Meeting 3rd July 2010
The Somme 1916
12 members of the Branch attend the meeting and appologies were received from Chris Coogan, David Baldwin and Clive Stewart. A good variety of items were brought to the meeting to talk about and discuss. Dave Cooper gave an update on the Hopton Heath project and his attendance at a garden party iat Buckingham Palace as a reward from the Lord Lieutenant for his work on the Hopton Heath battlefield. The August meeting will be a paper chase
View of the laden tables with the different items laid out to view.
Medals and Memorial plaque relating to 2nd Lieutenant Leonard Neville Thornton of the 10th Battalion Gloucestershire regiment Killed in Action on the 22nd July 1916, whilst attacking the German trenches in front of Martinpuch near High Wood on the Somme. he was just 21 years old and had been in France since 27th October 1915. His body was not located and therefore his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial. Prior to joining the army he had been at Cheltenham College and resided with his mother, brother and sisters at Lansdown Road, in Cheltenham. From his service papers a statement made by Pricvate Peacey at the 16th General hospital at Le Treport dated 10th October 1916 states " We were out making a dummy attack and trying to out the barbed wire, but the germans were ready for us and we shelted in shell holes. Mr Thornton must have lost his head. he was carrying a box of ammunition and went straight froward through the German wire into the german lines. How he got through the wire was a marvel"
Medals and badge of private W Hodgkinson, and his battlefield pocket knife with bullet hole, and offending German bullet, which caused the loss of his leg whilst serving with The North Staffordshire regiment in WW1.
1914-15 star, British War & Victory medals to Private John Blakeman of the Army service Corps who accidently drowned on the 1st October 1916. He came from Stone and attended the local grammer school before enlisting for WW1.
Selection of WW1 Bayonets both German and British, with grenades and items of personel kit as used in 1916.
Part of a WW1 map showing the positions of the trenches in and around Beaumont Hamel which was the scene of the explosion of The Hawthorn Ridge mine on the 1st July 1916 and the attack by The Newfoundland Regiment who suffered a total of 684 officers and men killed or wounded in the first couple of hours of the battle starting.