The Accrington Pals were officially the 11th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, part of the 31st Division. They had served in Egypt in 1915/16, and then came to the Somme in the Spring of 1916 taking over the trenches opposite Serre. At 7.30am on 1st July 1916 they were in the first wave of the attack from Mark Copse, and although they suffered heavily crossing No Man's Land, elements of the battalion under the commanding officer, Lt-Col Rickman, did make an entry into the German lines. By the close of the day, however, they were forced back and had lost 584 officers and men out of 720 who had made the attack that morning.
The Memorial was erected in the 1980s in the Sheffield Memorial Park, just behind one of the jumping off trenches from where the Accrington Pals advanced on 1st July. It is made from Accrington brick, and the ruin wall symbolises the ruined village of Serre.
View of the front line trench in Mark Copse.
