The battle for Guillemont raged throughout August 1916. Like so many of the battles into which the 'Big Push' degenerated, the struggle centred around a wood, Trones, and a heavily fortified village. It was in this battle that Noel Chavasse won the first of his two VCs.

It was fairly near to Guillemont where my grandfather, Arthur Robert Norman became involved in the fighting just a couple of months after being called up, and where he lost his life, in August 2016. I am personallysaddened by the fact that no one in my family ever spoke about him or his wife during my lifetime, and I am reading each and every one of Pen and Sword's books on the Somme in the hope of finding out more about him and his regiment, the Middlesex regiment. There's nothing I don't already know about the Middx. Regt., in this superlative book, but nevertheless, I wouldn't be without it for obvious reasons. Stirring stuff.

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