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£5 on the door, payable by cash or cardIn 1914, recruiting parties travelled through Cambridgeshire accompanied by drums and bugles, calling upon local men to volunteer for a new battalion. Friends, neighbours, workmates and brothers stepped forward together.
They became the 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment—the Cambridge Volunteer Battalion, better known as the Cambs Suffolks.
These were men drawn from the towns, villages, farms and families of Cambridgeshire. They trained together in Cambridge, Yorkshire and on Salisbury Plain before being sent to France. By the summer of 1916, they were preparing for the great offensive that Britain hoped would break the deadlock on the Western Front.
On the morning of 1 July 1916, following an enormous bombardment and the explosion of the Lochnagar mine, the Cambs Suffolks advanced through Sausage Valley. The German defences had not been destroyed as expected. Machine guns, artillery and flamethrowers inflicted devastating losses upon the battalion—and the consequences travelled all the way back to Cambridgeshire.
This illustrated Old Willingham talk will follow the men from recruitment and training to the trenches and the first day of the Somme. It will include their friendships, letters and experiences, as well as the stories of Willingham men, including Ernest Pridham, who enlisted at only sixteen, Ernest Cox and Smith Stevens Poulter.
We will also look at Willingham’s wartime auxiliary hospital and the nurses and local people caring for wounded servicemen at home.
This is not simply the story of a battle. It is the story of a generation of Cambridgeshire men who enlisted together, served together—and whose loss was felt family by family and village by village.
Please click “Going” on the Facebook event if you intend to join us, as this helps us estimate the number of seats required.
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Event venue
Willingham Social Club. Fen End, CB24 5LH Willingham, United Kingdom, 20c Fen End, Cambridge, CB24 5, United Kingdom
Tickets
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