#7624 Lance Corporal Eric Measham
16TH MANCHESTER REGIMENT
ERIC MEASHAM WAS A 21-YEAR-OLD gardener who worked at Cranage Hall in his home county of Cheshire. Born in Marple in 1894, he was the youngest of numerous sons now serving in the army, but did not rush to the colours. He waited until March 1915 to enlist, travelling some 25 miles into the nearest major city to join the 16th Manchester Regiment. Formed as the first city battalion out of the influx of New Army recruits late in 1914, the 16th Manchesters were drawn from clerks, warehousemen; a Pals battalion ‘in stark contrast to that of the nearby Salford Pals, whose battalions were drawn from the working-class terraces, slums, docklands, mills and mines west of the city centre’.
The population of Manchester was immensely proud of its battalions, and the first arrived in the Somme area in December 1915 to receive its introduction to trench warfare from men of the Gloucesters and Worcesters. Eric found himself in the thick of it on 1st July when the battalion went over the top towards Montauban in that successful advance. Despite heavy machine-gun fire, they pressed on, wiping out the offending weapons and entering the village in the middle of the morning to find it deserted. Less than an hour later, Eric and his fellow Manchesters had moved on to their second objective. The Germans turned and ran. It had been a costly day, with more than 350 casualties, but Eric had survived it and helped to consolidate the village.
On 3rd July the battalion came out of the line, to a valley behind the British defences, where four days of training and reorganisation were rendered miserable by wet weather. Tired, soaked and hungry, the brisk message of congratulation that they received was slightly callous following their exploits at Montauban. ‘Well done 90th Brigade. You will attack again soon.’ New drafts came up to replenish the hundreds of friends lost, but they were not Manchester men. Some of them were southerners and already the battalion was not the same. There was to be hardly any respite after their success either, for by the evening of 8th July, Eric was on his way back into battle.
Trônes Wood was another of the objectives marked as essential to prepare for the future attack on the Longueval/Bazentin ridge. Pear shaped, with a railway line leading to Guillemont through the middle, it had not been cut for two years and was very dense with thick undergrowth. Frustratingly, after the rout of the Germans in the area on the 1st, it had lain open, but this was not followed up and now, semi-destroyed by shellfire, the wood was being defended fiercely by the enemy.
Nonetheless, claiming this prize now would help to secure the right flank of the upcoming British advance. As a result, fighting for it in the early days of July would become desperate and Eric and the 16th Manchesters would again be in the thick of the action. Their attack on Trônes Wood was scheduled for the morning of 9th July and was delayed by both the density of the foliage and gas shelling. Other Manchester men eventually went forward in their respirators with the rain obstructing the view through their masks. Nonetheless, the wood was taken in two hours. But not for long. As was all too common throughout the Battle of the Somme, taking a wood was not necessarily the problem, it was holding on to it once the enemy decided that they wanted it back.
The Germans began a systematic barrage and by mid-afternoon the troops inside had been compelled to retire to the shelter of Bernafay Wood, just to the west. Waiting near Montauban, Eric and the 16th Manchesters received orders to move up under heavy artillery fire and occupy the southern part of Trônes Wood. They were not to push on from there until they received further instructions.
In the meantime, the enemy delivered a counter-attack along the edge of the wood that was largely driven off, but the north-west section was penetrated. At 6:40pm Eric and his battalion advanced to try and drive the Germans back out of Trônes Wood again. Approaching from a sunken road, they were subjected to heavy machine-gun fire and shrapnel shelling, but the speed at which the Manchesters moved minimised their casualties somewhat. They reached a spot 60 yards from the south-west edge of the tree line, running into some men from another of the city’s battalions, and began digging in. By 8pm most of Eric’s battalion were occupying the corner of Trônes Wood, surrounded by enemy bombers. Here they were again showered with German artillery fire and picked off by snipers in trees, as well as a machine gun. ‘Repeated attempts were made by patrols to clear up the situation in the wood but the undergrowth and fallen trees … made progress by night almost impossible.’
Possession of Trônes Wood had still not been assured when the 16th Manchesters were finally relieved on 11th July. Eric Measham was not among them, and nobody could explain what had happened to him. It was believed he may have been part of a bombing party after they reached the wood. It was not until May 1917 that the army added ‘presumed killed’ to his record. His mother still did not give up on him. She was still writing to the war office for information in the middle of 1919, still hoping to find out what had happened to her boy. ‘The address is still the same. But I have had no new farther news of my son, 7624, Eric Measham. I should be grateful for any tidings of the fate of my boy.’ She was never to receive any definitive information. Twenty-one-year-old Eric’s body, if recovered, was never identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier & Face 13a/14c.
Trônes Wood in 1916. (Authors’ collection)