Current Information:

Age-20

34, Dacre Street, Lee

Born-Canning Town

St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France

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

On 1st July 1916 The British Army launched a massive offensive along a section of the front line running north of the River Somme. The French attacked south of it. The first day was a disaster for the British army which suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, 19,000 of whom were killed, and made hardly any inroads into the enemy lines. But the battle had to go on, if for no other reason than to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun where they had been facing the full onslaught of the powerful German Army. 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 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.

8th East Surrey had been involved in the major offensive on 1st July 1916 and as part of 55 Brigade, 18th Division had been one of the few successful units on that day with their attack on the Montauban ridge. Nevertheless it came at a price and the battalion suffered over 400 casualties, On the following day they were relieved and moved back to huts in the Carnoy valley to reorganise and lick their wounds. Many of those wounded on the 1st July later died from their wounds, including Frank Willgress on 6th July.