14th February 2016 - 101 Years Since the Cambs Set Off For France and 1st Birthday of This Website.

Today, 14th February 2016, marks one hundred and one years since the 1/1st Cambridgeshires left these shores and headed to the Western Front. On this day in 1916, the Cambridgeshires were at the 3rd Army School in Flixecourt as the resident Training Battalion. In the year since it had left the UK the battalion had lost over 70 men killed, had hundreds more wounded, and hundreds more were suffering from the various illnesses associated with the rigours of trench life. The battalion's officers had suffered a very high loss rate and on this day in 1916 the remaining original officers met for what they called "the Relics" dinner - there were only six of them left.

Last year, on this day, this website was launched by my colleagues and I to mark the 100th anniversary of the Cambs leaving for France. It has been a busy year for us, we have now had over 10,000 visitors to the site and a large volume of emails from relatives, collectors, researchers, authors, and historians. One of the aims of this site was to help provide information to relatives and those interested in the Cambs and we hope we have been successful with this.

As well as the numerous updates to the website over the year, we have also done numerous talks on the Cambs for a variety of groups and organisations, additional information on these talks, or, if you would like to arrange one please go to the About Us page by clicking here.

In November we held the first of our First World War Family History Days, this was at Ely Museum and we were extremely happy with both the turn out and the interest shown by the visitors. This event was made possible with the help from Ely Museum and our friends from the Hunts Cyclist Website, Skylark Battlefield Tours, and the Western Front Association. The day proved to be a great success and we are pleased to say that we will be holding similar events around the county in the coming years. Please contact us if you would like further information on this, or, please keep an eye on the site for further updates.

My colleagues and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have visited our site, contacted us with information over the last year and especially those who have come forward with pictures. Our picture archive is a crucial part of our research and any additional images or identified individuals enable us to cross reference them against the many uncaptioned images we have. There are still many important pictures out there that we know were taken, so, if you do have any images of Cambridgeshire Regiment soldiers we would really love to hear from you.

1916 was a very busy year for the Cambs, culminating in two big actions in the closing stages of the Battle of the Somme. There are numerous detailed accounts planned for the site as well as many biographies of the men involved. These will usually be timed to coincide with the key dates so do please keep an eye on our updates page, which can be found by clicking here.

Best wishes,

The Cambs Regt 1914-18 Team.

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