by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
ON the evening of May 14, 1916, for the third and final time before the fateful first day of the Battle of the Somme, the Durham Pals went back in the frontline trenches of the Somme. The 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry had two previous experiences of life...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Richmond
GRAFFITI which reveals an often-forgotten chapter of the First World War is to be saved from crumbling away to dust. Hundreds of pencil drawings, political slogans, portraits, hymns and poetry were scrawled on the walls of the 19th-century cell block at Richmond...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
DURING the first few days of May 1916, the Durham Pals were able to enjoy some well-deserved respite after the traumas of Easter Week. In their four days in the waterlogged trenches over Easter, 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry had seen one of their...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
EASTER Week of 1916 saw the Durham Pals waist-deep in water and thoroughly miserable. Exactly 100 years ago Easter was three weeks later than this year, and so it was on April 20 – Maundy Thursday – that the volunteers of 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
CONDITIONS in the Durham Pals’ sodden camp in the woods were so bad 100 years ago that most were relieved to go back into the trenches. On the afternoon of Maundy Thursday – April 20, 1916 – the 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry – commonly known as the...
