Harry Taylor

Killed in Action on the 20/07/1916 at the attacks on High Wood (part of the Battles of the Somme)

In August 1914 The Battalion were at 261 West Princes Street in Glasgow and were part of Scottish Rifle Brigade, Lowland Division. On completing mobilisation, the Battalion moved to Larbert. In November 1914 they left the Division and moved to France, landing at Le Havre on the 05/11/1914. They came under orders of the 19th Brigade, 6th Division. On the 31/05/1915 they transferred with the Brigade to the 27th Division. On the 19/08/1915 they were transferred with the Brigade to the 2nd Division. On the 25th November 1915 they transferred with the Brigade to the 33rd Division. On the 29/05/1916 they merged with the 1/6th Battalion to become the 5/6th Battalion. Harry was Killed in Action at the attacks on High Wood, 20th - 25th July 1916 : The fight for High Wood, which had begun on the 14th July, went on until mid-September. The wood sits on ground that gives the occupier militarily vital observation south to the Montauban ridge, east to Delville Wood and northeast towards Flers and Guedecourt. The first British units entered the wood late on the 14th July 1916, but the Germans had recovered from the British breakthrough at Bazentin earlier that day and were now manning the "Switch Line" trench system which ran through the back of the wood. Both sides fought tenaciously to possess the wood. It became an epicentre of the bloody attack and counter-attack attritional fighting that characterised much of the Somme offensive after the 14th July. This was part of the Battles of the Somme, 1st July - 18th November 1916 : A Franco-British offensive that was undertaken after Allied strategic conferences in late 1915, but which changed its nature due to the German attack against the French in the epic Battle of Verdun, which lasted from late February to November. Huge British losses on the first day and a series of fiercely contested steps that became attritional in nature. For all armies on the Western Front it was becoming what the Germans would call "materialschlacht" : a war not of morale, will or even manpower, but of sheer industrial material might. The 15th September 1916 saw the first-ever use of tanks in the step known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. The British army in France is now approaching its maximum strength in numbers but is still developing in terms of tactics, technology, command and control. Harry is also remembered on the Coatbridge Technical College and Albert St. Congregational Churches Rolls of Honour (see photos). See photos for Harry's Service Medal and Award Rolls, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Thiepval Memorial Panel List, Harry's Pension Record, his name on the Thiepval Memorial and the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Cap Badge.