Events have been held across Nottinghamshire today to honour those who fought in the bloodiest battle in human history.
The Battle of the Sommme began on July 1 1916 and lasted for five months, and resulted in the biggest loss of life of any action in the First World War.
One million men were killed or injured on all sides and today they were remembered in ceremonies across Nottinghamshire, the UK and France.
A memorial service was held at County Hall in West Bridgford this morning where councillors and relatives of those killed held a minute’s silence.
It was signalled by the blowing of the same type of whistle used by officers to instruct men to go ‘over the top’ of the trenches to begin assaults against enemy machine guns.
It was particularly poignant for council leader Alan Rhodes, whose great grandfather, Private William Rhodes of the York and Lancaster Regiment, died in the battle.
Cllr Rhodes said: “He is now buried in a part of a foreign field. His memory will never be forgotten.
“It is important that we not only remember their sacrifice and try to understand what they and their families went through, but that we learn lessons from this most appalling conflict so that such unnecessary carnage is never repeated again.”
1WW ‘ghost soldiers’ are popping up in Manchester and across the UK to mark #Somme100 singing #wearehere #Somme pic.twitter.com/y1IDz3iG2j
— Mcr Confidential (@mcrconfidential) July 1, 2016
Actors playing ‘ghost soldiers’ appeared at train stations across the country
A ceremony at the Thiepval memorial, near the battlefield in northern France, was also held.
And at Nottingham High School in the Arboretum staff and pupils will hold a re-dedication ceremony for the school’s war memorial and remember school ‘old boys’ who fought in the battle.
On Sunday around 1,000 people are expected at a ceremony at the Sherwood Foresters Regiment memorial in Crich, Derbyshire.
The regiment recruited from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and suffered heavy losses in the battle.
Somme heroes: Captain John Leslie Green RAMC
Captain Green was a Medical Officer attached to 1/5th Sherwood Foresters.
While accompanying the assaulting troops at Gommecourt on July 1 1916, he was wounded but went to the rescue of an officer caught on barbed wire, dragged him into a shell hole and dressed his wounds under fire. He had almost succeeded in bringing the wounded officer into cover when he himself was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Sunday’s short service will be followed by a wreath laying ceremony, and an audio recording will also be played called ‘Voices of the Somme’, recounting the stories of men involved in the battle and devised by Colonel (Retired) David Sneath, a Nottinghamshire Deputy Lieutenant – from the office representing the Queen in the county.
