Image ID: 14138

SRIY (Sherwood Rangers) Church Parade

The Square
Retford
England

The date of this photograph is interesting. The photograph shows a parade of the Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry 7 days after war was declared with Germany in the First World War. Germany's decision to invade France through neutral Belgium led to the British declaration of war on Germany on the 4 August. The 'Great War' which developed between the allied powers (led by France, Russia, Britain and, from 1917, the United States) and the Central Powers (led by Germany and Austria-Hungary) lasted until 1918. On the western front, the two sides rapidly became entrenched, and the technology of warfare at the time made it difficult to overcome the ensuing stalemate. Although a variety of strategies were employed, including poison gas from 1915 and tanks from 1916, World War One was remarkable for the extraordinary loss of life in these trenches. (This photograph invites the question as to how many of these soldiers seen here returned?). In the First World War the Regiment fought in North Africa and Middle East and were part of the Notts and Derbys Mounted Brigade. After fighting as cavalry in the Struma Valley in 1916, they joined the Australian mounted division in the following year to take part the capture of Beersheba. In the Jordan Valley they shared in the famous raid on Es Salt and in 1918 joined in Allenby's great advance from Jaffa, covering 540 fighting miles to Aleppo. In Haifa they captured at sword point the Turkish batteries on Mount Carmel. Although the German army was not defeated in the west, the Central Powers surrendered, signing an armistice on 11 November 1918. In June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany. An estimated 10,000,000 lives had been lost, of which some 750,000 were British. Twice that number were wounded.

Date: 11/08/1914

Organisation Reference: NCCN000539

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