Pudsey to Pals 2016 journey of Remembrance to the Somme July 2016
In July 2016 five members of Pudsey & Farsley Royal British Legion Branch set off to participate in and remember the men of our district that fought and died during the Battle of the Somme, 100 years ago. The 141 day long Somme campaign was on its own more deadly for our servicemen than the Second World War. 37 were lost on the first day alone, and 104 in total during the next 140 days of the battle until it was halted. These were ordinary lives given in the Service of the Nation - they were woollen mill workers, teachers, cinema projectionists, sons of the Lord Mayor and owners of local factories, all came together. In the words of England Cricketer and Leeds Pal 2nd Lieutenant Major William Booth “It is our duty, we cannot do anything else.”
Lochnagar Crater Somme Centenary ceremony 07:30am July 1st 2016
We were deeply honoured to participate in the Lochnagar Crater Somme Centenary ceremony to mark the 100 years since the start of the Battle. A maroon flare was fired at 07:30 and trench whistles were blown to represent the moment when British troops began their advance on enemy lines. Liz our standard bearer and Branch President Danny Dance were both involved in the service of remembrance.
Front Line at Serre - position of the Leeds and the Bradford Pals
In 1916 the French village of Serre was in German hands and was a heavily fortified position facing the Leeds Pals and both Bradford Pals Battalions. The attack of July 1st 1916 caused heavy casualties amongst both groups of Pals, many of whom where volunteers from our district.
Pudsey to Pals 16 visited 3 cemeteries in the area to pay our respects to the fallen: Serre Rd cemeteries numbers 1, 2 and 3.
Pudsey to Pals 16 visited 3 cemeteries in the area to pay our respects to the fallen: Serre Rd cemeteries numbers 1, 2 and 3.
The Somme Yomp Challenge - remembrance project at Sheffield Park
The Somme Yomp Challenge - run by a group of ex-Royal Marines had the ambitious plan to yomp 500 miles down to the Somme. Then on the centenary to plant 19240 wooden crosses in memory of all the British soldiers that fell on July 1st. The chosen field was the exact spot where our Pals had left their trenches 100 years earlier.
Yomping 500 miles from Hull, through all of the Pals towns, visiting memorials, raising funds for the Poppy Appeal and carrying a 30lb pack - that sounded very ambitious but they made it in time. Planting that many crosses in a French field in one day? very very ambitious indeed. However with volunteer help and awe inspiring determination they managed to complete this mammoth task, and what an amazing tribute it was when it was finished.
We were so impressed that we helped nominate the Somme Yomp Challenge for the @Rememberww1 national award for Acts of Remembrance, Service and Ex service.
They very deservedly won it - congratulations guys.
Yomping 500 miles from Hull, through all of the Pals towns, visiting memorials, raising funds for the Poppy Appeal and carrying a 30lb pack - that sounded very ambitious but they made it in time. Planting that many crosses in a French field in one day? very very ambitious indeed. However with volunteer help and awe inspiring determination they managed to complete this mammoth task, and what an amazing tribute it was when it was finished.
We were so impressed that we helped nominate the Somme Yomp Challenge for the @Rememberww1 national award for Acts of Remembrance, Service and Ex service.
They very deservedly won it - congratulations guys.
Fricourt - last resting place of the lost Battalion
The 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment had been raised in York and was composed mainly of territorials. Many men from our district served in their ranks during the Battalions disastrous assault on the German held village of Fricourt, July 1st 1916. 10 men from our local area died together at Fricourt. Some are buried with many others from the 10th West Yorks at Fricourt New Military Cemetery. On our visit on July 2nd we managed to arrange an impromptu service of remembrance, joined by a visiting tour group. We were grateful for their participation and it was very humbling to be there on the ground where they fell.
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing - July 2nd 2016
The Thiepval Memorial is the largest monument built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and commemorates 72,085 Commonwealth soldiers who died on the Somme and have no known grave. Standing in grounds of 40 acres on a ridge overlooking the battlefield, beneath the dedication to the French and British Armies are inscribed the simple words: ‘The Missing of the Somme’. Fighting at the Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916 and lasted four and a half months. In total, 60 nations from across the British Empire and Europe were involved in the fighting across a 25 kilometre front. When the offensive finally came to a halt on 18 November 1916, the Battle of the Somme had claimed a million casualties; 430,000 from Commonwealth countries, with a third of this number killed.
Somme 141 - first daily public service of Remembrance, July 2nd 2016
From July 2nd 2016 onward, The Royal British Legion in partnership with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, hosted a short, daily commemorative service at the Thiepval Memorial to remember the sacrifice of individuals and communities over the subsequent 139 days of the battle. A more formal Service of thanksgiving marked the centenary of the final day of the battle on 18 November 2016.
Pudsey to Pals 16 attended the first service on July 2nd, and the Pudsey & Farsley Royal British Legion standard was proudly paraded as part of the service.
Pudsey to Pals 16 attended the first service on July 2nd, and the Pudsey & Farsley Royal British Legion standard was proudly paraded as part of the service.
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Sapper James William Swithenbank of the Royal Engineers
Sapper James William Swithenbank aged 44 of the Royal Engineers was attached to the 185th Tunnelling Company in France. Born at Fartown, Pudsey, he moved to Bramley after getting married at St Thomas’s Church Stanningley. By 1911 James and his wife Mary were residing at 58 Forth Street Chopwell Co Durham. He was a professional miner - and as such was hand picked by the mining specialist John Norton-Griffiths for the new Royal Engineers tunnelling companies. He worked on the first section of the sap that was to later form the Lochnagar Crater. Eighteen men of the 185th Tunnelling Company (2 officers, 16 sappers) lost their lives to a German camouflet (counter mine and explosion) at La Boisselle on 4 February 1916. James is buried at Becourt Military Cemetery alongside his mining team that died in the explosion: Joseph Thomas Bicknell, Leonard Fowkes, John Gibson, Walter Heald, John Hewitt, Peter Lane, Leslie Lumsdaine, Alfred Marshall, William Murphy, Andrew Nelson, Henry Parry, William Pritchard, Frederick Lawrence Simpson, Arthur Thompson, Joseph Washington.
Pozieres Cemetery and Memorial
The village of Pozieres was attacked on 23 July 1916 by the 1st Australian and 48th (South Midland) Divisions, and was taken on the following day. It was lost on 24-25 March 1918, during the great German advance, and recaptured by the 17th Division on the following 24 August.
There are now 2,760 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,382 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. There is also 1 German soldier buried here.
The cemetery is enclosed by the POZIERES MEMORIAL, which relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918.
The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died in France during the Fifth Army area retreat on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918. The Corps and Regiments most largely represented are The Rifle Brigade with over 600 names, The Durham Light Infantry with approximately 600 names, the Machine Gun Corps with over 500, The Manchester Regiment with approximately 500 and The Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery with over 400 names.
The Pozieres Memorial holds the names of five men from our district: William Thornton, Harry Cape, Ewart Bannister, Gordon Hare, David Linfoot.
There are now 2,760 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,382 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. There is also 1 German soldier buried here.
The cemetery is enclosed by the POZIERES MEMORIAL, which relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918.
The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died in France during the Fifth Army area retreat on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918. The Corps and Regiments most largely represented are The Rifle Brigade with over 600 names, The Durham Light Infantry with approximately 600 names, the Machine Gun Corps with over 500, The Manchester Regiment with approximately 500 and The Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery with over 400 names.
The Pozieres Memorial holds the names of five men from our district: William Thornton, Harry Cape, Ewart Bannister, Gordon Hare, David Linfoot.
Ploegsteert Memorial Flanders
The PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL commemorates more than 11,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in this sector during the First World War and have no known grave. The memorial serves the area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warneton to the north, to Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes to the south, including the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert Wood. The cemetery, cemetery extension and memorial were designed by Harold Chalton Bradshaw, with sculpture by Gilbert Ledward. The memorial was unveiled by the Duke of Brabant on 7 June 1931.
Men named on Pudsey Memorials also named on the Ploegsteert Memorial:
Private John Bonell 6/28/1918 York and Lancs
Private Albert Dockray 04/10/1918 Lincolnshires
Private Thomas Lee 04/11/1918 N’land Fusiliers
CQS John Beetham Parker 28/06/1918 Gloucestershires
Private Ernest Ramsden 10/18/1914 East Yorkshires (our first casualty on the Western Front)
Private Roland Swithenbank 10/30/1914 DLI
Private Alfred Sykes 10/18/1918 East Yorkshires
Private Arthur Verity 12/18/1914 Scots Guards
Private William Edward York 4/13/1918 Yorkshire Regt.
Men named on Pudsey Memorials also named on the Ploegsteert Memorial:
Private John Bonell 6/28/1918 York and Lancs
Private Albert Dockray 04/10/1918 Lincolnshires
Private Thomas Lee 04/11/1918 N’land Fusiliers
CQS John Beetham Parker 28/06/1918 Gloucestershires
Private Ernest Ramsden 10/18/1914 East Yorkshires (our first casualty on the Western Front)
Private Roland Swithenbank 10/30/1914 DLI
Private Alfred Sykes 10/18/1918 East Yorkshires
Private Arthur Verity 12/18/1914 Scots Guards
Private William Edward York 4/13/1918 Yorkshire Regt.
Ypres & the Menin Gate
Cemeteries and memorials around Ypres including Essex Farm the site where the poem “In Flanders Fields” was written by John McCrae
Finale at Farsley War Memorial
The Menin 1000 Ride to Remember 2014
In July 2014 Pudsey & Farsley Royal British Legion Branch organised a fundraising 1000 mile motorbike ride to visit the major memorials of the Western Front.
The aim was twofold - to raise funds for the Cenotaph restoration and to pay our respects to the fallen of Pudsey and Farsley in the places where they fell.
Danny Dance, Liz Phiz, Dave Longbottom, Damon Sugden, Martin ‘Baloo‘ Harrison and Ian ‘Teg‘ Carnall paid their respects to the fallen, laid wreaths and held Acts of Remembrance at the following memorial sites: Poziéres, Lochnagar Crater, Thiepval (Somme), Euston Road, Serre Road No1, Arras (Northwest France), Vimy Ridge, Dud Corner & Loos Memorial, Tyne Cot (Flanders), White House Cemetery. Finally on Tuesday 15th July, The Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony featured the Pudsey and Farsley Royal British Legion Standard.
These memorials to the missing hold the names of over 100 men from our district that lost their lives serving their country in the First World War. Lost on the battlefields they have no known grave - we will Remember them.
The aim was twofold - to raise funds for the Cenotaph restoration and to pay our respects to the fallen of Pudsey and Farsley in the places where they fell.
Danny Dance, Liz Phiz, Dave Longbottom, Damon Sugden, Martin ‘Baloo‘ Harrison and Ian ‘Teg‘ Carnall paid their respects to the fallen, laid wreaths and held Acts of Remembrance at the following memorial sites: Poziéres, Lochnagar Crater, Thiepval (Somme), Euston Road, Serre Road No1, Arras (Northwest France), Vimy Ridge, Dud Corner & Loos Memorial, Tyne Cot (Flanders), White House Cemetery. Finally on Tuesday 15th July, The Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony featured the Pudsey and Farsley Royal British Legion Standard.
These memorials to the missing hold the names of over 100 men from our district that lost their lives serving their country in the First World War. Lost on the battlefields they have no known grave - we will Remember them.