Lives of the First World War

1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. (11th Infantry Brigade 4th Division). Killed in action 1st July 1916 during the Battle of Albert July 1st-13th. A day of disaster for the British army, 60,000 casualties, 19,000 killed. The 1st Battalion Somerset attacked the area around the “Quadrilateral Redoubt”, a heavily fortified and complicated trench system a little to the south of the village of Serre, against murderous artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire sustaining at least 138 killed in action. William Spiller was the 26 year old son of William Casswell, of 14 Brunswick Street, Yeovil. His body was never found. Thiepval Memorial to the ‘Missing’ of the Somme.

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