Saturday 1st July 1916

Coisy

When the massive British infantry assault on the Somme began, the Battalion was engaged in light training around 20 miles behind the lines at Coisy. However, the Battalion had been ordered to be ready to move at as little as six hours’ notice and at 8pm orders were duly received to move forward twelve miles to Baizieux; they arrived at 2 am on 2nd July and, in the terse comment of the War Diary, were ‘rested by the best means at their disposal’.

Pte. Albert Armitage (see 6^th June) was admitted via 10^th Field Ambulance to 3^rd Stationary Hospital at Rouen; he was suffering from shellshock.

A new officer reported for duty with the Battalion. 2Lt. Geoffrey Raymond Palmer was 28 years old, from Kettering, and had been working as an elementary school teacher before the war. He had joined 12^th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment on 29^th September 1914 and had then been commissioned in May 1915.

2Lt. Geoffrey Raymond Palmer

Pte. Alfred John Davis (see 6^th April), who had been attached to 176^th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers for the previous three months, was now formally transferred to the Royal Engineers as a Sapper.

The general picture of the events of 1^st July is well enough known to not require repetition here, but the events in the sector in which 69^th Brigade and specifically 10DWR were to be deployed do need to be understood. The area of operations for the Battalion was to be south-west of the heavily-defended village of Contalmaison. This in turn was part of what was known to the British as the Fricourt salient. On the first day of the battle Fricourt itself withstood the British assault, though some progress had been made either side of the village, leaving it isolated in a sharp, narrow salient. North-west of Fricourt, in front of Contalmaison, there had been some ground gained, though at very heavy cost to the attacking Battalions. Indeed some small parties had penetrated the German lines as far as Contalmaison itself but in such small numbers that the few survivors were forced to retire.

Among the almost 20,000 British soldiers killed on the first day was Pte. Farrand Earnshaw; he was the younger brother of Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw (see 23^rd June). Farrand had been serving  with 10^th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment near Mametz; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. In less than five weeks Jane Earnshaw had lost two sons and a grandson (George Earnshaw had been killed at the Battle of Jutland).

 George, Farrand and Kayley Earnshaw

Lt. Paul James Sainsbury, who would later serve with 10DWR, was among the thousands of wounded from the first day of fighting. He was serving with 2^nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s near Serre when “he was knocked down by a piece of shell and whilst lying on the ground 3 or 4 large shells burst quite near him; he did not lose consciousness but he was dazed and light headed for 6 hours”. Sainsbury had enlisted in 18^th Battalion Royal Fusiliers on 1^st September 1914, aged 23 (born 5^th December 1890). He was the son of John James Sainsbury, founder of the grocery empire, and had attended Malvern College, where he had been a member of the OTC, and had been working as an architect and surveyor before the war. He had been commissioned in February 1915 and had served in France with 2DWR since August 1915.

Lt. Paul James Sainsbury

Another man wounded was Skipton-born Pte. Arthur Gill, who suffered wounds to his left leg while serving with 2DWR near Serre. He was evacuated to England and treated at a military hospital in London; once recovered he would be posted (precise date unknown) to 10DWR.

Pte, Arthur Gill

Sgt. Henry Herbert Calvert (see 14^th June), who had been posted to the Dukes’ Regimental Depot at Halifax three weeks previously, was posted to 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs..