On 1st July 2016 it will 100 years since the infantry went over the top at dawn on what was to become known as the Battle Of the Somme. It was to last nearly five months.

Of the fourteen members of Southport Rugby Club listed as fallen in World War One only one is known to have been killed in the Battle, Second Lieutenant William Shuttleworth Standring. He died aged 21 on 30th July 1916 and is buried on the battlefield where he fell.

This is the story of his heroism.

William was the son of Mr Robert Standring, Conservative Agent for the Southport Division, and his wife Alice who lived at 100 Windsor Road in the town. Educated at Rochdale Secondary School and Merchant Taylors School he was a member of Southport Rugby Football Club, and a former member of the Merchant Taylors Football and Cricket Clubs.

William was mobilised at the outbreak of war as a Corporal in the West Lancashire ASC before being commissioned as an officer in the 14th King’s Liverpool Regiment on 23rd May1915. He performed valuable service as instructor at various camps in the UK before being transferred to the 12th East Lancashire Regiment. A picture of him with fellow officers can be seen at http://www.pals.org.uk/tyharwood.htm - note the 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment was raised by Mayor of Accrington Capt John Harwood through the voluntary recruitment of local menfolk. To everyone in the town, and later universally, they became the evocative Accrington Pals. Thomas Yates Harwood in the photograph was the Grandson of the Mayor and survived the war.

The Regiment was dispatched to France where William was sent to No.30 Camp before being posted to the 17th Battalion of the King’s. He was drafted the Somme battlefield on 27th July 2016 with four other officers and billetted in bivouacs in a notorious spot close to the front ironically known as Happy Valley.

Happy Valley had been captured from the Germans by British troops two weeks into the Battle on 14th July. Protected from direct observation from enemy lines by the topography of the land it was used as the main supply route during the attempts to advance the line at the infamous High Wood. Thousands of men and large numbers of supplies passed through and because it was the only route that could be used the Germans pounded it with shells. After a while it unsurprisingly became more aptly known as Death Valley.

The valley led towards nearby Guillemont, a village a few miles east of Albert. Guiilemont was an important stronghold in the German defences and was subject to fierce fighting.

So much so that William Standring survived only three days at the front. He died on 30th Jully as he fought for the 17th Battalion in support of the 19th and 20th Battalions trying to secure the village. During the attack some objectives were taken, but other unsuccessful assaults left flanks exposed. Severe enfilading machine gun fire from the village and from the qually infamous Trones Wood made the objectives impossible.

The circumstances of William's death close to the front were understandably shrouded in confusion. At first it was surmised that he was slightly wounded early in the morning whilst on his way to Battalion HQ and was treated at the local field ambulance. However, it seemed that he was hit again, this time fatally, whilst trying to return to his Company.

His commanding office Major J Peck wrote to his father in August 1916 stating he was “very sorry indeed” that that he was unable to give out any definite information about William. Major Peck believed Sec-Lieut Standring had been slightly wounded on 30th July, about 8am, while trying to reach Battalion headquarters with two orderlies to report the situation of his Company and that one of the orderlies was also wounded at the same time. When the uninjured orderly returned to the Company to report the casualties it was under attack, and it was not until 10.30 that an officer was able to search the ground where Sec-Lieut Standring fell but could not find him and concluded that he had gone back to the dressing station. Major Peck said that he had learnt nothing from the dressing station and fancied that he cannot have reached it.

Another search was made a few days later and despite further correspondence it was to be over a year before the fate of William was finally confirmed when Robert Standing received the following devastating letter about his son from the War Office:

“Sir;- I am directed to inform you that it has been reported by the officer commanding a Graves Regulation Unit working in France, that the grave of Second-Lieut. W S Standring 12th Batt. East Lancashire Regiment, has been located about 2000 yards to the south of Guillemont.

This report, it will be seen, definitely confirms the conclusion to which the Army Council had already come as notified to you in the letter of 1st April 1917.

I am again to express their sympathy with you and to say that should you so so desire, the officers name can now be inserted in the official casualties lists. I am to ask you to be good enough to communicate your wishes in this respect.”

The Southport Vister reported the sad news on 29th December 1917 that Sec-Lieut Standring was with the King’s during their attack on Guillemont in July 1916. When the advance was made his company pushed forward and found themselves in the air and in consequence of those on each side having been held up by wire entanglements he was sent back with two runners by the officer in command for the purpose of inquiring whether they were to hold or retire.

One of his men was killed immediately, as the whole area was swept by machine-gun fire and schrapnel. He himself was wounded and, taking shelter in a shell hole, he dispatched the second runner back for further instructions. The company eventually made it’s way back to the lines, but nothing was heard of Sec-Lieut Standring. It was assumed that he had made his way back to a dressing station.

Wlliams body is laid to rest close to where he was slain in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Plot: XIII. D. 4.The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after Guillemont was eventually secured. Closed in March 1917 it initially contained 121 burials but was greatly increased after the Armistice in 1918 when bodies were brought in from graves (almost all of July-September 1916 and probably including William) from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village.It now comprises 2263 graves.

The commemorations over the next few weeks will no doubt indicate how much the atrocities of the Battle of the Somme touched most communities in Western Europe and beyond crossing all social divides. Who would have thought for instance that the fate that befell William Standring was shared in equal measure by the son of the Prime Minister at the same time? Second Lieutenant William Standing, son of Southport, is interred in the same cemetery as Lieutenant Raymond Asquith, son of Herbert Asquith the then Prime Minister, who fell on the 15th September, 1916, just over two weeks after William.

We salute them both, and all their fallen comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice, but we especially remember William Shuttleworth Standring who wore the red black & amber hoops with pride and whose name proudly lives forever more with others on the Memorial Board in the clubhouse.

The story has added poignancy in that many of our lads in the Senior teams are of the same age as William. Food for thought and for counting our blessings.

The Briish Legion has commissioned a WW1 Somme 100 remembrance project 'Sport Remembers' and details are available at http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary/somme-100/sport-remembers/