KIDDERMINSTER & DISTRICT ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY: On October 26, Ron Gallivan will give a talk to the society entitled "Somme Offensives".

After the fierce fighting at Mons in 1914, the British Expeditionary Force was very weak and the pre-war Regular Army had practically ceased to exist. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, appointed Secretary of State for War in August 1914, had immediately asked for 'the first 100,000 men for his 'New Armies'. These would fight on the Western Front and also at Gallipoli and Salonica. His first BEF Commander on the Western Front was Sir John French who was sacked in 1915 and replaced by Sir Douglas Haig. After Kitchener was drowned in June 1916, it was Haig who was left in command from the 1916 Somme offensive until the end of the war. The Somme offensive evolved from the French demand for the British Army to take German pressure off the French defenders of Verdun. The talk is an outline story of what happened.

Ron Gallivan is chairman of the Mercian Military History Society. His interest in the Somme offensives developed from the involvement of members of his family. His grandfather was a corporal throughout with the East Lancs Regiment and the Labour Corps. He survived, but Ron's great uncle, who was a sergeant with the Manchester Regiment, was killed at Mouquet Farm at the end of the Somme offensives.

The meeting following will be on November 2, when members of the society will present on the subject of Kidderminster in the 1950s to the swinging 60s.

Meetings of the society open at 7.30 for a 7.45pm at St George's Annexe, adjacent to St George's Church, Radford Avenue, Kidderminster.

There is a small charge for visitors who are very welcome.

More information about the society can be found on www.kidderhistsoc.btck.co.uk/