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Age-20

1, Whitestile Road, Brentford

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme

The opening day of the Battle of the Somme 1st July 1916

This was a disastrous day for the British Army in France. Eleven divisions of Fourth Army attacked along a 15 mile front from Maricourt to Serre. Two further divisions of Third Army launched a diversionary attack just to the north of Serre at Gommecourt. For a week beforehand the British artillery pounded the German trenches but the Germans had been there for a long time and they had constructed deep, concrete reinforced shelters beneath their trenches and many survived the bombardment. The troops went over the top at 7.30am but even before they had left their overcrowded trenches, many had been killed or maimed by German artillery. The Germans knew that they were coming. Once in No-Man’s-Land the artillery continued to take its toll and then the machine guns opened up on the advancing British infantry. They fell in their thousands and the attack came to a standstill almost everywhere. Survivors sought cover wherever they could find it and at night they crawled back to their own lines, often dragging a wounded soldier with them. Only in the south were any advances made with the attack on Fricourt and Mametz. Over 19,000 British soldiers were killed on this day, including 2,500 from London.

12th Division did not take part in the offensive on 1st July, but as part of Fourth Army, they moved up to more advanced positions during the day. For 8th Royal Fusiliers of 36 Brigade, this meant moving to Baizeux Wood in the morning and then in the evening to the village of Millencourt, a few kilometres behind Albert. From here they moved into the intermediate line north-west of Albert. The Battalion diary makes no mention of any casualties but nearly 20 men from 8th Royal Fusiliers were killed on this day, presumably from enemy shell fire whilst moving up or when in the trenches.