100 years on, Gordon Highlander’s account of the Battle of the Somme

A hundred years ago today the men from the Gordon Highlanders went “over the top” in the bloodiest battle of World War 1.

The Battle of the Somme commenced at 7.30am, lasted for 141 days and led to more than one million casualties on all sides.

The four-month battle saw 310,486 people killed in the trenches of North-west France, 1,546 from the Gordon Highlanders alone.

For the 2nd Battalion, day one of the Somme was devastating, with nearly half their troops – 127 men – killed in action.

Despite the huge losses to the battalion the Gordons actually achieved their day one objective – to reach the French commune of Mametz.

During the whole of WW1, the 2nd Battalion of the Gordons lost five commanding officers – two of them died at the Somme.

Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand Gorges Reginald Gordon was wounded during that hellish first day at the Somme but survived.

However, 19 days later, on July 20, he died aged 35 during fighting at High Wood, near the village of Bazentin-le-Grand. The specifics of his death are not known but historians believe it was due to shellfire.

Major Pailthorpe, who was the doctor attached to the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, wrote at the time: “At about 11pm I found Colonel Gordon.

“For the first time in my experience he seemed shaken – small wonder when the Bosche had been directing fire all day at his cross roads and he had had many direct hits all around him.

“About ten minutes after our return we were about to move out when crash upon crash sounded in the valley below and a battalion runner breathless gave me a slip of paper – it was from the Drum Major [Kenny], ‘The Colonel and Anderson both buried and killed – heavy barrage here – hopeless to attempt anything – am leaving’.

“It’s hard to estimate what a loss Colonel Gordon was, he had fashioned the Battalion since Loos and was entirely devoted to it. The Drum Major took a horse in the afternoon and, without disclosing his intentions, rode back and managed to bring back the bodies of Colonel Gordon and Captain Anderson.

“They were buried in the field that evening.”

Drum Major Kenny, who retrieved the bodies, had earlier been awarded the Victoria Cross, in October 1914, for rescuing wounded men under heavy fire on five occasions, and twice saving machine guns by carrying them out of action.

The other commanding officer killed at the Somme was Major R D Oxley. He was in temporary command when he was killed on September 6 at the end of the third successful, but ultimately futile, attack on Ginchy.

Of the other 2nd Battalion COs killed in action during the war were Lieutenant Colonel Henry P Uniacke, who was shot by a sniper in March 1915, Lieutenant Colonel J R E Stansfeld of Montrose, who was mortally wounded during the Battle of Loos in September 1915, and Lieutenant Colonel Hugh A Ross was killed in October 1918, two weeks before the Armistice.