100
years ago, at 7.30 am on 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme started. British
casualties were some 20,000 men killed in action. It remains the most costly
day in Britain’s military history. That day, 5 of the 33 men on St Michael’s
Roll of Honour were killed in the diversionary attack on the hamlet of
Gommecourt, London Regiments being prominent in that attack.
At the
Holy Communion Service on Sunday 26th June 2016, the congregation remembered
these men and a special Somme wreath composed of the traditional red poppies interspersed
with four cornflowers, was laid at the altar during the service and thereafter by
the Roll of Honour inside the Church.