The sons of Bradford who never came back from war

Only a brief visit was possible to Serre, where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916.

The trip deeply affected many of us. We may have been far from Bradford, but the connection with our city’s history was a deep one indeed, for it was at that very location where the future Bradford was irretrievably altered and so many young men died in the most futile of wars.

It was a powerful combination of emotions that ensured that we would return in June this year and follow closely in the footsteps of the Bradford Pals.

The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest in British military history. Nearly 60,000 British and Empire troops were killed or wounded on that terrible Saturday morning alone. Of 2,000 Bradford Pals who emerged from their trenches at Serre, 1,770 were killed or wounded before lunchtime.

Nearly an entire generation was wiped out. As JB Priestley pointed out, the Pals were among the most intelligent and physically fit of Bradford’s young men. It was a terrible loss for Bradford and one that is difficult to comprehend nearly a century on.

The scale of the battle is epitomised by the Theipval Memorial. Standing on a strategic ridge, and visible for miles around, the enormous brick memorial has 72,202 names of British troops who died on the Somme and have no known grave inscribed on its walls. Among them are hundreds of names from the West Yorkshire regiments.

This year many of our group had researched individual stories of soldiers from the two Bradford Pals battalions who suffered so grievously on the first day of the Somme. A name cast in stone was brought to life, with an often-familiar street name, place of work and family story.

I began researching the life story of Manningham -born Arthur Greenwood. I discovered that his family had moved to Great Horton and that he had followed his father’s career as a barber.

Arthur’s shop was at 386 Great Horton Road – which today is part of the Mumtaz restaurant. A keen swimmer, Arthur was treasurer of the Bradford ‘Water Rats’ Swimming Club. He was one of first thousand to enlist and was therefore in the 1st Bradford Pals (16th Battalion Prince of Wales’ Own West Yorkshire Regiment).

Arthur became the battalion’s barber. He went over the top with best mate Charlie Lee at Serre. In a letter to Arthur’s parents, Charlie described the attack:

“We left the trench at 7.30 on Saturday morning, July 1st, after waiting all night. I shall never forget it. He was very cheerful. As soon as we got out our corporal was killed.

“Then Arthur and I took the lead. We kept together until we got just behind the front line. There we found we were the only two left. We got into a shell hole. There were a lot of killed and wounded in the hole, our captain being amongst them.

“It was here that Arthur got hit with shrapnel. He said as I was leaving, for I had to go on, ‘Well good luck Charlie lad, I shall creep out alright’.

“That was all he said and I heard nothing more until late at night, when I was told he had been found where I left him. Another shell had burst and killed him before he could get out of the shell hole. I have lost a true pal.”

We placed a cross beneath Arthur’s headstone. It was quite a moment, for here lay a man who stood on the Valley Parade terraces watching that great Bradford City team in the years leading up to the Great War.

In April 2011, one of his descendants sold some of Arthur’s personal effects on eBay. Among them were six postcards of Bradford City team groups, including one of the FA Cup-winning squad of the 1910/11 season.

The difficulty when visiting the Somme battlefields today is making the mental leap from the beautifully-tended cemeteries and rolling green fields to the killing fields guarded by barbed wire, lashed with machine gun fire, strewn with the dead and dying. The Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel helps the visitor make the connection – 74 acres of trenches and battlefield preserved as a memorial to the Newfoundland Regiment which was all but destroyed during their attack on July 1, 1916.

Although now covered in lush grass, the trenches and no man’s land are intact. Young Canadian guides show visitors around the site free of charge. Our guide was a law student taking a summer sabbatical to work at the park.

He helped bring the battle to life and explained why the people of Newfoundland felt moved to buy the site as a memorial to the 780 men of the regiment, of whom 90 per cent were casualties.

As he explained, it was the second-biggest loss of any British regiment – the worst being the 10th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, attacking west of Fricourt village.

A short drive from Thiepval is Serre. The actual location from where the Bradford Pals attacked is a mile from the village and along a dirt track. Among the peaceful rolling green hills we arrived at the tiny Serre Road Number 3 British Cemetery and the location of the British front line.

To our left was the Leeds trench, from where the Leeds Pals attacked, including Bradford City’s England international Evelyn Lintott, who was killed by machine gun fire. Just behind the Leeds trench was Bradford trench, from where the 1st Bradford Pals emerged.

The majority of them did not even make it as far as the British front line before being mown down. The 2nd Bradford Pals followed and suffered an almost identical fate. To be stood on the very ground where the history of our city was changed forever was humbling.

We were a world away from the sound of the Town Hall bells, terraced houses, mill chimneys and looming moors but, to borrow a hackneyed phrase, here was a corner of a French field that is forever Bradford.

From Serre we drove to Euston Road Cemetery. The Bradford Pals marched past Euston Road en route to the front line the night before the attack and saw large mass graves being dug.

Today, many of the men who looked, undoubtedly in some trepidation at the sight of the waiting graves, lay in Euston Road. One Pal there is Norman Waddilove.

The son of a millionaire, whose family founded Provident Finance, whose headquarters today overlook City Park , Norman nevertheless joined up, and died, as a private solider. His uncle was chairman of Bradford Park Avenue between the wars and was a great supporter of the Bradford Cricket League.

Another short drive saw us revisiting the Bradford Pals memorial plaque on the churchyard of the village of Herbuterne. The location was chosen for the memorial as 44 Bradford Pals were killed in the nearby Rossignol Wood.

We found their last resting place at Owl Trench Cemetery. I reflected that it was an odd spot for lads from Bradford Moor and Idle to have ended up.

Then it was on to the village of Bus les Artois – the highlight of the trip. The night before the Battle of the Somme, two Bradford Pals, Privates Herbert Crimmins and Arthur Wild, went for a drink in the bar in Bus les Artois. They got drunk and slept it off in a field, missing the bloody 1st of July as a result.

They were arrested and later shot for desertion, despite pleas for clemency from their commanding officer.

We then went to the local pub where the two Pals had their fateful night on the drink. The villagers had turned out in good numbers to meet us, and City fan Mick Kirby, who had done a fabulous job setting up the meeting with the mayor and arranging for the bar to be opened for our arrival, made a speech in French to the villagers, which was greeted with warm applause.

We were undoubtedly popular visitors, not least because the bar had recently closed and the locals were taking the opportunity to revisit it.

Two locals surprised us by bringing their copies of David Raw’s book on the Bradford Pals. One villager told us that his father had become friends with a Bradford family whose son had been killed while serving with the Bradford Pals.

The entente cordial was aided by free beer for visitors and locals alike – I smiled wryly when I noticed that the beer was German. I wondered what the Pals would have made of that fact! The former bar owner, a lady in her 90s and now wheelchair-bound, was handed the majority of the presents brought from Bradford which were intended for the mayor! The joy on her face was infectious.

We eventually left for our overnight stop at Albert with waves and hearty au revoirs. The link between Bus les Artois and Bradford had been thoroughly re-cemented 96 years after the Pals marched away from the welcoming glow of the local bar towards the sound of guns.

The following day we visited the final resting place of a Bradford sportsman who had evaded our attention on the trip – Bradford Northern’s Harry Ruck. He is buried in the large Caterpillar Valley Cemetery at Longueval. The cemetery is within sight of the infamous trio of Delville Wood, High Wood and Mametz Wood.

Harry played for Bradford Northern at their former Birch Lane ground at West Bowling – two decades before Odsal Stadium was developed. He was the only Rugby League player from Bradford killed in the Great War. We laid a cross on his grave and will be passing photographs of his final resting place to our friends at the Bradford Bulls.

At Vieille-Chapelle Cemetery we gathered around the graves of the two Bradford Pals shot for desertion: Herbert Crimmins and Arthur Wild. There was an air of sadness and forgiveness. It does appear that their desertion was not premeditated but was simply the result of having one too many drinks. I wrote in the cemetery visitor book that they were forgiven in Bradford, and I hope that many share my sentiments.

We than had another unexpected visit when we stopped at the fabulous Indian Memorial. A circular monument contains the names of 4,743 Indian soldiers and labourers who died during the conflict and have no known grave.

We returned to Lille, and the following day boarded the Eurostar. The final act of the trip came when a small group had a farewell pint in Bradford’s City Vaults. There we toasted Crimmins, Wild and all the Bradford Pals who had served our city almost a century ago.

Gone but certainly not forgotten.