1 July 1916.

[Jock Scot]

1 July 1916.

On this day 2nd Lt. Frank Fawcett 1/5 South Staffordshire Regiment was killed near Gommecourt France. He has no known grave and served in the front line for less than 15 hours. He was amongst the 60,000 British casualties, many of them Scots and from the Commonwealth, from the first day of the Battle of the Somme that continued relentlessly until November of that year.

We remember Frank as we remember them all.

"Lest we forget".

[Downunder Kilt]

We will remember them.

Lest We Forget

[Grizzly]

Well said Jock. I have visited the Somme battlefields and it was one of the most sobering and evocative trips of my life. The beautifully tended little and sometime huge military cemeteries are a startling reminder of mans inhumanity to his fellow man.

Rest in peace, you are not forgotten.

[gary meakin]

Although I'm from another country, I'm sure the emotions and gratitude for those who served and sacrificed is the same world wide.
I was reading a few on-line articles and came across this picture and just had to share it.

[English Bloke]

Lest we forget.

[Pleater]

I think that in every place in the UK larger than a hamlet which existed in 1918 has a memorial to the fallen or a carved stone in the parish church, or both.
Most families have a family tree affected by the Great war.

My father's father was tiny, well under 5ft, but he had the pick of the girls as none of the men came back to the village, and the pick of houses, as there were few new families.

My mother's mother was married and had two children when her husband was killed on the Somme, she remarried and lost two children in an epidemic - I think of diptheria - just after the Great war ended.

It was described at the time as a war to end wars, and there were to be 'homes fit for heroes' to replace the slums, the national health service was envisaged and financial help was given to mothers and widower fathers or other carers, as so many adult men were found to be unfit for military service due to disease or infirmity, or like my grandfather simply too small.

The Great War shaped modern Britain and the welfare state.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[SeumasA]

One of the things that really struck my wife and me when we visited Scotland was the memorials to those who were lost on those battlefields. It seemed that every little village had one. The extent of the losses never really hit home to me until then.

[longhuntr74]

That is absolutely staggering to think about...57,470 casualties IN ONE DAY! I absolutely cannot fathom that. Lest we forget...

[English Bloke]

Anyone who would like to know more of the Scottish 51st (Highland) Division and fancies reading up on the subject, there is a good website here which recounts the history of the Division from it's formation in 1908 to their disbandment in 1967. There are some superb photographs in there too.

Lest we forget.


51st (Highland) Division Memorial, Beaumont Hamel on the Somme.

[guardsman]

went to see family graves in France and Ypres , very sad very moving, well done Belgian fire brigade for the bugle at the Menin Gate every evening