Now! Then! Sam Cooper of Sheffield and the 7th East Yorkshire Regiment takes a branch from Fricourt Wood on the second day of the Battle of the Somme

2 July 1916: Sam Cooper of Sheffield and the 7th East Yorkshire Regiment takes a branch from Fricourt Wood on the second day of the Battle of the Somme

Andrew Myers. 2015. [Private Sam Cooper’s Swagger Stick]. Samuel Cooper and Robert Draycott – Two Soldiers from Sheffield. Ed. Chris Hobbs. Sheffield: Chris Hobbs. Reproduction by kind permission of the author. Get it:

Excerpt

On July 1st 1916 my great-grandfather, Private Sam Cooper, was with the 7th Battalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment opposite the town of Fricourt. To the north were the British lines, including many of the Pals regiments, to the east were the French army. From going over the top, I believe the regiment lost around 123 killed and wounded in three minutes or so. Fricourt was the first part of the British line where the British broke through, and on July 2nd Sam’s battalion reached Fricourt Wood, which had been heavily shelled by the British and largely destroyed. They found a single tree that had survived the carnage largely undamaged, and some of them cut a branch as a good luck token. Sam carried this with him for the rest of the war, surviving going over the top 21 times, though being wounded twice and ending the war in the medical corps. The stick has been made into a swagger stick, complete with a silver 1916 3d piece in the handle. The stick bears a couple of small scars from shrapnel and has now been passed on to my son, along with Sam’s campaign medals and other memorabilia.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

On July 1st 1916, my Great Grandfather, Private Sam Cooper, was with the 7th Battalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment opposite the town of Fricourt. To the north were the British lines, including many of the ‘Pals’ regiments, to the east were the French army. From going over the top, I believe the regiment lost around 123 killed and wounded in 3 minutes or so. Fricourt was the first part of the British line where the British broke through and, on July 2nd, Sam’s battalion reached Fricourt Wood, which had been heavily shelled by the British and largely destroyed; they found a single tree that had survived the carnage largely undamaged, and some of them cut a branch as a good luck token. Sam carried this with him for the rest of the war, surviving going over the top 21 times, though being wounded twice and ending the war in the medical corps. The stick has been made into a swagger stick, complete with silver 1916 3d piece in the handle. The stick bears a couple of small scars from shrapnel and has now been passed on to my son, along with Sam’s campaign medals and other memorabilia.

196 words.