The Diary of Private A.S. Lanfear

B-Company, 12th York and Lancs. on the eve of the Somme offensive

The next few pages of this section are the diary of Arthur Sidney Lanfear, which he kept throughout his training and also when he moved to the front. They record his military career from 4^th April 1916 to 16^th June 1916, just two weeks before his death on the first day of the Somme Offensive. His battalion, the 12^th York and Lancaster, are probably better remembered as the Sheffield City Battalion (the Sheffield Pals) and they landed in France on the 10^th March 1916 at Marseilles, having travelled from Port Said on HMT Briton. Before this they trained in Sheffield from their formation on 10^th September 1914 to the 20^th of December 1915 and departed for Alexandria on HMT Nestor. They spent just three short months out of Europe before being moved to France.

The aftermath of the Somme offensive left the Battalion, who had an original strength of 900 men, with 513 killed, missing, or seriously wounded and a further 75 being treated for minor injuries after their advance in the first wave at 7.20am.

The two members of his company that Lanfear mentions most are his friend Pte. Frank Earnshaw (12/1397-12^th Battalion) who died a month before in hospital of shrapnel wounds caused by an artillery bombardment that Lanfear was actually with him in (15^th/16^th May although War Graves Commission records it as the 20^th). During this bombardment the Germans also mounted trench raids and the battalion suffered 15 deaths and 45 wounded. Note the similarity in service numbers between Earnshaw and Lanfear, as Earnshaw was also from Doncaster, albeit a couple of years younger aged 18.

The second member is Private Sidney Gill (12/114-12^th Battalion) who was another friend who was wounded in the same bombardment, but who was re-mobilised for the 1^st July, and who died on this date. Again note the similarity in service numbers, as they trained together and also Gill was from Pontefract.

Every comrade he mentions during these entries were killed either in the build up to or actually during the Somme Offensive.