Place & Memory. Commemorating the Battle of the Somme and its Clandeboye connections

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1 Place & Memory Commemorating the Battle of the Somme and its Clandeboye connections

2 Royal Engineers Plan of WWI training camp at Clandeboye, showing the Camp layout and building in 1915 IE/MA/MPD/AD (Reproduced with permission courtesy of Maps, Plans and Drawings Collection, Military Archives)

3 The surviving remains of Clandeboye Training Camp Navigating Clandeboye s First World War Camp. Above: Archaeological remains of Armstrong Hut footings help to pinpoint the location of the former Sergeant s Mess and Cook-house within North Clandeboye Training Camp. Right: The 4th Edition six inch OS map sheet ( ), depicting the layout of Clandeboye North and South Camps as shown on the 1915 Royal Engineers plan.

4 Inspecting the Troops and Nurses at Clandeboye Training Camp Edward Carson inspecting the 1st Battalion of the North Down U.V.F On Parade U.V.F Nurses on parade for Edward Carson.

5 Trench Practice at Clandeboye Training Camp in Early 1915 Early entrenching practice at Clandeboye. A required element of new recruits training was to become proficient in the art of trench digging. As such, the practice was repeated regularly to both enhance skills while increasing fitness levels. We see here examples of both slot trenches and S shaped trenches. Early trenches were simple structures, they lacked traverses and were most often a narrow slot trench dug to accommodate as many men as possible, packed in shoulder to shoulder. As the war progressed the simple slot and S trench grew deeper and a lot more complex, gradually becoming areas of interwoven defensive earthworks.

6 Life at Clandeboye Training Camp Men of the 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles Machine Gun Company. After basic training the volunteers went onto specialist training, becoming proficient in many other elements of trench warfare such as becoming a Machine Gunner. Early life at Clandeboye was basic. Field kitchens and permanent accommodation for troops were incomplete before early December 1914, so men made-do with brewing-up over the camp fire.

7 At the Front - Thiepval and the Battle of the Somme Above: A map of 14th June 1916 showing Thiepval Wood and British Army trenches and positions (in blue) from where the 36th (Ulster) Division left on the morning of 1st July 1916 to attack German trenches (in red) around Schwaben Redoubt. (Map reproduced courtesy of Bodleian Library, University of Oxford). Below: An aerial photograph taken on 1st June 1916 of the area around Thiepval village (left) compared with a trench map (right) of the same location. The white marks on the photograph are lines of spoil from the German trenches dug deep into the chalky soil. (Photograph HU from IWM collection (Creative Commons)).

8 Place & Memory Commemorating the Battle of the Somme and its Clandeboye connections Clandeboye estate in County Down played an important role in the First World War as the location where troops of the 36th (Ulster) Division were trained in early 1914/15 before being deployed overseas. The time the 36th spent at Clandeboye made a lasting impression on the men in the unit and also the estate. In France, at Thiepval, a memorial was built for the men of Ulster killed at the Battle of the Somme in Constructed on the site of the 36th Division s 1st July 1916 attack at Thiepval in France, the Ulster Tower is a replica of Helen s Tower located on the Clandeboye estate. Helen s Tower was selected as a model for it was a distinct local landmark known to the men through being visible across the surrounding countryside at the very place they had spent their time training before leaving for service in France. Clandeboye is a place that serves as an abiding memory of home for those soldiers and officers of the 36th Division, many of whom did not return. The Ulster Tower at Thiepval Acknowledgements:- Keith Lilley and Heather Montgomery, Queen s University Belfast; Tom Thorpe, WFA(Western Front Association); Images - photographs were reproduced with the permission of the Bleakley family and Carol Walker, Somme Association; The Marchioness of Dufferin and AVA; Historic maps through assitance from Nick Millea and courtesy of Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; Design managed by research-centres/centrefordatadigitisationandanalysis