Current Information:

Age-41

157, Willifield Way, Golders Green

Born-Edinburgh

Enlisted-Mill Hill

Bancourt British Cemetery, France

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.

According to the records of the Commonwealth War Graves and other sources, Alfred Falconer was killed in action on 10th October, 1916, at a time when the 8th East Surrey battalion of 55 Brigade, 18th Division were undergoing training at Candas, north of Amiens. a considerable distance behind the front line. Prior to this they been involved in the fighting on the Somme in September. So, either the date of his death was recorded incorrectly or else he was attached to another unit at the time, quite possibly the 7th East Surrey battalion who were in action on that day.