SIR - I thank Dave Welbourne for his suggestion (T&A, July 5) that the inept leadership of General Aylmer Hunton-Weston was responsible for many of the Bradford Pals’ lives needlessly lost in the battle of the Somme as well as in the Gallipoli campaign.

I say this because it could also explain the tragic loss suffered by my great grandparents John and Harriet Holmans. They had four sons Sid, Alf, Joe and Bert (my grandfather killed in Gallipoli). Alf and Joe died on the Western Front whilst Sid survived but lost a leg on the Somme.

Their names are recorded in the Book of Life kept in the Buffs chapel in Canterbury cathedral along with those of another 5,500 Men of Kent who died with the regiment in the Great War.

My father often went to the daily ceremony of remembrance standing in quiet contemplation with other families until on the stroke of 11 a young soldier (including occasionally myself) moved forward to turn the page. On his return he always said that wherever the book lay open there was at least one name he recognised, adding sadly that the Great War had not been kind to the Holmans family.

Brian Holmans (Lately 23193837 Cpl B Holmans The Royal East Kent Regiment - The Buffs)