A rifle and face from the past-

[mike webb]

The Battle of the Somme was a horrible day of slaughter for the British Army, 20,000 dead, over 37,000 wounded IN ONE DAY!! The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was attached to the British 29th Division and attacked at Beaumont Hamel. Newfoundland was a separate colony of Great Britain and not attached to Canadian forces. The regiment attacked with around 800 men as part of the third wave of assaults(the first two were decimated, nothing like reinforcing failure). At sundown on July 1st, 1916 only 68 men answered the roll call in the Regiment.
July 1st is still a day of mourning in Newfoundland and a large statue of a caribou stands at Beaumont Hamel as a memorial to the regiment.

[PhillipM]

Sadly true JB. Not only photographs, but personal correspondence as well. And the day to day record of our society that was once captured for posterity in newspapers and magazines is fading fast. As technology effectively erases our footprints behind us, the task of the legitimate historian will become more difficult while that of the historical revisionist will become increasingly easier.

I still lament all that was lost when jouster crashed in 2009. We lost a ton of good information from members no longer with us.