An account by Pte. Billy Disbrey

An account by Pte. Billy Disbrey , 11th Suffolks (Cambridge Pals) , For many years, Les Disbrey, one of the founding members of the Friends of Lochnagar would lovingly lay a wreath to his ‘Uncle Billy’ who fell at the Crater on the 1st July. Here is Billy's story - 15812 Pte. Herbert William Disbrey, 11th Bttn., The Suffolk Regt - the Cambridge Pals., Amidst great enthusiasm, the young men of the small village of Barton in Cambridgeshire answered Kitchener's call in 1914. One of them was a cheerful 22 year old farm labourer called Billy who found himself, on the morning of 1st July, in the trenches 1,000 yards (approx. 900 metres) in front of their objective, the formidable German strongpoint of Schwaben Höhe. As he waited for the whistles to blow, the huge Lochnagar mine, to their left, exploded. , Billy's battalion set off following the Grimsby Chums. Both were untried in battle but they resolutely walked through the hailstorm of machine-gun fire that viciously swept back and forth along their ranks as, all around them they witnessed their lifelong friends cut down. , Miraculously about a dozen men even got as far as the relative shelter of their objective only to be engulfed by flame-throwers placed on the trench parapet. By nightfall over half of the 11th Suffolks lay dead or wounded in no-man's-land and the original Cambridge Pals were no more. , On that one, terrible day Barton alone lost two of its young men, among no less than ten who died in the war and who are honoured on the village war memorial. , Billy's body was never recovered from the battlefield. He is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. , The Lochnagar Crater is privately owned by Richard Dunning MBE and is dedicated to Remembrance, Respect and Reconciliation. , www.lochnagarcrater.org, 'The Lochnagar Promise For Peace' , “In Remembrance of all those who have suffered in conflict, and those who are suffering still may we live our lives today with more Compassion and Kindness. Understanding and Forgiveness Reconciliation and Unity. Let us now, in their honour, wage Peace.”, The Trustees are grateful for the generous bequest which enabled the refurbishment of these Visitor Information Panels. , www.lochnagarcrater.org ,