Lincolnshire Regiment Memorial - geograph

The Grimsby Chums was a British

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Pals battalion The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...

Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...

raised in and around the town of

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

in 1914. When the

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

was taken over by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

it was officially named the 10th (Service) Battalion,

The Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regimen ...

. It was the only '

pals battalion The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...

' to be called 'chums'. When the call came from Lord Kitchener for volunteers, the headmaster of Wintringham Grammar School in Grimsby decided to raise a 250-strong

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

of former pupils which would be based at the armoury of the school's

Officer Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

. The company was offered to the local

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

unit, the

5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment The 5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment (5th Lincolns), was a volunteer unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1900 until 1967, serving as infantry on the Western Front during the First World War and as an air defence unit during and after the ...

, but by then the battalion was full.Maj-Gen C. R. Simpson (ed), ''The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment 1914–1918'', London: Medici Society, 1931//Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2002, , pp. 53–4. When other Grimsby men expressed a wish to join, the process was handed over to the town council which set about recruiting sufficient men to form an entire battalion for 'Kitchener's Army'.Lincolns at Long, Long Trail.
/ref> Men were accepted from neighbouring towns such as

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

and

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

. In order to complete the battalion, a group was sent from

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

in Yorkshire. The Grimsby Chums joined the 101st Brigade of the 34th Division where they were joined by the two battalions of the Edinburgh City Pals. The division moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in January 1916 and first saw action in the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. On 1 July 1916, the

first day on the Somme The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, was the beginning of the Battle of Albert the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme () in the First World War. Nine corps of the French Sixth Arm ...

, the Grimsby Chums were in the first wave attacking the fortified village of

La Boisselle Ovillers-la-Boisselle is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The commune of Ovillers-la-Boisselle is situated northeast of Amiens and extends to the north and south of the D 929 Albert–Bapaume r ...

, just south of the

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

–

Bapaume Bapaume (original Dutch name Batpalmen) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. The inhabitants of this commune are known as ''Bapalmois'' or ''Bapalmoises''. Geography Bapaume is a farmi ...

road. To aid their attack, a massive mine, known as the

Lochnagar mine The Lochnagar mine south of the village of La Boisselle in the Somme was an underground explosive charge, secretly planted by the British during the First World War, to be ready for 1 July 1916, the first day on the Somme. The mine was dug by ...

, was detonated beneath the German trenches at 7.28 am, two minutes before Zero hour. At 7.30 am, the Grimsby Chums rushed forward to occupy the

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

. Here many were trapped for the rest of the day, harassed by both German and British artillery.Martin Middlebrook, ''The First Day on the Somme, 1 July 1916'', London: Allen Lane 1971/Fontana, 1975, . A few of the Grimsby Chums made it into the German trenches. The only officer to make it was

2nd Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

Harold P. Hendin who led five men to the German reserve trench (the third trench in the front-line system) and, gathering stragglers as the day progressed, he held off a series of German counter-attacks before having to retire. In total the Grimsby Chums suffered 502 casualties on 1 July; 15 officers and 487 other ranks. Only two of the officers came back unwounded, and only about 100 men. In February 1918 the battalion moved to the 103rd Brigade, 34th Division. The 10th Battalion was disbanded on 3 June 1919. A memorial in St James' Church, Grimsby, was erected to the memory of the 810 members of the 10th (Service) Battalion who were killed in action or died on service.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Story of The Grimsby Chums''Grimsby Chums March'' composed by Stuart Boyd
accessed 15-05-2016)
The Long, Long Trail
Pals battalions Military units and formations in Grimsby Military units and formations in Lincolnshire Royal Lincolnshire Regiment