^* Public Record Office, CAB 45/188.

^* 2nd Lieut Siegfried Sassoon, M.C, the famous war poet and writer, was serving in this division. His battalion, the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers, took little part in the attack and Sassoon spent the day watching the fighting around Fricourt from a vantage point in the British trenches. Another officer in the division was Capt. Richard O’Connor who commanded the divisional signals unit. As the commander of the Western Desert Force, the forerunner of the famous Eighth Army, Gen. O’Connor conducted a brilliant campaign against the Italians in North Africa in 1940 and 1941.

^* A certain Capt. A. E. Percival of the 7th Bedfords won the Military Cross for his part in this fighting. In 1942, Lieut-Gen. Percival was in command of the ill-fated Singapore garrison which was surrendered to the Japanese. Part of this garrison was another 18th Division, again made up of battalions from Eastern England, but they went into captivity almost as soon as they landed at Singapore.

^* The fierce Sgt Ingall, a Regular soldier, was eventually saved but he never soldiered again. He was discharged as a cripple in 1917.

^*This extract was taken from a letter written by Turnbull in July 1919. He had been hit in the spine on 1 July 1916 and was still in hospital at Oxford. The letter was kindly loaned by Maj. C. H. Emmerson of Grimsby. Colonel Howard was the c.o. of the 1st Tyneside Irish. He died soon afterwards.

^* From General Jack’s Diary, 1914–1918, p. 149, edited by John Terraine.

^† The identity of the visiting bishop is uncertain. One report says it was the Bishop of London, but the Roman Catholic Bishop of Khartoum visited other units of the division on 2 July.

^* Cpl George Sanders, a Leeds Territorial soldier, held on with a small party to one corner of the redoubt for the next thirty-six hours. During this time, eleven of his thirty men became casualties, some wounded Ulstermen were rescued and several German attacks beaten off. For his leadership, Sanders received the Victoria Cross. Later in the war he was commissioned, won the Military Cross and became a prisoner of war.

^† Sunset at Albert was at 9.02 P.M. by the newly introduced British Summer Time (H.M. Nautical Almanac Office).