20 HISTORY
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Southwark News, Thursday July 1 2021
History
the somme and the folks back home
90 men from Southwark were killed on July 1st, 1916, on the first day of the battle Saturday 1st of July 1916 started as a pretty normal day in Southwark. Nearly two years had passed since war had been declared and London had settled into some sort of routine, writes Southwark historian Neil Crossfield...
A young Red Cross nurse named Vera Brittain, based at No1 General Hospital Camberwell, (pictured above) arranged to go to Southwark Cathedral that afternoon, for a performance of Brahms’ German Requiem, despite the fact that earlier in the week, The Globe newspaper had questioned why the concert included ‘enemy music’. Two boxers, ‘Fighting’ Bob Spencer and Petty Officer Jones of the Royal
Naval Division nervously prepared for their sixteen-round bout at the Ring boxing venue in Blackfriars Road and other people were making plans to go to the whist drive at the Masonic Hall, Camberwell New Road. Yet some 200 miles away, across the channel in the Somme region of France, the day saw the start of a monumental struggle which has gone down as the costliest in British military history. Around 07:30 hours that morning, many large mines were detonated, whistles blew and thousands of men ‘went over the top’, only to be mown down by machine guns and artillery fire. By the end of the first day, British casualties numbered 57,470 and 19,240 of these men had
been killed. Like all parts of the United Kingdom and the wider British Empire, Southwark played its role and around 90 men with a connection to the borough were recorded as dying on that day. Press restrictions under the Defence of the Realm Act meant that the huge losses would not have been mentioned in the national and local press. While initial newspaper reports were positive in nature, anyone who lived in London would have soon realised that something dreadful had happened. By Monday 3rd of July, the hospital trains began to arrive in the London railway terminals. Troops who had survived their battlefield injuries and initial treatment at a casualty clearing station in France were sent back to ‘Blighty’ to receive further care. London Bridge Station would have been a key point for injured soldiers passing through to one of the many military hospitals established within London. On Monday afternoon, Vera Brittain had written to her mother and said that No1
General Hospital had been put on standby to receive 50 officers and 100 men. The first of these arrived on the morning of the 4th of July and she later wrote that these convoys arrived without cessation for about a fortnight. Expecting large numbers of casualties, temporary huts had been erected in the grounds of the hospital. The one the young nurse was assigned to, designed to accommodate 40 casualties, was filled beyond capacity with acute surgical cases by that evening. Much has already been written about this awful day and our thoughts, perhaps understandably, often concentrate on the huge number of casualties. These terrible statistics still shock today but it is easy to forget that each of the almost 20,000 who were killed were individuals, all with families and friends mourning their loss. This article looks at the stories of just a few of the Southwark men who died on that fateful day. Whilst the carnage of the 1st of July is etched into our collective memory, it should be remembered that the Battle
of the Somme continued until the 18th of November. During this period, British Empire forces suffered around 420,000 casualties, French forces 200,000 and the German losses were estimated to be around 450,000. In the 141 days the fighting raged, around 131,000 British soldiers had died and when hostilities ceased, the allied forces had only advanced around seven miles. One of the most notable deaths on the day was that of Major S.W. LoudounShand of the 10th Yorkshire Regiment. Though born in Sri Lanka, he had a close association with Southwark having attended Dulwich College; as did five of his brothers. His father lived in Alleyn Park, Dulwich. Loudoun-Shand had served in the Boer War before working on tea plantations in Sri Lanka. When war was declared he returned to England to re-enlist. He was one of nine people who would be awarded the Victoria Cross on the day. He was not the only ex pupil of Dulwich college who died this day, as 20-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Frederick
