THIS past week we have been commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Looking Back is going to be running a series of articles remembering those from Weymouth who perished in the brutal battle.

On July 1 1916, the British Army launched a massive attack against the Germans across the Somme Battlefield in Picardy, France.

It was an unmitigated disaster, and became known as the Black Day of the British Army.

There were 59,000 casualties, 19,000 of them dead, and most of them happened in the first hour of the battle.

Compared to some other towns, Weymouth got of relatively lightly with the number of war dead on the first day of the battle - just six men were among the dead.

They were: John Dobson. Lance Serjeant, 1st Dorsetshire Reg. Aged 36, of 65, Southview, Road; Leonard King. Serjeant, 1st/6th London Reg. (Queens Westminster Rifles). Aged 22, of 165, Dorchester Road; Reginald Luke Prince. Private, 1st Somerset Light Infantry. Aged 30, of 12a, Governor’s Lane. Holder of the D.C.M and lost three other brothers in the war; William Henry Sargent. Private, 1st Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers. aged 26; Percival E. Tomlinson. Serjeant, 1st Hampshire Reg. Aged 22, of 5, Argyle Road and Douglas Underwood, Lance Corporal, Machine Gun Corps. aged 21, of the Railway Dock Hotel.

Thanks to local historian Greg Schofield for helping us to remember these brave men who died when being involved in their first major action on that fateful first day of the First World War battle.