1st July 1916 - Northumberland Fusiliers

[Tom A McCluskey]

Hi all,

Does anyone have Newspaper articles, or just articles, that reflect the impact of the losses felt by the Northumberland Fusiliers on 1st July 1916, on the people of Tyneside. Especially, the attacks carried out by the Tyneside Irish and Scottish brigades.

Due to the amount of battalions from this regiment taking part in the actions on the 1st of July, Tyneside must have paid a heavy price.

The reason behind this is that I am off on a battlefield tour shortly, I will be covering the actions at Sausage & Mash Valleys and wish to also talk about how the heavy losses had an effect on the people at home.

In advance, Many Thanks

Aye

Tom McC

[Graham Stewart]

Tom,

The local newspaper give very little away really and although the offensive is mentioned and the fact the Northumberland are involved, there is no indication as to how badly it all went. Casualties are not mentioned in numbers and although they are reported i.e. lists, they were spread over a period of time to lessen the impact. The biggest impact was the official letter & A.F. B.104, and after the 1st July 1916 they must have dreaded seeing the postie coming up the street. See page 114 of our book "Tynside Scottish" of the women of Halls Corner, West Sleekburn, Northumberland with the local postman waiting for the mail cart to arrive. The women themselves are expecting letters from husbands, brothers and sons, but some will receive the Army Form B.104

The newspapers themselves weren't bought by the majority of working class people and this is why Libraries, Miners Institutes and other Labour organisations supplied reading rooms for those who could read. In the case of my great grandparents they prefered to invest their hard earned money into the "War Illustrated".

Graham.

[John84]

After the 1st July, 1916 around our district, the local Doctor unofficially took over the duties of delivering with the postman any telegrams, just in case the dreaded Army Form B.104 was inside. I have been told that the Doctors horse and buggy was a dreaded sight coming down the streets, was someone sick at home or had a lad been killed at the front. I also have some letters from local lads that where wounded on 1st July, one is from my great uncle who was with the Tyneside Irish who wrote to his sister (my grandmother) about his and his brothers wounds.

John.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Graham & John,

Thanks for the comments so far. I noticed with the Dundee casualties form Loos that these were drip-fed through the press. Probably lots of reasons for this, as in the amount of time it would take the large casualty returns to get back through to the press and published, was this the same with the Northumberland Press?

Aye

Tom McC

[GTS]

Certainly had a terrible effect in the street in Lemington where my great grandfather lived ( see below). The story I'm told is that his entire social circle was wiped out that day, something like himself and 6 or 7 others all from the same street and pit.

[Graham Stewart]

Tom,

No idea why the casualties were drip fed through the local press either, but there may have been some official policy as to how to present lists of large numbers of casualties. Casualties for this region are spread over weeks and not just days. Things were bad enough as they were, but we can only imagine the effect that it had among communities of locally raised battalions, not just here but throughout the North of England as a whole as it was predominately "Pals" country.

As GTS has pointed out in the smaller mining communities it would have been devastating, many a street would have found itself trying to cope with the news of both dead, wounded and missing. The North I suspect never really recovered from it's losses and whole generations of kids were brought up by one parent families. Some women were lucky enough to re-marry, many didn't.

Somewhere among my research notes I think I still have copies from newspapers, if they're scanable would you like to see them, although to be honest I don't think you'll find anything which would reflect the social tragedy of the Somme on the population.?

Graham.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Graham,

Thanks for taking the time. If there is anything within your notes that you think is suitable, or even remarkable, then I would very much like for you to send it on please, as any anecdotes would be appreciated. I will PM you and email just incase.

Aye

Tom McC

[GTS]

Just a quick thought about the "drip feeding" of casualties. Do you think it might have been more a case of awaiting confirmation of deaths before publishing, I can't honestly imagine it would have been in anybody's interest to speculate on deaths before official word came through.

[Nigel M]

My great grandmother re- married very quickly after her husband CHJ Meek was killed in April 1918 and went on to have another 4 children. I assume it was a question of needs must in those times as there was no social welfare to speak of that I am aware of.

regards

Nigel