered her own great-great-uncle John Naylor had fought with the Dorset Regiment; he was killed elsewhere in the war and his body never found. Last year, she had a poppy tattooed on her left forearm with the words “Lest we forget”.
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Readers have sent in some moving stories of soldiers who died 100 years ago today. One wais Pte Charles John Harvey. His great-niece Elizabeth Dean said he was only 19 when he died.
Born in 1897 in Plaistow, Essex, Harvey was in the No 1 section, 64th company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry). He had three siblings and worked as a barman before he enlisted. Charles was killed during the advance on the village of Fricourt on 1 July. His last letter home had been written four days earlier:
Dear Mother and Dad,
I now take the pleasure of writing to you hoping the letter will find you in the best of health as it leaves me at the time of writing. Also to let you know that I have just got your letter with the birthday cards and I thank you very much for them – they both have very good tokens on them and are very pretty. I will look after them and each time I look at them will remind me of the first birthday I have ever had away from my home. But I am living in great hope that by next June 1917 I will be with you all at home and enjoying myself.
Well I am very pleased to hear that you are getting on a bit better and that Dad is at work again, and I must say that I am getting on with the life well. I think I shall soon be a regular pipe smoker which will be better for my chest as you know I am very short winded and it’s a great trouble to me out here. I would be glad if I could get my wind back again. Well I am quite satisfied with the cards and I won’t forget that home and Mother and Dad are my best friends when I am in trouble again. I think I done wrong when I joined up the second time but all being well, and with God’s help, I will soon be with you all again.
I think this is all I can tell you at the time of writing. So I close this letter with best love to all at home wishing you all the very best prospects of the year.
From your Loving Son,
Charlie
Kisses for Dollie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From her Loving Brother Charlie
Tell Aunt Lizzie that I thank her for the card she sent.
A loving heart but far away but thinks of home every day, though the war may last long I hope to come home well and strong.
- If you have any stories, photos or letters of family who were at the battle of the Somme you can share them with us by clicking the blue button at the top of the live blog.
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My colleague Esther Addley, who is at Thiepval for today’s commemorations, also reports that Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has arrived, as have Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and the writer Sebastian Faulks.
Jeremy Corbyn has arrived at Thiepval monument for #Somme100. Can also see Nicola Sturgeon, Sebastian Faulks, Seumas Milne on his mobile
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
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Crowds started arriving at the vast Thiepval monument to the Somme’s missing early in the day. About 10,000 people have secured tickets, and many carried artefacts or told stories of granddads, great-granddads, great-uncles and family friends who had fought and, in many cases, died.
Steve Richards, from Brighton, brought a photograph of his great-grandfather Arthur Sillence, of the 11th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment, and also a worn postcard, addressed in pencil to his great-grandmother in Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire.
This card posted home by Steve Richards' gt granddad Arthur Silence on 1Jul. He died the same day, body never found pic.twitter.com/yOZcr7KVjn
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
Soldiers were not allowed to add any personal details to the pre-printed cards, but the soldier had crossed out everything other than “I am quite well,” and signed it. It was postmarked 1 July 1916. Sillence had been killed at La Boisselle in the early hours of that day. His body was never recovered, and his name is one of the 72,000 of missing soldiers inscribed on Lutyens’ memorial.
“He was just an ordinary man, 38 years old, who worked on the railways,” said Richards. “Signed up, put in uniform, and off he went to war.”
Rear of card sent by Arthur Sillence 1July 'I am quite well'. Died same day La Boisselle, body never found #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/bEY1gvdhVQ
— esther addley (@estheraddley) July 1, 2016
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The CWGC’s casualty database does not list the age of everyone killed on 1 July 1916. Ages were not always provided by the military authorities or next of kin but those that were convey overwhelmingly the youth of most who fell.
The youngest soldier to die was Pte Henry John Edward Woodward, 15, whose mother’s address was listed as West Kensington, London. He served in the 1st/6th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment and is commemorated at the Thiepval memorial. Another of those who died, 54-year-old Lt Col Charles Cecil Archibald Sillery, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, was the commanding officer of the 20th (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion. It lost 311 men, one of the highest losses for a single battalion on the battle’s opening day.
The regiments who lost the most soldiers on 1 July 2016 had large numbers of pals’ battalions in their ranks. These units consisted of groups of young men from the same village, town, street or workplace who enlisted, fought and died together. The army had relied on the camaraderie generated by serving alongside friends, neighbours and colleagues to recruit the huge force it thought necessary to win the war. These young, non-professional volunteer soldiers paid a high price at the Somme.
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My colleagues on the Guardian visuals team have produced charts using records held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The CWGC’s casualty database lists 17,310 British soldiers who died on 1 July 1916 and are buried or commemorated in France’s Somme department. More soldiers who died that day are buried or commemorated in other countries and French departments – the long-accepted historical figure for British deaths on the first day of the Somme is 19,240.
CWGC data confirms it was the lower orders who bore the brunt of the carnage on the first day. This was an inexperienced army with large numbers of volunteers – many of those who died had signed up earlier in the war and were at the front for the first time after completing their training.
The highest-ranking officer to die that day was Brigadier General Charles Bertie Prowse, 47, from Taunton in Somerset. He fell while commanding the 11th Infantry Brigade but his actions at another battle in 1914 led to a cemetery being named after him in Belgium.
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Thiepval memorial commemorations programme
A programme of film, music and poetry will be used to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme at Thiepval today. Performers from across the UK, including 600 British, Irish and French school children will take part in the event.
Actors Charles Dance and Joely Richardson will narrate the event and former England international footballer Sol Campbell and actor Jason Isaacs will do a reading. Scottish singer Julie Fowlis will sing An Eala Bhàn (“The White Swan”) in Gaelic.
The Morriston Orpheus choir, the band of the Royal Irish Regiment, British tenor Samuel Boden, and the band of the Welsh Guards will perform songs connected to the battle, including those written by soldiers in the trenches.
The music, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Sakari Oramo, will include George Butterworth’s The Banks of Green Willow, composed while he served with the Durham Light Infantry. Awarded the Military Cross for his leadership in July 1916, he did not live to receive the award and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.
To reflect the Anglo-French nature of the event, the chœur de l’armée française will also participate today.
Highlights of the cultural programme include:
- Poems and historical recollections read by UK and international military and Somme descendants.
- Exhibition boards by the National Army Museum.
- Examples of first world war military hardware from leading national museums will also be at Thiepval, including a replica first world war tank from The Tank Museum in Bovington.
- An original London battlebus from the first world war provided by the London Transport Museum.
- A fly-past of replica British and German first world war aircraft provided by the Yorkshire Air Museum and the First World War Aviation Heritage Trust.
- And a screening of the edited version of the Imperial War Museum’s film The Battle of the Somme (1916) accompanied by music composed by Laura Rossi and performed live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
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Sidney Dixon was a 19-year-old draughtsman from Grimsby when he signed up in 1914, part of the first wave of Kitchener’s volunteers. Two years later, he and his fellow members of the 10th battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment – the “Grimsby Chums” – found themselves on the Somme, readying for an attack at the village of La Boisselle.
At 7.28am, two minutes before the scheduled advance, the enormous Lochnagar mine was detonated, supposedly to eliminate the German positions. So vast was that explosion that the hole it blew out in the Feench soil remains to this day, still 91 metres wide and 21 metres deep.
Critically, however, the mine had been placed short of the enemy lines, and in the two minutes of calm that followed, the German gunners were able to ready their weapons for the British advance. By the time they were able to fall back, half of the 1,000-strong Chums had been killed, injured or were missing.
Dixon was injured but survived, and on 22 July he wrote to his sister and her husband from hospital. “I am now back with the old company – at least, what few there are left, so you see I was not seriously wounded. I think I was about as lucky as any who went over on July 1st. What do you say.”
At least the fact the 10th battallion had been “so cut up” would remind people back in Grimsby there was a war on, he wrote. “I am not sure many knew, last time I was at home.” A week after he sent the letter, Dixon died of his injuries.
Dixon also thanks his sister Gerty for sending a photograph of her baby daughter Eileen (“If people say she is like me, I should say that’ll suit”), and today, Eileen’s sons will attend the commemoration at the Thiepval monument in his memory.
“My brother and I just felt that we should pay our respects to one of our ancestors who laid down his life for the country,” says Roger Dixon, from Harpenden. “We just felt it was something we should do.
“It’s just such a tragedy when you look back to how young these people were. A whole generation was lost.”
Like many in her position, said Dixon, his mother never really talked about her uncle, but for the rest of her life she would save clippings from the local paper about the Chums, along with a handful of cherished artefacts.
Among them, as well as Dixon’s war medal, Roger Dixon and his brother will be bringing with them a tiny 10cm bible that was given by their grandparents to the soldier for Christmas 1914, and which they are certain Sidney Dixon would have been carrying on the day of the attack. “It says: ‘From Gertie and Ernest, to Sidney with Love.’ It’s a little tattered now but it’s still legible on the cover. And it’s got his name, and Grimsby Battalion 134.”
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Timeline of the Battle of Somme
This timeline of the Battle of the Somme by the Imperial War Museum is handy.
- December 1915 - Allied commanders meet to discuss strategies for the upcoming year and agree to launch a joint French and British attack in the region of the river Somme in the summer of 1916.
- 21 February 1916 - The German attack on the French at Verdun begins, forcing Britain to take the lead in the Somme offensive. The Battle of Verdun continues until 18 December 1916.
- 24 June 1916 - A seven-day preliminary bombardment begins in an attempt to cut the barbed wire in front of the German lines and destroy trench defences and artillery. The infantry assault was scheduled for 29 June but was postponed for 48 hours due to bad weather.
- 1 July 1916 - The offensive begins at 07.30am. German machine gunners emerge from their largely intact shelters and mow down many of the oncoming British infantry. Only in the south of the British front of attack do some British troops take their objectives, with French forces making gains south of the Somme. The British did not achieve the quick breakthrough their military leadership had planned for and the Somme became a deadlocked battle of attrition.
- 2 - 13 July 1916 - General Sir Henry Rawlinson’s fourth army fights to capture Trones Wood, Mametz Wood and Contalmaison to cover the flanks of an assault on the German second main defensive position.
- 14 July 1916 - A dawn attack results in the seizure of 6,000 yards (5,486 metres) of the German line between Longueval and Bazentin-le-Petit. Longueval was cleared by the end of the month, but the Germans in neighbouring Delville Wood held out until 27 August. High Wood was unoccupied on the morning of 14 July, but the British missed this opportunity and it took another two months to capture the wood.
- 23 July – 5 August 1916 - In this period the Australian divisions of General Sir Hubert Gough’s reserve army were involved in a costly but successful struggle for Pozières village, an alternative approach into the rear of the Thiepval defences. As the French fought towards Péronne, the British fourth army tried to assist their progress by capturing Guillemont and Ginchy although neither fell until early September.
- 15 September 1916 - By mid-September the British were ready to assault the German third line of defences with a new weapon, the tank. Objectives for 15 September included the fourth army’s capture of the German defences at Flers and the seizure of Gueudecourt, Lesboeufs and Morval. The Canadian Corps of Gough’s reserve army was to take Courcelette. Of 49 tanks available to support the infantry, only 36 reached their starting points, though these caused alarm among the German defenders. Flers and Courcelette fell but the advance on 15 September was limited to about 2,500 yards (2,286 metres) on a three-mile (4.8km) front. The Germans retained Morval and Lesboeufs for a further 10 days and the offensive stalled.
- 26 September 1916 - Haig believed that if pressure was maintained the German forces would ultimately collapse. On 26 September Gough’s reserve army began an attack on the Thiepval ridge from the Schwaben redoubt to the north of Courcelette.
- 14 October 1916 – Fighting in the Schwaben redoubt finally ends. In the meantime, from 1 - 20 October, on the battle’s extreme right, the fourth army was edging painfully towards Le Transloy, capturing Le Sars on 7 October. However, rain was turning the battleground into a quagmire.
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13 November 1916 - The last act of the Somme offensive took place in the Ancre sector from 13 - 19 November. The operation went ahead, despite repeated postponements, largely because it was hoped that a late British success might create a favourable impression at the inter-allied conference at Chantilly on 15 November. Since 1 July, the British had seized a strip of territory 6 miles (10km) deep by 20 miles long (32km) yet were still 3 miles (5km) from Bapaume and the French, further south, had stopped short of Péronne. Although the Germans were weakened, the allies failed to achieve all of their objectives and the war was to continue for another two years.
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Social media users are tweeting pictures of actors dressed as soldiers handing out cards for the dead men they represent in stations around the country. They are using the hashtag #wearehere.
Moving scenes at Birmingham New Street & Moor Street this morning #wearehere #Somme100 #ww1 pic.twitter.com/dzSzXneoRF
— Verity Milligan (@Vemsteroo) July 1, 2016
Very moving RT @rosieladkin: Amazing scenes at Bristol Temple Meads this morning. Incredibly moving. #wearehere pic.twitter.com/p8oAenOFbF
— Pete Levy (@Pete_Levy) July 1, 2016
Waterloo station 08.30am #wearehere pic.twitter.com/nYsC6zQLec
— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) July 1, 2016
Extremely moving tribute at @NetworkRailMAN this morning... #Somme100 #wearehere @BBCR1 pic.twitter.com/EsiKAOIpck
— Verity S (@veritystockdale) July 1, 2016
The Sport Remembers the Somme 1916-2016 campaign is fronted by a number of sporting legends. Here are some statements of support from them:
Sir Nick Faldo MBE, former world golf No 1 and six-time major championship winner, said: “The Royal British Sport Remembers effort recognises the athletes who made historic contributions to our nation through service or sacrifice at the Battle of the Somme and during the first world war. It is an honour to represent our sport in salute of the golfers and associated professionals who will forever be remembered for their contribution to our national history through ultimate service to our country.”
Sally Gunnell, Team GB Olympic gold medal winner, said: “During the first world war many Olympic athletes swapped the track and field for the battlefield and made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I’m proud to represent athletics in the Royal British Legion Sport Remembers campaign and encourage clubs around the country to unite in commemorative events to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.”
Mike Gatting OBE, former England cricket captain and Middlesex batsman, said: “I am delighted and honoured to represent cricket in the Royal British Legion’s Sport Remembers campaign. Twelve Test cricketers and more than 200 first class players were killed during world war I. Hundreds more, men from big old county grounds to village green clubs all over Britain, fought and survived. At the Somme 100 years ago, two English Test stars were killed: Yorkshire’s Major Booth and Kent’s Ken Hutchings. I find it humbling that so many players of the game I love sacrificed so much for their country. I would urge anyone connected with a cricket team or club to join the Legion’s campaign and organise a commemorative event to mark the 100th anniversary of the Somme. Let’s remember the cricketing soldiers who fought and died.”
Josh Lewsey MBE, World Cup-winning England rugby player and former Royal Artillery officer, said: “I am humbled and honoured to help commemorate these players and soldiers by representing rugby in the Royal British Legion Sport Remembers campaign. Many of these players fought and some of them died at the Somme, including the extraordinary Edgar Mobbs who, because of his age, was turned down for commission so joined up as a private and raised a company of rugby fans and players that became known as Mobbs’s Own.”
Peter Shilton OBE, former goalkeeper and England’s most-capped player with 125 appearances, said: “I am proud to represent football in the Royal British Legion Sport Remembers campaign. We sometimes like to think otherwise, but football is only a game. And it pales into insignificance compared with some of the deeds and sacrifices of the men who fought 100 years ago at the Somme. In 1914, whole battalions were formed by professional footballers who inspired hundreds of fans and other sportsmen to join up to fight alongside them. One man who brilliantly used the game to inspire his men was 2nd Lieutenant Wilfred Nevill. A multi-talented sportsman himself, he knew how important football was to them. And to divert the men’s minds from the terrors of the first day of the Somme, he bought two footballs and had his men kick and pass them across no man’s land as they advanced. Nevill himself was killed in the attack on 1 July 1916. But his actions made news all over the world and were an inspiration to many at home and at the front.”
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The Royal British Legion has called on Britain’s sporting organisations, associations, clubs, teams and individuals to commemorate the role played by sportsmen at the Battle of the Somme. The campaign, called Sport Remembers the Somme 1916-2016, is being launched off the back of 100 Sportsmen of the Somme stories, which have been produced and released for free online by the charity in an effort to inspire the nation’s professional and amateur sporting organisations and individuals to unite in remembrance. In a press release, the charity said:
The Battle of the Somme, which ran from 1 July – 18 November 1916, was one of the most difficult and costly battles of the first world war. To aid the war effort, virtually all professional sport had been suspended for the duration by the time the Battle of the Somme began. Athletes and players from sports at all levels had volunteered to enlist – sometimes en masse as an entire team and its supporters. There were battalions that included significant numbers of athletes, footballers, and individual members of clubs and teams. Many other players – from first class cricketers to amateur boxers – served in Pals Battalions recruited from towns, villages, schools, workplaces and trades. When these battalions suffered losses, as they did mostly at the Somme, the impact was felt at the club and community level.
Sportsmen featuring in 100 Sportsmen of the Somme include:
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Captain Wilfred Percy Nevill (football) - Captain Wilfred “Billie” Nevill became world famous when he used footballs to inspire his men into an attack. The balls were booted into no man’s land as the Royal East Surreys went over the top on the first day of the Somme. For many, including Captain Nevill, it was the last game of football they ever played.
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Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse VC & Bar (athletics) - Noel Chavasse was dying. As he lay terribly wounded in a hospital near Ypres, he managed to dictate a letter to his fiancee. “Duty called and called me to obey”, he said. The army doctor had been set for a brilliant career in medicine – but instead he became one of the most extraordinary soldiers Britain has ever seen, winning the Victoria Cross twice.
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Private Albert Tingey (golf) - Albert Tingey was already in France when war was declared, as a professional at a golf school near Paris. He sensibly decided not to take on the enemy alone – so returned to England and raised a pals’ battalion of golfers, The Niblick Brigade.
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Clapton Orient (football) - Football stars Mac McFadden and Willie Jonas were trapped in a trench. Willie turned to his lifelong friend and said: “Goodbye Mac, best regards to the lads at Orient.” Then he was gone. Willie, Mac and their pal George Scott were three Clapton Orient footballers who died at the Somme.
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Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Roberts Mobbs DS (rugby) - Edgar Mobbs was devastated – the charismatic England rugby star had been turned down for a commission because he was too old at 32. But Mobbs had other ideas. He enlisted as a private soldier and issued a rallying cry to the crowd after a game at Northampton. It was the beginning of the extraordinary infantry company known as Mobbs Own.
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Lt Kenneth Lotherington Hutchings (cricket) - Kenneth Hutchings was possibly the most extravagantly talented batsmen of English cricket’s golden age in the years before the first world war. He was killed on the Somme, forever depriving cricket admirers of his “amazing brilliancy”.
The Legion has also released a free Sport Remembers the Somme 1916-2016 toolkit for holding a commemorative event, including a souvenir pennant.
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My colleagues on visuals have made this map detailing where and when the offences took place.
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Vigils commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/zfjnkWvFY0
— Ben Nicholls (@Benjaminicholls) July 1, 2016
Here is another picture from Waterloo station this morning, taken by the Guardian’s Maev Kennedy.
My colleague Henry McDonald, in Belfast, has written about his great grandfather, William Stewart, who fought in and survived the battle, but not the war.
Exactly 100 years ago today the 36th Ulster Division sustained 5,500 casualties of which 2,000 died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. My great-grandfather was among those who survived that first wave of slaughter as soldiers drawn from Lord Carson’s army primarily to resist home rule – the original Ulster Volunteer Force – went over the top.
William Stewart from the Belfast loyalist redoubt of the Shankill Road was 33 years old when he and his comrades charged forward to the German lines on 1 July 1916.
He managed to escape death or serious injury, but his luck on the western front was only to last another seven months. In January 1917 William’s battalion were sent into Belgium and the Battle of Ypres. Four hundred men from this 36th battalion, including William, were caught in a mass German ambush and all were killed. There is a corner of the cemetery at St Quentin in Ypres with a gravestone with William’s name on it.
William’s story and that of his children and grandchildren illuminates the complex nature of 20th century Irish history and the Great War. One of his daughters, Florence, later in life “crossed the line” from the Protestant-unionist Shankill to marry a Catholic from the republican Lower Falls district of Belfast. One of her daughters, Florence, my mother, would remind us from time to time, whenever there were war films or documentaries on television in the 1970s, that her grandfather had fought at the Somme.
Only recently have some members of the Stewart family gone back to find William’s war grave. Others in the Stewart/McManus/McDonald families – during what they call in Ireland, the decade of commemorations (from the 1912 home rule crisis to Easter 1916 and on to the Irish civil war) – intend to follow their path to William’s graveside.
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#Somme100 living art memorial at Waterloo station this morning. Really eery and very poignant pic.twitter.com/kbNFV23I9U
— Luke Moore (@Moorius) July 1, 2016
Here’s my colleague, Henry McDonald, in Belfast, on how today is being marked in Northern Ireland:
At the Queen’s official residence in Northern Ireland, Hillsborough Castle in County Down, the 206 (Ulster) Battery of the Royal Artillery have just fired one of their light L118 guns to mark the start of the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago. Of the 19,240 soldiers who fell on this day a century ago within 24 hours of the battle almost one-tenth were men from the 36th Ulster Division.
Meanwhile in Belfast all week, including this morning, residents of the Lower Newtonards Road have been getting a sound of what the bombardment sounded like on the Somme. A continuous audio loop of artillery fire has been played at strategic times of the day close to the loyalist Tower Street area in the east of the city. Also, each day up until 1 July a local history project has erected plaques on walls dedicated to each of the residents from the lower end of the Newtonards Road who fought at the Somme.
Later this morning, across towns and villages around Northern Ireland there will be a series of marches and ceremonies remembering not only the Ulster but also the overall Irish contribution to the battle.
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On Twitter, the images and stories of those who fought 100 years ago are flowing, including from the author Paddy Magrane.
One hundred years ago, my grandfather climbed out of a trench and began walking towards the German line at Gommecourt. #Somme100
— Paddy Magrane (@PaddyMagrane) July 1, 2016
He was struck in the cheek by shrapnel or a bullet. The wound left him blind in the right eye. He was one of the lucky ones. #Somme100
— Paddy Magrane (@PaddyMagrane) July 1, 2016
100 yrs ago Pte B.F.Talbot 7th Queens Regt went over the top at Battle of Somme.I'll tell his story today #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/bPjnL5HTDw
— Nick Talbot (@talbotlabexeter) July 1, 2016
Edwin Smith of the Accrington Pals was killed at Serre 100 years ago.#WW1 #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/ybF6tOjHIx
— Somme100 (@Somme_100) July 1, 2016
Horace Iles was only 16 when he was killed, exactly 100 years ago.
— Matthew Ward (@HistoryNeedsYou) July 1, 2016
Eternal grief.#Somme100 @sommecourt pic.twitter.com/Owj2NqrokY
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Coming up at 11am, a national commemorative event will be held at the Thiepval Memorial in northern France, to be attended by David Cameron, François Hollande and Prince William, among others.
At 3pm, a remembrance service will be held at Manchester Cathedral. There will also be an evening concert at Manchester’s Heaton Park.
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The Guardian published a leader on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme:
The Somme has gone down in British memory as a symbol of the human cost and futility of the first world war and, in some eyes, of all wars.
It’s extraordinary, given how long ago the campaign took place, that so much video footage exists of it, some featured below.
As well, you can see how the scenes from the Somme a century ago have changed with time, in this interactive:
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Here’s a scene from a unique art project, laying 19,420 12in figures in shrouds alongside each other, to give a physical sense of the human devastation that took place. Each figure is associated with the name of a soldier who fell on the first day of the campaign.
19239 laid. 1 last one tomorrow, 100 years after they died at the Somme. Indescribable. Open 7am tomorrow morning pic.twitter.com/Na6ORbBYI0
— The Somme 19240 (@thesomme19240) June 30, 2016
They have been laid at the Northernhay Gardens in Exeter by the artist Rob Heard.
Sunshine on the shrouds this morning. Awaiting the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant of Devon for the opening ceremony pic.twitter.com/qt28B6CTQP
— The Somme 19240 (@thesomme19240) July 1, 2016
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Already, the number of casualties would have been rapidly rising.
A century ago now... the Pals generation like these men from Sheffield lay dead & wounded on the #Somme #Somme100 pic.twitter.com/XvyOtN1O6V
— Paul Reed (@sommecourt) July 1, 2016
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Big Ben has chimed and the whistle has been sounded, bringing the silence to an end.
A piper is playing by the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, part of commemorations taking place across France, the UK and the Commonwealth.
A silent vigil has been taking place all night at Quedgeley War Memorial to commemorate the Battle of the Somme. pic.twitter.com/4Xm2KbGg6w
— BBC Radio Glos (@BBCGlos) July 1, 2016
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The two-minute silence begins now.
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Two-minute silence held
We’re approaching 7.28am, when a two-minute silence will be held to commemorate the moment British and Commonwealth soldiers were ordered to go over the top, beginning a campaign that would cause about 1 million casualties over four months.
On the 1st day of the #Somme, British Army suffered 57,470 casualties, incldng 19,240 killed – heaviest casualty toll in a 24 hour period.
— Imperial War Museums (@I_W_M) July 1, 2016
Right this minute, a century ago, tens of thousands of soldiers would have been in their trenches, nervous, excited, awaiting the order to go.
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Overnight, a vigil to commemorate the centenary of the Somme was held at Westminster Abbey.
In France, at the Thiepval Memorial, members of the royal family attended another vigil on Thursday.
More than 70,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave are commemorated at Thiepval.
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The Battle of the Somme was expected to be a significant victory for the British and French against the Germans. However, carnage ensued on both sides – despite the frontline barely moving – in a battle that came to symbolise the horrors of trench warfare and the futility of the war. A total of 19,240 British soldiers died on the first day, making it the bloodiest day in the history of the British army. Among the worst hit of British forces were the “Pals” battalions, volunteer units of limited fighting experience who headed straight into German machine-gun fire. The 2,000 men of the 1st and 2nd Bradford Pals, both part of the West Yorkshire Regiment, suffered 1,770 casualties in the first hour of the offensive as they attacked the heavily fortified village of Serre.
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Summary
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the defining events of the first world war.
The battle, fought along a 15-mile front near the river Somme in northern France, took place between July and November 1916. It was planned as the major allied effort on the western front for that year, but a desperate battle between French and German forces at Verdun meant the British army assumed the main role.
On this day in 1916, after an intense, week-long artillery bombardment of German positions, the infantry began their advance. Men from every part of Britain and across the empire took part.
By the end of the day, 57,000 Commonwealth and 2,000 French soldiers had become casualties – more than 19,000 of whom had been killed. By the time the offensive was halted in November, more than 1 million soldiers from both sides had been wounded, captured or killed.
Today’s commemorations will begin with a two-minute silence at 7.28am to mark the moment the first wave of soldiers went over the top. Whistles will be blown to mark the end of the two-minute silence after the 7.30am chimes of Big Ben.
At 11am, a national commemorative event will be held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Thiepval Memorial in northern France, where David Cameron, François Hollande and senior royals will pay tribute. Thiepval is the largest Commonwealth war memorial in the world, honouring more than 72,000 men who died in the Somme sector between 1915 and March 1918, more than 90% of them during the 1916 battle.
At 3pm, a remembrance service will be held at Manchester Cathedral. There will also be an evening concert at Manchester’s Heaton Park.
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