The centenary of the Somme is being observed this summer, one of the bloodiest and most horrific battles of the First World War of 1914-16 and in human history.

It was fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German empire and took place between July 1st and 18th November, 1916, on both sides of the River Somme in France when more than one million men were wounded or killed.

Much has been written about this now legendary conflict but it is the words of the men who were there that we remember and as most wrote home regularly to their loved ones, an impressive archive of letters survives from soldiers who took part, including some from those who lived in Bourne.

Many of the servicemen sent to the front had been pupils at the Boys' Council or Board School in Star Lane [now the Abbey Church of England Primary Academy in Abbey Road] and before leaving for overseas they had been persuaded by their old headmaster, Joseph Davies, to keep in touch by letter and he replied to each one.

Private John Bannister, whose mother lived in Woodview, Bourne, was serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment but had been wounded in the battle and he wrote from a convalescent camp at Boulogne: “I have been reported missing because I was buried for about four hours. They thought I was blown up. But I wasn't. All the boys are confident that the war will be over very soon.” 

Sergeant Cedric Lloyd of the Royal Fusiliers wrote to his mother from a military hospital somewhere in France after being wounded on September 18th, describing some successful attacking operations in which he and his comrades took part and referred to the effectiveness of tanks that had been used for the first time but was at pains to say that he was recovering from his injuries: “I am pleased to tell you that my knee is getting on very well. The wounds just above the knee have practically healed and I am now allowed to get up for a few hours a day.” 

Private Martin Barnes, of Willoughby Road, Bourne, who was serving with the Sherwood Foresters, was also wounded in the battle and was recovering in hospital somewhere in France from where he wrote to Mr Davies about the quiet courage of his comrades: “Every man who has been engaged on the Somme front has earned a name for himself that ought never to be forgotten. We were engaged in the fighting at Trones Wood [behind the German lines] and to lose that wood was one of our greatest setbacks for it changed hands no fewer than four times before the Germans were driven out. The Northamptons and West Kents at last succeeded but not until those battalions had lost nearly all their men. We relieved them. I am proud to say we even took the enemy trenches in front of us but the roll call proved how heavily we had paid for it.” 

All three survived the Somme but seven soldiers from Bourne did not and their names are listed on the cenotaph at the War Memorial Gardens in South Street and the Thiepval Memorial at Picardy in France. They have been identified by military historian Tony Stubbs as Private George Sherwin and Lance Corporal Ralph Pattison (Lincolnshire Regiment), Private Frederick Smith (the London Regiment), Private Harry Pearce (Royal Fusiliers), Privates William Lunn and James Smith (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and Private Arthur Lane (South Lancashire Regiment). 

The public was largely unaware of what had been happening at the front until a dramatic film, The Battle of the Somme, which had been shot on location, was given several public showings by the Bourne Electric Theatre Company during November and December 1916 when the Corn Exchange was packed on each occasion and additional seating installed to cope with the crowds.  

There was so much interest that some parents kept their children away from school to see it. Records from the infants' school in Abbey Road note that on 30th November 1916 the attendance marks of two sisters were cancelled "because their mother fetched them away from school at 2.30 pm to see the Somme film”. 

The flickering silent images on the screen were the first to be seen of the war, and the mud, blood and suffering of the Somme stunned the audience into total silence and many were moved to tears. The response was the immediate formation of a fund to buy Christmas parcels for the Bourne soldiers, the proceeds from the two screenings being the first contribution followed by a flag day in the town which produced further funds and a house-to-house collection that pushed the figure up to £102 [over £8,000 at today's values].  

Two hundred parcels containing food, sweets and tobacco were eventually dispatched to local serving soldiers at the front while postal orders were sent to 30 wounded soldiers at hospitals in Britain and France because they were not receiving any money while patients. There were also four Bourne soldiers who were prisoners of war and cash gifts for each sent to the Central  Relief Committee in London to pay for parcels to be forwarded to all of them for a period of four weeks. This was the first indication of how many men from Bourne were serving with the armed forces, a total of 234 from a population at that time of 4,343 [the 1911 census figure]. 

The Great War, as it subsequently became known, lasted from 1914-18 and resulted in over 38 million military and civilian casualties with over 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. When it was over, war memorials were built in towns and villages across the country to honour the dead and here in Bourne our own cenotaph in South Street which was opened in 1956 remembers the 134 men who made the supreme sacrifice. 

Bourne is therefore keeping faith with all of those who gave their lives in battle in accordance with Binyon’s evocative words that have become an integral part of Remembrance Sunday: “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.”