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?
