Tri-Service
Somme Centenary Honoured In Britain And France
The 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme has been marked by ceremonies in France and the UK.
The first day of the battle was the worst day in British military history with almost 60,000 casualties.
At the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which commemorates the British Empire servicemen who died at the battle with no known grave, members of the Royal Family joined military personnel and the families of those who fought for a moving ceremony (see above).
Among the events marking the centenary was a ceremony in the French village of Contalmaison.
600 people paid tribute to one of the hardest hit battalions, the 16th Royal Scots (see below).
Among those who died on the first day of the battle, meanwhile, were thousands of men involved in a diversionary battle at Gommecourt.
The engagement was designed to draw German reserves away from the Somme, but by the end of the first day thousands of soldiers lay dead and wounded.
They included virtually all of the Queen Victoria's Rifles, a territorial regiment called up on the first day of the war.
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