Lance Corporal Robert Jones

Lance Corporal Robert Jones, 15th ( Service ) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in action in France in the attack on Fricourt on 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. The Battalion was part of the attack on the Fricourt salient and the immediate objectives of ” Sunken” and ” Crucifix ” trenches were taken despite heavy machine gun fire. These trenches were then consolidated. ( His brother Sergeant F. Jones, Machine Gun Corps was killed on 21st March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive ). 15th D.L.I. was part of the 21st Division and were relieved at around midnight on the 1st July by the 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment and the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. The photo shows troops advancing over a wide no mans land with very little cover. The colour phoito shows part of the Somme battlefield as it is today with its gently rolling contours ands ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.