The Western Front Today - Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Memorial
Updated - Sunday, 19 January, 2003

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: click here to view the footage, QuickTime .MOV format, 719kb).  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
	721kb, 16 seconds, Windows Media .WMV format
	Film Footage of Ancre Cemetery
	1,251kb, 28 seconds, Windows Media .WMV format

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

"Suicide Ditch" was a term used by British soldiers to refer to the front-line trench.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-09, SafeSurf Rated