Ypres, 2022. 24^th July

Today I set off for the Somme to record the resting place of three more ex-pupils of Durlston Court School. I also wanted to see some of my favorite sites on the Somme.

I started with a visit to the Thiepval Memorial which is the memorial to the missing who lost their lives during the Somme campaign which took place between the 1^{st of} July 1916 and the 18^{th of} November 2016. More than three million men fought in the battle and one million were wounded or killed. On the first day the British suffered 57,470 casualties including 19,240 killed.

Reginald Wallace Snowden an ex-pupil of Durlston Court was killed on the 10th of July 1916. He was a Lieutenant in the South Staffordshire Regiment. His body was never found, and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial. Pier 7B. He was aged 21.

I passed the Ulster Tower which was one of the first memorials erected on the Western Front. It commemorates the 36^th (Ulster) Division. They suffered 5,000 casualties on the 1^{st of} July 1916.

The next visit was to the Devonshire Trench Cemetery. There are 163 graves in the cemetery. All but two of these graves are for soldiers of the 8^th and 9^th Battalions of the Devonshire regiment. They took heavy losses on the 1^{st of} July and were buried by their comrades in part of this frontline trench on the 4^{th of} July. One of the soldiers who was asked to plan the attack had predicted the disaster as he assumed the Germans would use a shrine within a local cemetery to place a machine gun unit. He was proved correct, and the machine gun caused havoc for the Devonshires.

I then travelled to Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension. This is the resting place for Captain Arthur Pelham Marriott. He was a student of Durlston Court School and served with the Royal Field Artillery. He was killed on the 7^{th of} April 1917 and buried in section I, H 79. He was aged 22.

Finally, I travelled to Bethune Town Cemetery. This is a large civilian cemetery with a large Commonwealth Graves extension within the grounds. I came to pay my respects to Second Lieutenant Cyril Francis Davenport an ex-pupil of Durlston Court who served with the Hampshire Regiment. He was killed on the 2^{nd of} August 1916 and is located in section III K 37. He was aged 19.

I have now been able to pay respects and record the locations for the ex-pupils. I have two more to find but need to do more research as their resting places are still unknown.

I also found a couple of interesting graves at the Bethune Town Cemetery. See the notes under each photograph.