Lance Corporal William Suthern

Lance Corporal William Suthern, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers attached to 1st/5th Battalion Duke of Wellingtons ( West Riding Regiment ) ( For fuller details see Ford and Etal War Memorial ). He was killed in action in France on 3rd September 1916, aged 23, during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France. The autumn rains would turn the ground into a glutinous quagmire making movement of men and guns very difficult. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby the Division had fought its first action during the Battle of St. Julien on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.