The Somme. July 1, 1916

90 years ago today, at 07.30 hours, the Battle of the Somme began and by the end of the day 20,000 British and Empire soldiers had been killed and 40,000 wounded; amongst them coal miners from Northumberland, men from the slums of the East End of London, and the Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith of the Grenadier Guards.

When the battle ended in November the British casualties numbered 420,000 dead, wounded and missing , the French more than 200,000 and the Germans around 650,000. Most of these men were from the industrial working classes whose pre-war lives would have had more in common with each other than with the politicians who led them into war and with the Generals who directed them into a maelstrom of futile and senseless slaughter in a landscape of unimaginable privation.

My grandfather Charles Crow Gordon was at the Somme that day, serving as a signaller with the 14th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. Charles had volunteered in Newcastle upon Tyne in September 1914, finally returning home in 1918.

The photograph below shows my Grandfather Charles standing next to his comrade and friend Ernie. The photo was sent to Charles by Ernie on 24 August 1931 with the following words:

"Dear Charlie, ...... Hoping you are all well......thought this would bring memories of Arras, August 1916 after July 1 on the Somme, Yr old friend Ernie."