The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme offensive, was a major battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the river Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. More than three million men fought in the battle, of whom more than one million were either wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in all of human history.
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Hauts-de-France region. It is bordered by Pas-de-Calais and Nord to the north, Aisne to the east, Oise to the south and Seine-Maritime to the southwest. To the northwest, its coastline faces the English Channel and it shares maritime borders with Kent and East Sussex in the United Kingdom. It had a population of 570,559 in 2019.
The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the Ulster Division, it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, who formed thirteen additional battalions for three existing regiments: the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The division served from October 1915 on Western Front as a formation of the British Army during the Great War.
The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. A visitors' centre opened in 2004. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Thiepval has been described as "the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century".
Eric Norman Frankland Bell VC was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the First World War, he was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on 1 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson VC, was an English-born Canadian and British Army officer who was a recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during the First World War, he was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on 10 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
Geoffrey St. George Shillington Cather was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with the Royal Irish Fusiliers during the First World War, he was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on 1 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
Robert Quigg was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The award was made for his actions during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War.
William Frederick McFadzean VC was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme.
The La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial is a World War I memorial in France, located on the south bank of the river Marne, on the outskirts of the commune of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, 66 kilometres east of Paris, in the department of Seine-et-Marne. Also known as the Memorial to the Missing of the Marne, it commemorates over 3,700 British and Irish soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle in this area in August, September and early October 1914. The soldiers were part of the British Expeditionary Force, and are listed on the memorial by regiment, rank and then alphabetically.
Thiepval is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Events from the year 1916 in France.
The Somme – From Defeat to Victory is a 2006 BBC documentary film made to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
The First World War centenary was the four-year period marking the centenary of the First World War, which began in mid-2014 with the centenary of the outbreak of the war, and ended in late 2018 with the centenary of the 1918 Armistice.
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London, England, between July and November 2014. It commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The ceramic artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by the stage designer Tom Piper. The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I.
Patrick McGuire was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Manchester City as a full-back.
AIF Burial Ground is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near Flers on the Somme in France.
The Connaught Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Somme region of France commemorating British and Commonwealth soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Somme in World War I. The cemetery contains mainly those who died near the village of Thiepval from Autumn 1916 until the end of the war in November 1918 with a brief exception between March and August 1918.
