Current Information:

Born-London

AIF Burial Ground, Flers, Somme

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

By the beginning of November, 1916, the Battle of the Somme had been raging for four months. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and just a few square miles of the French countryside, nearly all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. With November came the winter weather and this, combined with the sheer exhaustion of all involved, brought the battle to a close by the end of the month. Since the 1st July, 1916, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing. 

During November the focus of the fighting switched to the Ancre valley where the last major British offensive was launched on 13th of the month. Along the southern front fighting still continued but this was largely a series of localised attacks mainly designed to straighten out pockets and small salients in order to provide a more advantageous position for defence or attack in the future.

On 1st November an attack was made by 9th Highland Light Infantry of 100 Brigade, 33rd Division on the extreme right of the British line, in conjunction with the French. The objective was Boritska Trench in front of Lesboeufs. 1st Royal West Surrey (Queens) were in support for this failed attack and the next day, 2nd November, they relieved the Scots in the front line in preparation for their own attack on Boritska Trench. It was an awful relief in the rain and the mud, not to mention the ever present German artillery. Despite these conditions, 1st Queens attacked at 4pm on 3rd November. It did not begin well. The artillery barrage fired by the French on their right in support of their attack was ineffective. Many of the shells landed beyond the target and the north-west section of Boritska Trench was not touched at all. Consequently when the attack went in 1st Queens  met heavy rifle and machine-gun fire from the left and were unable to get more than half way across no-man’s-land. Those who could made it back to their own lines but many of their number were left behind. Among those killed was Sydney Brown.