Armistice Centenary 2018 Somme Tour - Delville Wood Cemetery
This video features the Pals' Battalion marching to the cemetery in 2016 and the 2018, 100 years Remembrance Event and fine renderings of Abide with me and The Greater Game. This cemetery was built after the Armistice, when graves from small burial sites and individual battlefield burial plots were brought here to this site. There are 5,523 First World War British and Commonwealth casualties buried here. Of these 3,593 are unidentified. Most of the burials in the cemetery were casualties who died in the months of July, August and September during the heavy fighting of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, It is in this vicinity that William Jonas gave up his life whilst trapped in a trench with his schoolboy pal and O's team mate Richard McFadden who was fatally injured. The wood holds tragic memories for South Africans who played a notable part in the battle of Longueval Ridge thus the South African Memorial is located here. Members of the Leyton Orient Football Club commemorate the 1918 Armistice of World War One and the footballers of the club, then called Clapton Orient, who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Battle of the Somme. The Band was originally formed in 2012 by officers, staff, former officers and boys of the 17th Waltham Forest Boys’ Brigade Company which is based in Highams Park Baptist Church. Former and current members from other Companies have since joined the band, namely 11th Enfield, 6th 9th and 28th Waltham Forest, 14th Haringey and 2nd Sawston. In 2015, it became known as the 17th Pals’ Battalion Band due to its considerable work commemorating the service and sacrifice made by the professional footballers, staff and supporters who volunteered to serve in the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment – more commonly known as the Footballers’ Battalion.
L/Cpl W. G. Henry
Diane Murphy visits the grave of her great uncle L/Cpl W. G. Henry from the town of Portadown, Ireland, he was killed in action 1st July 1916, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He served with the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, part of the 36th Ulster Division and is buried in Ancre British Cemetery, The Somme, France.