Current Information:

Age-19

13, Arlingford Road, Tulse Hill

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.

From 28th September to 1st October, 1916, the 11th Royal West Surrey (Queens) battalion of 123 Brigade, 41st Division were in the front line near the village of Flers where the enemy artillery fire was heavy and persistent. On 1st October, 11th Queens were relieved and moved back to bivouacs near Pommiers Redoubt having suffered nearly one hundred casualties, nearly all as a result of shell fire. Arthur Hunter was killed in action on 29th September.