CORNER OF YORKSHIRE Breary Banks Memorial

ALMOST within earshot of the River Burn’s infant gurgling in remote Colsterdale, the tranquil setting of this memorial cairn could not be more different from the horroric killing fields of the Somme.

It was in these gentle hills and woods between Nidderdale and Wensleydale that thousands of young men from Leeds trained for action in the Great War. Everyone knew them as the Leeds Pals. Pals battalions were set up in many towns and cities to encourage friends to enlist, and were particularly aimed at white collar workers.

Around 1,200 young men from Leeds signed up, and a crowd of 20,000 cheered them off from the city’s railway station on September 25, 1914. After arriving at Masham, they marched the last six miles to Breary Banks. While some were billeted in huts which had been constructed for navvies engaged in constructing the nearby Leighton and Roundhill Reservoirs, many spent the winter living in tents.

A nearby country house, Pinewood Manor, was requisitioned to become the officers’ mess. Days were spent engaged in target practice and following an exercise regime known as Swedish Drill. Training trenches were dug nearby.

In December 1915 they were posted to Egypt to guard the Suez Canal, but were soon withdrawn to the Western Front in France to prepare for a huge planned attack on German lines. On July 1, 1916, within the first ten minutes of the Battle of the Somme, two whole Leeds Pals companies were wiped out. Of the 1,200 who had signed up in 1914, only 20 survived the war.