Current Information:

Age-21

44, Adley Street, Clapton

The Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916)

By the beginning of October, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for three months. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and and just a few square miles of the French countryside, all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. Mistakes had been made by the various commanders and would be continued to be made but there was no turning back as the British, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders and Canadians carried on battering away at the German defences in the hope of a breakthrough, So it continued all the way through to November with nearly every battalion and division then in France being drawn into it at some stage. In the end the German trenches had been pushed back a few more miles along most of the line but the cost in lives had been staggering. By the end of the fighting in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

On 24th October, 1916, 20th Royal Fusiliers of 19 Brigade, 33rd Division were in Straight Trench, a support trench north of Ginchy, and on the following day, 25th October, they moved into the front line there taking up positions in Ox, Shamrock and Foggy Trenches. The Battalion Diary makes no mention of casualties on this day but the records show that at least seven men from 20th Royal Fusiliers were killed, most likely from shellfire. One of these was Horace Clover.