Most Friends will by now have heard of the terrible events at... read more →
Meet Trooper Walter Bell. He’s remembered with a plaque on the Crater walkway and is buried in the Dernancourt Communal Cemetery near Albert. He was 20 when he was killed, on... read more →
By Stephen Kerr For most visitors, the Somme is a photographer’s dream. Sites like Lochnagar Crater, the cemeteries, memorials and woods, and the rolling landscape, are irresistibly photogenic. Stephen Kerr... read more →
Every now and again, words written by men who survived the slaughter on the battlefields a century ago echo through the years. Relationships made in appalling conditions can cascade through... read more →
By Martin Middlebrook The name of Martin Middlebrook is inseparable from the name of the Somme. Nobody visiting the battlefield will be unaware of his ground-breaking work, The First Day... read more →
By Peter Vass For General Haig, the Battle of the Somme was supposed to be the solution to the stalemate on the western Front not, as it turned out to... read more →
by Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore One of our tasks while in Bécordel was to furnish work parties to assist the tunnelling companies who were engaged in mining under the German lines. About... read more →
By Tim Rogers You can’t visit Lochnagar Crater and fail to notice the wood carvings and sculptures which adorn the site. One of the most recent is the three-dimensional tableau... read more →
By Jason King Many hundreds of young people are introduced to Lochnagar Crater each year on trips organised by their schools. These visits are crucially important. With luck - and... read more →
A small family group stand in a field commemorating the death of a soldier in the Battle of the Somme. The man being honoured is Corporal Ernest Goodridge of the... read more →
