High Wood 1916 – The 20th Royal Fusiliers

On the 21st July 1917, a year and a day after the 20th (Public Schools) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers had been badly mauled at High Wood, a small band of survivors sat down for lunch. The men were eating at the Grand Hotel, Dover; a fairly grand meal for wartime of boiled Scotch salmon, roast lamb […]

2nd Lt Richard Dean; XXVI Bde, Royal Field Artillery

Richard Deane, or Richard John Deane to give him his full name, was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire on 19th May 1898.  He was the son of Richard Woodforde Deane of Bedford and Harriet Deane (nee Blencowe) of Chailey.  The 1901 census records the Deane family living at 145 Canterbury Road, Gillingham, Kent.  His father, a […]

Did your British Army Ancestor serve with Siegfried Sassoon?

This photo of Siegfried Sassoon and fellow officers was acquired by British Army Ancestors last year. What it shows is British army officers photographed at the end of a month-long training course at the Fourth Army School at Flixécourt on the Somme in 1916. The photo dates to May 1916 and within six weeks seven of […]