As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, BARRIE HUDSON looks at how Swindon was involved in one of history’s bloodiest conflicts

FIRST World War One historian Mark Sutton is a leading figure in Swindon in the Great War.

Mark is the author of Tell Them Of Us, the definitive history of the Swindon people who fought in the war.

According to his figures, about 2,000 people from in and around Swindon fought in the Battle of the Somme.

It is impossible to say for certain how many perished or were wounded, but about 60 are listed at the Thiepval Memorial alone. Thiepval commemorates the Fallen of the Somme whose remains have never been found.

The landscape where the battle took place looks like much of Wiltshire.

Mark said: “It’s very much like the Downs, Pewsey Vale, the little villages outside Marlborough. That’s why a lot of the men were glad to get to the Somme plain. They thought, ‘Oh, we’re home.’

“It changed, though. By the end of November it was just devastated.”

Mark has tracked down the poignant stories of many who served.

There was Harold Billett, for example. He grew up in Bright Street, Swindon, the son of a GWR signalman.

Trained as a meteorologist, he took a job in South Africa and enlisted in the 1st Battalion South African Infantry in 1915.

Harold, one of three brothers who served in the war, was killed during the night of October 18, 1916, and his remains were never found.

A battalion officer later wrote of men drowning in the filthy water which filled shell holes.

Jack Lang, of Havelock Street, served alongside his brother, Cecil, in the 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Cecil was killed in 1915.

Jack survived some of the bloodiest fighting of the Somme, won the Military Medal for his gallantry and endured capture in 1918. He later worked in the GWR’s carriage works.

Ronald Clack, of Guppy Street, was an apprentice GWR coppersmith who joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1914.

His service on the Somme earned him a Military Medal for his role in repairing damaged telephone lines while under fire.

Ronald survived the war and returned home. Many years later he wrote in a memoir: “It is not my intention to convey to you the horrors of war, suffice to say that as I sit and pen these lines, at 84 years of age, I am still feeling the effects.

“You may think, well you haven’t done badly, all I would say is that I have many, many nightmares over it.”

Ernest Culling, of Exmouth Street, served with the Territorial unit of the Royal Engineers which was raised in Swindon and consisted mainly of GWR workers.

They were led by works manager Cyril Spencer. Ernest survived not only the Somme but the war. Awarded the Military Medal in 1918, he returned to Swindon.

Albert Woodman lived in David Street. His headstone stands in Serre Military Cemetery No 1, not far from where he fell on the first day of the battle.

His stone is inscribed: “Peace perfect peace in memory of our dear son of Swindon Wilts.”

Charles Ireland lived in what is now Beckhampton Street but later emigrated. He became one of 84 Swindonians known to have served in the Australian Imperial Forces.

He was killed by a shell on July 26, 1916, while tending to wounded comrades. He had volunteered for the task after the stretcher bearers were either killed or badly wounded.

Percy Frank Goss, of Albion Street, served with the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment on the Somme, but his young life was ended during action on October 17. He is buried in Flers, near the battlefield.

  • Official reports played down battle's horrific toll

AS with most horrors of the front, that of the Somme was transformed into a cause for celebration by official censors long before news reached the public.

Two days after the battle began, the Swindon Advertiser reported: “The long and anxiously awaited news of a great offensive was received in London on Saturday and yesterday.

“The fighting in the Western theatre of war entered on a new phase on Saturday, when the British and French troops embarked on what our allies call a ‘methodical push’ along a front of 25 miles on the Somme and Ancre Valleys.

“The best progress was made along both sides of the River Somme, in the direction of Combles and Peronne.

“On the right bank our troops, who are fighting with great gallantry, have taken La Boiselle, Fricourt, Mametz and Montauban, and the French have occupied Curlu, to the south-east of these villages.”

On the battlefield the death toll was already well into the tens of thousands.

The official report from the front continued: “As a result of the fighting up to date the German front line has been penetrated by the British troops alone on a front of seven miles to a depth of 1,000 yards; according to Paris the whole front line of the enemy in the battle zone was taken.”

The territory gained along the front equates to a little over half a mile, or about two and a half laps of an athletics track.

This Is Wiltshire:

A first-aid post on the Somme battlefield