Current Information:

Age-24

Born-Isle of Wight

Serre Road Cemetery2, Somme

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 30th September, 1916, 56th Division moved back into the front line, on the right flank of the British Army near Lesboeufs, with French troops on their right. At 3.04 the following morning, 1st October, a patrol of one officer and twenty men from the 16th London battalion of 169 Brigade, was sent out to occupy some empty enemy trenches. However, this coincided with an attack further north on Eaucourt l’Abbaye as a result of which the patrol met heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. They went to ground and remained in an exposed position throughout the day until dusk when some were able to make it back to their own lines. In addition 16th London had to endure heavy shelling throughout the day which added to the casualty list of over thirty. One of those killed during the course of the day was Wilfred Beszant.