Lance Corporal Archbold Lockhart

Lance Corporal Archbold W. Lockhart, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France on 14th November 1916, aged 23, during the Battle of the Somme. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Lockhart of 112 Pont Street, Hirst, Ashington and was a native of Tweedmouth. He is buried in Warlencourt British Cemetery, Somme, France. He fell in the confused fighting near the infamous Butte De Warlencourt at the end of the Battle where attack and counterattack for ” Gird” ” Hook ” and ” Snag ” trenches cost the Battalion dear. 4 Officers and 122 Other Ranks were killed and 4 Officers and 101 Other Ranks were wounded. His Headstone is inscribed ” Death Divides Memory Clings”. The 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 for lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje near where the Division had fought its first action during the Battle of St. Julien on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent. The photos show the state of the ground in late Autumn when the rains had turned the shell blasted ground into a glutinous quagmire. The colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.