The Accrington
Pals, officially the 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington), East Lancashire
Regiment, was a pals battalion of Kitchener's Army raised in and around the
town of Accrington.
Recruiting was
initiated by the mayor of Accrington following Lord Kitchener's call for
volunteers, and it took only ten days to raise a complete battalion. The
battalion's nickname is a little misleading since of the four 250-strong
companies that made up the original battalion, only one was actually composed
of men from Accrington. The rest volunteered from other East Lancashire towns
nearby such as Burnley, Blackburn, and Chorley. The men from Chorley, who
formed Y Company, were known as the Chorley Pals. The men from Burnley, who formed Z Company,
were known as the Burnley Pals.
The Accrington Pals
joined the 94th Brigade of the 31st Division, a "pals" division
containing many North Country pals battalions. With the 31st Division, the
Accrington Pals were initially deployed to Egypt in early 1916 to defend the
Suez Canal from the threat of the Ottoman Empire. The troopship carrying the
Accrington Pals was narrowly missed by a torpedo; a fortunate miss because the
ship also carried sixty tons of lyddite explosive.
The Accrington Pals
next moved to France where they first saw action in the Battle of the Somme. On
the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, the 31st Division was to attack the
village of Serre and form a defensive flank for the rest of the British
advance. The 31st Division's attack on Serre was a complete failure, although
some of the Accrington Pals did make it as far as the village before being
killed or captured. One of the battalion's signallers, observing from the rear,
reported:
"We were able
to see our comrades move forward in an attempt to cross No Man's Land, only to
be mown down like meadow grass. I felt sick at the sight of the carnage and
remember weeping."
Approximately 700
men from the Accrington Pals went into action on 1 July; 585 men became
casualties, 235 killed and 350 wounded in about half an hour. The battalion's
commander, Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Rickman, was among the wounded. A rumour
spread around Accrington that only seven men had survived from the battalion,
and an angry crowd surrounded the mayor's house, demanding information.
The Accrington Pals
were effectively wiped out in a matter of minutes on the first day on the
Somme. The battalion was brought back up to strength and served for the
remainder of the war, moving to the 92nd Brigade of the 31st Division in
February 1918.
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