* The youngest was probably Pte J. Condon, a fourteen-year-old Water-ford boy, who was killed with the 2nd Royal Irish in the Second Battle of Yprcs, May 1915. His grave is at Poelcappelle (Poekapelle) British Cemetery, Ypres.
* The ranks and units of 1 July 1916 will continue to be used in quotations such as these, which are all from men who were on the Somme on that day.
* Of all death sentences, only about ten per cent were carried out. In the B.E.F. an average of one soldier was executed every five days, mostly for cowardice or desertion. The Australian Government refused to allow executions in their divisions.
* Due to the reorganization of the armies, in late 1917 and early 1918, the old Fourth Army had ceased to exist and Rawlinson had been sent as a British representative to the Supreme War Council at Versailles. When Gough was dismissed and the Fifth Army disbanded, the Fourth Army was re-formed with Rawlinson in command.
* Figures supplied by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
*Other Somme ‘adoptions’ were: Albert by Birmingham; Fricourt by Ipswich, and Mametz by Llandudno; but these were in memory of other battles than that of 1 July.
†For those interested in the work of the Commission, now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, there is a very good book, The Unending Vigil by Philip Longworth.
* The most original cemetery names are probably behind the old Ypres Salient. There can be found three cemeteries, which were once alongside Casualty Clearing Stations, now named Bandaghem, Dozinghem and Men-dinghem. (Bandage ’em, Dosing ’em and Mending ’em were the war-time names of the Clearing Stations.)
*Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D 1295/4.
* When this book was written (1969-71), Percy Chappell was living at Limpley Stoke near Bath; Philip Howe at Calver in North Derbyshire; Charles Matthews at Petersham, Surrey; Albert McMillan at Highgate, North London; Bill Soar near Trent Bridge in Nottingham and Paddy Kennedy at Levenshulrae, Manchester.