Killed On Day One Of The Somme Entire Sheffield Battalion Remembered Through Local Sculpture

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Killed On Day One Of The Somme Entire Sheffield Battalion Remembered Through Local Sculpture

5/11/2025

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Known for his recent sculpture of William Plommer, a World War One veteran who was murdered by a Sheffield gang, and for displays in nearby Barnsley, 63-year-old Sam Sherborne is now at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield. Following on from a health scare in which he was treated for cancer, Sam has dug deep and thrown all his passion into his art. He has now created an eternal memorial to the 270 men who were killed in the first ten minutes of battle during the Somme.

He calls it “The worst ten minutes of Sheffield’s history” (BBC). A much smaller city in those days, a quarter of a thousand young men would have been a significant blow to the community.  It has taken the skilled blacksmith four months to produce the piece, a brass sculpture representing all 270 of the men. The remembrance of the entire war and those there-after is on Sunday, with the official day being the 11th of November on the following Tuesday.

There were two types of war in the first half of the 20th Century. Where the second was a fight against tyranny, the first was a reactionary war to hubris, dissociation, and fanciful ideologies. World War One saw men being spent like pennies for slivers of land and mass murder on a scale no one had seen before with no crime to be punished or no crown to be won. It was all about seeing who was the strongest, the richest, and the most prepared to go all the way. Who had the best command of their citizens? That's why it was so tragic.

When nations finally started to see sense and brought an end to the war, the reward was to take the role of the vanquished and suffer the consequences. This was the big mistake that ultimately led to more fighting. This sculpture, made by Sam Sherborne, shows the 270 souls who did their duty, demonstrated huge courage, and were completely let down by their command. It’s not that they had a choice, you’d be executed for not going forward in those days.

Having the stomach to remember the whole picture and appreciate the wastes and suffering that brought no good, can bring these soldiers and their stories to a new light. Do we blame them for what they did or were they trying to break free from their own environment with disastrous consequences? If we learn the lessons and never repeat the same grave errors, we can’t get justice for the fallen but maybe we can get it for their ancestors.

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