16th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Public Schools)
The Public Schools Battalions were a group of Pals battalions of the British Army during World War I. They were raised in 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Army and were originally recruited exclusively from former public schoolboys. When the battalions were taken over by the British Army they became variously the 16th (Service) Battalion (Public Schools) of the Middlesex Regiment and the 18th–21st (Service) Battalions (1st–4th Public Schools) of the Royal Fusiliers. However, Kitchener’s Army was faced with a dire shortage of officers and so ’young gentlemen’— public schoolboys and university graduates, including many of those who had enlisted in the Public Schools Battalions — were encouraged to apply for commissions. The battalions’ depleted ranks were made up with ordinary volunteers (and later conscripts) and although they retained the Public Schools titles, their exclusive nature was doomed. Two battalions remained to serve on the Western Front : the original battalion was all but destroyed on the first day of the Somme. After hard service both battalions were disbanded in February 1918 before the end of the war.
29th Division had recently taken over a section of the line in front of Beaumont-Hamel and was preparing for the ’Big Push’ (the Battle of the Somme) scheduled for 29 June 1916. The division’s objective was to cross 350 yards (320 m) of open ground and penetrate the German front line to Beaumont-Hamel, taking the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt with the assistance of a large mine. The 16th Middlesex, like other battalions, had to provide working parties to carry away the chalk excavated by the tunnellers. The plan hinged on a five-day artillery bombardment to destroy the enemy trenches and barbed wire. Bad weather obscured the targets, patrols (including one from 16th Middlesex) reported much of the wire still uncut, and the bombardment was extended for two extra days, with Z day put back to 1 July. The 16th Middlesex was in support, behind the 2nd Royal Fusiliers attacking towards the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt and the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers advancing from a sunken lane in No man’s land towards The Copse a few hundred yards further north. Controversially, the Hawthorn Ridge mine was blown at 07.20, 10 minutes before Zero hour, which allowed the Germans time to recover before the infantry went ’over the top’. The explosion was caught by cameraman Geoffrey Malins and later shown worldwide in his film The Battle of the Somme.
Before dawn on 1 July 16 Middlesex under Lt-Col Hall moved up to assembly trenches named Cripps Cut and Cardiff Street, where they waited while the first wave went forward into No man’s land five minutes before Zero. Both the Royal Fusiliers and Lancashire Fusiliers were caught by a cross-fire of machine guns from the ’Bergwerk’ to the right of Hawthorn Ridge and from the Copse, and by the artillery barrage that the Germans laid down on the British start line. The barrage was so intense and the number of returning wounded so great that the second wave, including B and D Companies of the 16th Middlesex, could not leave their trenches until 07.55. A and C Companies followed, but all were caught by the same fire. The 16th Middlesex just about reached the wire in front of the crater, with heavy loss, but could get no further. Malins’ film shows a distant group of men, believed to be from the 16th Middlesex, reaching the crater, then retreating in smaller numbers. 16th Middlesex’s adjutant, Captain F.S. Cochram, went forward to reorganise the men of B and D Companies in front of the crater, but was wounded. Following up at 09.15, the Newfoundland Regiment in 88th Bde were cut down, and 29th Division’s attack was halted, having achieved nothing. Lt-Col Hall worked to reorganise the survivors and bring up the battalion reserve to hold the front trench. Many of the men remained pinned down among the wounded in front of the wire and were taken prisoner later in the day.
The battalion was taken out of the line on 3 July, moving back into billets. Figures vary, but the consensus is that on the First day of the Somme the 16th Middlesex lost 22 officers and about 500 ORs in the attack, among the heaviest casualty lists of the day ; only one frontline officer remained of the four companies that had attacked.
Many of the men of the 16th Middlesex are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No 1, close to the mine crater (41 named graves), others are in Auchonvillers Cemetery behind the start line (21 named), and 91 names appear on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.
29th Division was relieved from duty on 24/25 July and was sent to camp in the Ypres Salient where the battalions were rebuilt and began doing trench duty once more.
In October 29 Division returned to the Somme where it did trench duty in the Transloy area while the Somme Offensive continued, but 86th Bde made no further attacks until 28 February 1917, when it assaulted Palz and Potsdam Trenches near Sailly-Saillisel.
The objective was to gain observation over the valleys to the north, and to discover whether the Germans were planning a withdrawal.
The Regular battalions of the brigade attacked behind a Creeping barrage that moved slowly because of the mud the men had to cross. After a partial success the brigade consolidated the captured trenches.
