Can I start by proposing the following to be remembered in the days ahead. I 'adopted' Robert Thrale after discovering him on the 1911 census in a house rented by our son and out of interest researched his life. Sadly there was no happy ending. Please do add any other names that are dear to us
Corporal Robert Thrale
Date of Death: 1 July 1916 Age 20 Years
Regiment Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) 1st/7th Battalion
Service no: 2025.
Robert Thrale was born on 23 June 1896 in Lenton, Nottingham. A bright boy, he won a 3 year scholarship to Nottingham High School. He left the school age 14 as no funds were available to continue his education and he was taken on as a trainee Chemist with Bass & Wilford in 1910. He joined the Territorial Army in April 1914.
He is recorded as the Captain of the Battalion Football team. A Medical Orderly, on 1st July 1916, he went forward with a medical party, behind the 4th wave of the Sherwoods attack. As the party emerged from the remains of the smoke cloud that had clouded the German trenches they were suddenly
in full view and were caught by the artillery and machine gun cross fire sweeping No Man’s Land. Every man bar one was hit immediately. Amongst the men of the medical detachment who perished were two 20 year olds, including Corporal Thrale, and seven stretcher bearers. treating some of the 200 wounded suffered by the battalion. Thrale’s body was never found and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. . Thrale is recorded in the Sherwood Foresters’ History. It states that he was the Battalion Medical Orderly, ‘a lad of 19 at mobilisation’ who ‘was one of the lights of the medical staff’. ‘His cheerfulness and unvarying good nature, also the fact that he was Captain of the Battalion Football Team made him a great favourite in the battalion. He was gifted with extraordinary endurance on long marches besides having to remain behind continually with men who had fallen out and to regain his place with the Battalion, he usually spent time at the halts performing service for others. It is sad to record that he lost his life at Gommecourt, July 1st 1916.
Also this is very interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWvfO9SEoUE 
Comments
Was reading a very interesting article on the Daily Mail today which did a timeline across the first day...
Couldn't believe one lad, Billy McFadzean he was called... He was in a tightly packed trench waiting to go over the top and a box of grenades spilled over the floor with two pins being knocked out, of course a number of soldiers would have been killed yet Billy dived on top of them and smothered the blast, he was killed instantly yet only one other soldier was injured.
McFadzean was given the Victoria Cross for that but just amazed me the sacrifice some of those boys made.
I am at the service at Theipval on Friday if anyone else is there, if you can't make it but do want to commemorate a battle that shaped and changed far more lives than it ended (and that's saying something given the horrific losses suffered by the BEF between July/November 1916), then there is a free vigil/service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey starting at 2200 on Thursday night through to 0730 Friday morning. It's a drop in event similar to the Queen mothers lying in state a few years ago, two fellow historians and I have been helping DCMS tell the narrative of the battle overnight, I am told it will be broadcast on BBC.
Whatever you are doing Friday morning try to pause and recall the catastrophic events of a century ago that affected every street, school and club in the country and the generation that fought it.
Devastating stuff that must never be repeated.
I am hoping to get over again to Theipval later this year.
It was Hell on Earth basically. When I finished the book, I felt pretty numb to be honest. And how lucky I am never to have had to face and participate in such a terrible, terrifying event.
Fortunately it will never happen again in such a way.
SE7toSG3 said:
Nice story Cherry Orchard, I have a group walking Gommecourt on the 1st July so will print the pic off and share as they study the 46 (North Midland) Div attack.
I am at the service at Theipval on Friday if anyone else is there, if you can't make it but do want to commemorate a battle that shaped and changed far more lives than it ended (and that's saying something given the horrific losses suffered by the BEF between July/November 1916), then there is a free vigil/service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey starting at 2200 on Thursday night through to 0730 Friday morning. It's a drop in event similar to the Queen mothers lying in state a few years ago, two fellow historians and I have been helping DCMS tell the narrative of the battle overnight, I am told it will be broadcast on BBC.
Whatever you are doing Friday morning try to pause and recall the catastrophic events of a century ago that affected every street, school and club in the country and the generation that fought it.
That's great news, thank you. Like many others will be thinking about these men, especially on Friday. An opportunity for the nation to act as one.
Took this graphic of the memorial at Lunchtime of the troops running through the arch to the German front line....... very effective and moving.
'We don't know we're born these days'
To put into words the enormity of what every single one of those men sacrificed for us is impossible. Every single one of us is beyond lucky to live to the standard we live too today. And I for one cannot emphasise how important anniversaries like this are remembered for all eternity
Lived in Charlton and supported Charlton in the 1920's though originally from Deptford.
He was probably in a safe position well away from attack from the counter artillery bombardment as he was working on the heavy guns that were supposed to destroy the German deep dugouts and command and control positions. Of course, their efforts were generally a waste of time.
He survived the war, even after taking part in other campaigns like Passchendaele, where he was mustard gassed and lost his sense of taste. He died six years before I was born.
His medals are on proud display in my house.
For me I had no real discussion with my great parents, I had some with my grandparents who are now unfortunately all dead but not as much as I would like to have had.
My dad was born in 1950 and my mum a few years later. We've spoken a bit about this history but not as much as we should have.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-06-29a.395.0
Particularly poignant and well delivered was Bob Stewart’s contribution. He spoke of his own agony of losing six men in the Ballykelly bomb in Northern Ireland. Following his attendance at the second funeral he had this to say …
As I came out of St George’s, Stockport, after the second funeral I had been to in that church that week—this must have been just before Christmas 1982—I saw an old lady who was crying. I crossed the road and put my arms around her. I am afraid, ladies, I am a bit of a dinosaur and I said to her, “Don’t worry, darling, he’s out of his pain.” She said, “You don’t understand, young man.” In my mind I was thinking, “I bloody well do understand. I held him as he died.” I did not say that, but she read my mind. She said, “No, you clearly don’t understand. When I was a little girl, I stood on this spot and watched 800 men of the 6th Cheshires go into that church. When they came back from the Battle of the Somme, they filled three pews.”
Lest we forget - RIP.
George Frederick Bass was "lucky" in that he got a "blighty wound" in 1915 and so missed the Battle of the Somme and the later battles and he came back to play for Charlton after the war but before we joined the league.
More to follow when we've completed the research.