19th December 2024 - note the date
Ross Beadle—Who Killed Captain Duncan Martin? Plasticene models, poets, 'lions led by donkeys' and all that. 20th Brigade on 1st July 1916.
This is one of the most poignant stories of the many to come from the first day on the Somme.
In June 1916 Captain Duncan Martin of 9th Devonshires can see that when they go 'over the bags' for the big offensive, his company, tasked with attacking up the Peronne Road, will be exposed to murderous fire from a machine gun outside Mametz known to the British as 'The Shrine'. He has some leave due so takes home maps and produces a scale plasticene model to illustrate how exposed his men will be and requests extra bombardment to suppress the strongpoint. In effect he was predicting where he was likely to die. Martin was killed within seconds on 1st July and 9th Devonshires came close to being wiped out. Martin and many of his comrades are buried in the Mansel Copse cemetery
However, for 20th Brigade, of which 9th Devonshires were part, it was a good day. On the left 2nd Borders made great progress along the ridge and on the right the Gordons eventually captured The Shrine. By the end of the day, Mametz had fallen. The Brigade achieved all its objectives, if somewhat behind time.
This talk looks at the performance of 20th Brigade as a whole on 1st July and its commander Deverell, including a controversial decision that probably condemned Martin and his men, and also looks at the details of Martin's death, the exact location of which there is still some doubt about. He certainly did not accurately predict where he would die.
Ross Beadle is an experienced WFA speaker who has been in consistent demand from branches for over ten years. As his list of lectures indicates, he covers a wide range of subjects on the First World War, although there is a specialism in how battles or offensives were planned…and how they eventually turned out! All talks are lively and engaging. He graduated from Hull in History and has an MA in First World War Studies from Birmingham. His lecture on Schlieffen is one of the most popular on the WFA YouTube channel. He also hates writing blurbs about himself.