1st Battalion
WW1
The Battle of the Somme

Background music is by Rochdale singer Fat Moll (Myspace Link)

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http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675048358_Lancashire-Fusiliers_Battle-of-Somme_Divisional-General_firing-at-German-positions

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675048367_British-soldiers_Battle-of-Somme_Royal-Engineers_setting-up-machine-gun


Thanks for this Simon Tierney


Private CHAPMAN, THOMAS

Service Number 4746

Died 01/07/1916

1st Bn.
Lancashire Fusiliers


The head stone of Pte Thomas Chapman killed on the first day at the Battle of the Somme
sent in by Bernard Boden of North Carolina


 
See more on this link
Somme 100

8 YouTube Clips of the true story of The Somme
We are trying to get hold of a Full version


Roll call 1st July 1916




The attack on Beaumont Hamel from the Sunken Road
1st Bn The XXth The Lancashire Fusiliers-1st July-1916.

To the north of the river Ancre lay an important objective,the Grandcourt -Serre ridge.
This ridge was the goal of the V111 Corp in which the 1st and 2nd LFs were serving.
The Germans had protected the ridge with a formidable series of defences,amongst these was the heavily fortified village of Beaumont -Hamel.
On the 29th June the Divisional Commander Major General H.de.B.de Lisle addressed the main body of 1LF,this is what he said,
"To you has been set the most difficult task-that of breaking the hardest part of the enemies shell"
The Battalions objective was the village of Beaumont Hamel.
Between the Bn and their objective lay a sunken road which was chosen as the forming up point,the Bn would attack from here following a huge artillery barrage and a massive mine being detonated at the Hawthorn redoubt.
The setting off of the mine had the unfortunate side effect of alerting the Germans to the LFs formed up in the sunken road and they were subjected to a tremendous cross fire from the front and both sides.
Snipers were killing the wounded and those who tried to help them,the road became blocked with dead and dying.
An official war photographer named Mr Malins took many pics at this time and I have no doubt that the pic Mick Rae talks about was taken at this time.
The attack cost the Bn dearly,7 officers killed and 14 wounded, 156 Other ranks killed and 298 wounded with 11 missing presumed dead.
We won 4 military Crosses and 8 Military medals in that one day.


Beaumont -Hamel Church

The Grave Stones mostly LF's

The Sunken Road

Steven Fitt Laying a Wreath






Somme Visit by Joe and Ray 4th April 2014

J.R.R. Tolkien
(writer of the "The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy")
in the Twentieth Century:
at the Somme, 1916

Scrape your fingers along your greasy scalp,
pick out scabs, bits of lice with your nails.
You are a signal officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers
and your wife of 4 months, Edith,
sings and dances across the Channel
from the blood and death and mud
which is the Somme.

A shell-broken man bleeds on a stretcher,
gestures, gargles: you understand
and take his locket from around his neck.
The weight of words press full on you,
even when they are not words, just wet sounds.

It's difficult to sleep; when you do,
you dream of a mariner
blown so far into the endless ocean
he's accepted death. But he does not die:
he's pulled off the deck of his ship,
taught, by beautiful natives of an alien isle,
language.

A week after your battalion gets shredded on the wire
you interrogate a captured German officer,
map out enemy locations.
He accepts your offered water,
corrects your pronunciation,
suggests red ink for the man-traps.

In twenty years you will argue Beowulf
is not a pagan fragment or a poor allegory
but is a poem of lights opposing outer-darkness
where a man struggles against the beast
again and again and again
and is overwhelmed.

 

"These are the documents of a remarkable man named

Sergeant John Bernard Millett.

The father of 6 children , he was 41 years and 2 months old when he volunteered to fight in WW1.

He had already seen 14 years service with the 2nd BN Lancashire Fusiliers and 9 years service with the Connaught Rangers.

He is listed on our nominal roll of those who fought at Spion Kop and his service records show that he had 2 bullet wound scars on each thigh when enlisting in 1916.

He was discharged again in 1919.

They do not make them like this any more. "

This is a copy of the census of 31st March1901, these people were then recorded as being in residence at Kitchener Barracks Chatham Kent.

Note John Bernard Millett, his wife Barbara and their son Bernard Millett.

There are other LF names on the list, but also names seemingly having no connection to the LFs, could they have been miltary families in transit?

"Army Deaths and Baptisms Archives"

In Memoriam

Died on 28/06/1916
Private Charles Partington
1st Lancashire Fusiliers

Private Charles Partington of the Lancashire Fusiliers died in June 1916 as result of 45 wounds sustained by bursting of a shell. His wife of Hilton Fold Lane, Middleton was summoned to France and arrived in time to hold a conversation with her husband, who was conscious for 10 minutes during her presence.

The deceased soldier was connected with the Middleton Wesleyan Sunday School. He was 30 years of age, and joined the colours in January 1915, at which time he was employed by Mr. E. Partington, builder and contractor. He had been through the Gallipoli campaign.

Private Partington is laid to rest at St Sever Cemetery, France.

Died on 17/08/1916
Lance Corporal Joseph Mellalieu
1st Lancashire Fusiliers, attached 8th King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment

Lance Corporal Joseph Mellalieu, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, died of wounds on August 17th, 1916. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Mellalieu, Thornley Street, Middleton, and was 24 years of age. He joined the army in April, 1915, and had only been at the front a few weeks when he was fatally wounded. As a boy he attended Providence Day School and later became associated with the Temple Street Baptist Band of Hope.
He was employed at the Tonge Vale Mill.

Lance Corporal Mellalieu is laid to rest at Dive Copse British Cemetery, France.

Died on 20/09/1916
Private Richard Morville
1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers.

Husband of Mrs. Daisy Morville, of Middleton, Private Richard Morville of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers and who resided in Green Street, Middleton. Was killed on September the 20th 1916. A chaplain wrote; "May I just write to offer you my deepest sympathy in the sad news that you will have had. Your husband was killed instantaneously on the night of the 20th and I buried him today, his grave will be well looked after. May God comfort you. It is very terrible for you isn't it? But isn't it a comfort to feel he died in such a noble cause? Christ has conquered death and is there to welcome all His true servants. We must take heart and look on to when we shall make the great journey and join those we love again". Private Morville who was 36 years of age, joined the Army in June 1915, and after spending some time in Egypt, went to France in March 1916, he was a native of Slattocks and had been employed at the Tonge Vale Mill. He was connected with Temple Street Baptist Church and School and was a capable tenor singer in the choir.

Private Morville is laid to rest at
Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, Belgium.