'the somme'

[xxbabygurlxx]

did anybody see the film on channel four last night about the somme?? i thought it was a really good encounter of it and gave me more to picture than my usual gcse lessons! found it extremely useful.. any thoughts??

[John_Hartley]

Hi

It was on a few months back I saw it then. I liked it - although I remember some of the Forum's "technical experts" reckoned there were bits that were wrong. I reckon it was pretty informative for people who were not "experts" and told the story well.

If I'm not mistaken, much of the film was about the 22nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. I've just checked through some records and you might be interested to know that one of the men on 1 July 1916 with them was a man from Wilmlsow.

He was Edgar Maurice Williams and his name is on the Wilmlsow War Memorial. He lived on Chapel Lane. This is a link to his page on the War Graves Commission website.

click here

I've been to the cemetery where he's buried and it looks over the area where he "went over the top". Lovely peaceful spot now.

There's some good stuff about the Somme specifically for school students on the Channel 4 website here.

John