Ian S. Johnson - The Newcastle Commercials: 16th (S) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers in the Great War

Newcastle Commercials

Ian Johnson has always been a Newcastle Commercial man, starting work aged sixteen in the famous Bainbridge department store in August 1977.

Bainbridges, established in 1838, is proudly known as the very first department store in the world, and in early September 1914 during the call for volunteers for Kitcheners New Army over sixty men and boys from the store rushed to volunteer to serve King and Country.

It was Ians research of the war memorial inside the store that inspired him to produce two books, Bainbridge, Our Fallen Heroes 19141919 and 19391945, telling the stories of the forty-one men honoured on the memorial, stories that had long been forgotten.

From the research into the Great War one battalions name came up time and time again, and that was the Newcastle Commercials and the date 1 July 1916. What had happened to these men on that date? A journey of discovery began and a passionate desire to retell the story of the Newcastle Commercials.

Ian still works in retail and is proud to be a trustee of the North East War Memorials Project.

16TH (S) BATTALION NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS IN THE GREAT WAR

Ian S. Johnson

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Ian S. Johnson, 2021

ISBN 978 1 52673 531 7

eISBN 978 1 52673 532 4

The right of Ian S. Johnson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Many people today have family memories of the war which have been handed down through the generations. The work of our schools, coupled with the power of technology to access archives, has led to increasing knowledge of the war and the part our forebears played in it.

This book is an outstanding history of the 16th Service Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, known initially as the Newcastle Battalion one of the first volunteer battalions to be formed in answer to Kitcheners call.

Six hundred men from the battalion were killed during the war and many more were wounded. This book tells their story. It records in meticulous and impressive detail how the battalion was formed and its contribution to the war effort. It draws our attention to the outstanding contribution of so many individuals.

A visit to the Western Front is not complete without a visit to the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme. Reminders of the loss of so many men from the 16th Service Battalion are there for all to witness.

The sheer scale of their sacrifice is hard to come to terms with. We must never forget, and through Ian Johnsons book we never will.

Lord Shipley OBE

Leader of Newcastle City Council 2006 2010.

On Remembrance Sunday in November 2008, the nation witnessed a special event: the last surviving veterans of the First World War took part in the traditional parade at the Cenotaph in London. I was inspired by that event to research the names on the Bainbridge Department Store War Memorial, which is now situated in John Lewis Newcastle, where I have spent almost my entire working life.