Current Information:

Born-King's Cross

St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, 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.

William Rourke died from wounds on 10th October, 1916, after having been sent to a base hospital in Rouen, but as yet there is no information as to when and where he was wounded. The 23rd London battalion was part of 142 Brigade, 47th Division, that had been involved in the Battle of the Somme in the summer and autumn of 1916.