An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Manchester today, Friday, July 1, to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with many attending later in the evening for an evening of remembrance in Heaton Park, which will include the Halle Orchestra, a children’s choir and a huge dance performance.
Whilst doing research for our series of articles on local men who fought and died at the battle we came across this fascinating advert from the Salford City Reporter from July 1916.
One hundred years ago people were visiting Heaton Park to see a remarkable exhibition of life in the trenches.
For the princely sum of sixpence or threepence for a child, members of the public could visit and inspect trenches which had been dug in Heaton Park by convalescent soldiers who had fought in France and Gallipoli.
It said that you could see the actual conditions of trench warfare in which ‘your boys’ were fighting.
The interested spectator could see dug outs, fire trenches, communication trenches, rest trenches, gas trenches, machine – gun emplacements, listening posts, shells and shell holes and field dressing stations.
This was under the supervision of Major Eric Ball with all profits going towards the Soldiers and Sailors Blinded in the War Fund.
I can only imagine that the general public would be given a very sanitized version of trench life, presumably to give the impression that the boys would be fighting in fairly, clean and safe conditions
There was nothing glamorous about trench life, World War 1 trenches were dirty, smelly and riddled with disease.
There were millions of rats in the trenches, a pair of rodents could produce as many as 900 young a year in trench conditions so soldiers attempts to kill them were futile.
A soldiers life in the trenches meant living in fear, in fear of diseases like cholera and trench foot and of course, the constant fear of enemy attack.
I found this advert to be quite poignant as I can imagine that many parents and loved one’s may have left Heaton Park reassured that life in the trenches was somehow, safe and bearable, sadly the next few weeks would hammer home the fact that this wasn’t true at all.
