headerphoto

The Western Front Today - Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Memorial

The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Memorial, on the Somme battlefields, is positioned almost directly opposite the site of the famous Hawthorn Mine crater (the explosion of which was filmed at 7.20am on 1 July 1916.  It is also adjacent to the Sunken Lane where cameraman Geoffrey Malins filmed men of the 1st Lancashire Division on the morning of 1 July preparing to go over the top.

The memorial - a Celtic cross - was unveiled in 1923 by the Duke of Argyll.  It lists details of the actions of the 8th Argyllshire Battalion, Princess Louise's Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, the 51st Highland Division, the 61st Division, and the 15th Scottish Division.

The memorial notes that during its service in the field (from 1 May 1915 until the end of the war) 51 officers and 831 NCOs and men were killed.  105 officers and 2,527 NCOs and men were wounded.  A Gaelic inscription on the memorial reads "friends are good on the day of the battle".

Film Footage of Memorial

References:
Before Endeavours Fade, Rose E.B. Coombs, After the Battle 1994
Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide - Somme, Leo Cooper 2000

A "biff" was a Bristol fighter plane.

- Did you know?

Battlefields

Bookmark