William Green – Devonshire Regiment, 9th Battalion

 Private William Green – Devonshire Regiment, 9th Battalion

Private William Green served with the Devonshire Regiment, 9th Battalion, one of the units of the 7th Division that took part in the opening assault of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. Very little is known about William’s personal life, but the circumstances of his final day are recorded with stark clarity in the battalion’s history.

On that morning, the 9th Devons advanced from their assembly positions near Mansel Copse, tasked with attacking the German line below the ruined village of Mametz. Their route lay across an exposed valley, a danger foreseen by Captain Duncan Martin, who had warned that a German machine‑gun hidden in Mametz cemetery, at a position known as “The Shrine”, would sweep the battalion’s approach. His warning proved tragically accurate.

William Green
Devonshire Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France
credit - findagrave

As the Devons moved forward, the machine‑gun — untouched by the British bombardment — opened fire, cutting into the advancing waves with devastating effect. Despite the losses, the battalion pressed on and reached the German front‑line trench, but the cost was catastrophic. Of the 775 men who went into action, 463 became casualties, including 18 of the 19 officers, eight of whom were killed. The 9th Devons suffered some of the heaviest losses of any battalion on the Somme that day.

Four days later, on 4 July 1916, the survivors returned to their former front‑line trench and buried their fallen comrades in the very trench from which they had attacked. This burial ground became Devonshire Cemetery, one of the most poignant sites on the Somme. Its entrance bears the enduring inscription:

“The Devonshires held this trench, the Devonshires hold it still.”

It is here, in this quiet and solemn place, that Private William Green now rests — one of the many who fell during the battalion’s doomed advance into the valley below Mametz, where courage and sacrifice remain forever bound to the landscape.