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        Welcome to the '8th East Lancs' website.

 

 

The 8th (Service) Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment was, in some ways, an unremarkable unit of the British Expeditionary Force.

 

Soldiers from the regiment came from all over Lancashire - sizeable contingents enlisting in Blackburn, Burnley, Preston, Bolton, Nelson, Accrington, Bacup and Rawtenstall.  Large contingents came from Liverpool and Manchester, while significant numbers of men came from other northern counties.

This site serves to explain about the 8th East Lancs and act as a contact point with those who would like to know more about the unit, be they relatives of soldiers, those interested in Lancashire history or in the Great War in general.

 

News 

 

An interesting development in the offing, so keep in touch with this site to find out more in the weeks ahead. 

 

 

2nd Lieutenant Archibald Yuille photographed at Bavincourt in 1917.  Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

Lieutenant Archibald Yuille was one of the many British Officers who took a camera with him to war. Despite such pocket cameras being banned at the start of 1915, snaps seemed to have been taken with happy abandon throughout the army. It was not only in the 8th East Lancs that senior officers actually turned a blind eye to the practice, with some of them posing for the camera! Yuille’s images provide a unique insight into the battalion in the line during the period prior to the start of the battle of the Somme.

 

Born in Calcutta where his father had been in the tea and rubber business, Yuille was brought up in the UK, being educated at Rugby school.He had been with the battalion from the outset, taking a camera to record what he saw, and in so doing, providing the only photographic testimony of the 8th East Lancashire at warYuille was to be wounded at Pozieres, thereafter joining the Royal Flying Corps.He would later gain fame as the first pilot to shoot down a Gotha bomber at night in the summer of 1918.

 

His son Tom gave permisson to use these images in 'Lancashire's Forgotten Heroes'.  In the months ahead  images not appearing in the book will appear here. Forgotten images of the battalion for you to enjoy.  If you have any comments about these pictures, please let me know.

 

The captions accompanying each image is as recorded by Yuille.  No more information is available I'm afraid.

 

 

 

Captain Ess.  Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

 

Humphries, wounded July 15th 1916, Foncquevillers 1915.

 Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

 

Lookout Sniping Foncquevillers - 1916

Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

 

Bienvillers - 1915 Capt. Parks (MC) wounded 1917

Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

Co Coy HQ - St Amand

Photo courtesy of Mr Tom Yuille and IWM London.

 

 

For more information I can be contacted at:

 

dstephenbarker@hotmail.com

 

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© Stephen Barker 2010-2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Lancashire's Forgotten Heroes'

      

 by Stephen Barker &       Christopher Boardman.

 

Published on November 1st 2008 by The History Press.

 

Click here to buy

a copy on Amazon.

or

I have signed copies to sell at £20 including p&p. Order now: dstephenbarker@hotmail.com

 

 

  • Unpublished trench photos.
  • Unique mapping. 
  • Original, unused sources. 
  • Interpretation of battles.
  • Comprehensive narrative.
  • Pen portraits and images of individual soldiers.
  • Foreward by Dr Bill Mitchinson of Birmingham University, Great War Studies Department.

         _______________________

 

  • Find out about the origins of the men who made up the battalion in its early days.
  • Follow the lives of some of the men who served in the unit.
  • Discover why the battalion went to France ahead of schedule in 1915.
  • Learn about the real reason for the failure of the attack on Pozieres in July 1916.
  • Read about the loss of ten officers to 'friendly-fire' on the Redan Ridge.
  • Follow the men through their attack in the snow, alongside tanks and cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux, Arras in 1917.
  • Find out about the battalion's role at Passchendaele.

 

8th East Lancs

Dedicated to the men of the 8th (Service) Battalion,

East Lancashire Regiment in the Great War.

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