Private Richard Rowntree

Private Richard Rowntree, 16th ( Service) Battalion, ( Newcastle), Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in France on 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme during the attack on the heavily fortified German stronghold of Thiepval. The attack was stopped in No Mans land by very heavy machine gun fire and it was only after dark that night that the survivors could regain the British lines. He is buried in Lonsdale Cemetery, Authille, Somme, France. 16th N.F. was a ” Pals ” Battalion and known as the ” Newcastle Commercials “. The photo shows troops attacking over a very wide “no mans land” with very little cover. The colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.