Somme Archives - Brockley SE4

Featured local business - Clubtek

Forest

SE23

Hill

I was already a regular visitor to Clubtek’s DJ shop when it was in Penge, but now they're even handier in Stanstead Road, just a few doors down from Shannon’s Garden Centre - another old favourite. It’s by no means just for DJs and bands...

Guided Walk Sunday 20th November visiting some of the fallen from the Battle of the Somme

Nov

2016

-The Battle of the Ancre HeightsThere will be a free guided walk visiting the graves and headstones in the Brockley & Ladywell cemeteries of some of those who fought and fell during the 141 days of horror of the Battle of the Somme (July to November 1916). The walk will be led by FOBLC members ...

‘Gentlemen , when the barrage lifts’ –Rifleman Kenneth Middleton Davies QVR, killed first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Jun

2016

Situated aside the inner pathway close to Brockley Grove lies a forlorn cross which contains the evocative lettering 'the barrage lifts' and tells the onlooker that Rifleman Kenneth Middleton Davies, of the Queens Victoria Rifles or ‘Old Vics’ was killed in action aged 24 years in France on the first day of the Battle of ...

The Somme Revisited

May

2016

On Monday 25th April I accompanied three of my FOBLC colleagues Geoffrey Thurley (the Chair), Mick Martin and Peter Mealing (the driver) across the channel, following the route that General De Gaulle once called the 'fatal avenue', the sweep of low lying country in Northern France heading towards the much visited Somme battlefield (the Somme is the name ...

Francis Paget Hewkley: awarded Military Medal for bravery at the Somme

Sep

2013

Many thanks to Stuart Hallifax who has written a great piece on Francis Paget Hewkley in his Great War London blog. Hewkley was brought up in London, emigrated to Australia in 1912 and then enlisted a signalman in the Australian infantry. He served at Gallipoli before transferring to the Western Front where he won a Military Medal for ...