Good Old Somersets

On 22 August 1914, 1000 men of the Somerset Light Infantry sailed for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, among them Corporal Hubert Bonning and Private Edward Packe. Within four days a quarter of them would be lost at the Battle of Le Cateau, and by the end of the year barely 200 of the first contingent would still be with the Battalion. Hubert Bonning was killed while rescuing a comrade in December, and Edward Packe was commissioned early in 1915.

After Le Cateau the battalion joined the retreat to the River Marne, and the subsequent counter-attack and advance to the Aisne. After a brief period in the trenches they transferred to Flanders, where they were involved in the Battles of Armentieres and First Ypres. Their year ended with a Christmas Truce in the 'Plug Street' Wood.

This book is a day-by-day chronicle of the Battalion from August to December 1914, using the official War Diaries together with extracts from personal diaries and correspondence, newspaper reports and other contemporary material. It covers the fighting, movements, trench life and the relaxation of a typical group of regular soldiers who came to be known as 'The Old Contemptibles'.