‘Mother Dear... remember me in your prayer’

ON October 29, 1918, 22-year-old Gunner Ned Parfett, who had been awarded the Military Medal (MM) and mentioned in dispatches, was collecting clothes before going home on leave. A stray shell hit the quartermaster’s stores and he was killed instantly. His face was famous worldwide as the newsboy carrying the placard about the sinking of RMS Titanic, during which an estimated 1,517 people were lost. However, what was headlined a ‘GREAT LOSS OF LIFE’ in 1912 would pale into relative insignificance in view of what was to come.

On July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, there were 57,470 British casualties. Of these, 19,240 were killed, most during the opening assault. These devastating numbers indicate the scale of death and injury caused by the First sets out to tell their stories.