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From Francois Berthout

CSM 415 Arthur Robert Lingham
29th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company,
8th Brigade, 5th Australian Division, AIF
 
The Somme, over a hundred years ago, was for an entire generation of young men a nightmare, an apocalypse the likes of which the world had never seen before, but it was in this hell on earth that so many heroes, united in camaraderie, did their duty with extreme bravery, with determination and loyalty in the mud, in the darkness of a world gone mad which drove a whole youth to kill each other in courageous charges through the barbed wire and who, in fury, in chaos and mournful howls, bayonets and rifles in hand, shed their blood side by side among the poppies that today sway in the beauty of silent and serene sacred grounds upon which stand in solemn rows the countless graves of thousands of young boys who, in the prime of life, were mowed down by bullets, who did not have the chance to return home but who in France found rest and eternal peace in which they always watch over each other, always united in a brotherhood and a camaraderie that gave them the strength to fight to give us a tomorrow, a better world, a hope that they sowed and that we must preserve just like the dreams, the memory, the stories of these men that I will always keep strong and alive for them who gave their all, their lives then with devotion, love and gratitude, I will always watch over them, I would give them my life so that their sacrifices would never be forgotten, so that their names would live on forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Company Serjeant Major number 415 Arthur Robert Lingham who fought in the 29th Australian Infantry Battalion,A Company, 8th Brigade, 5th Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 108 years ago, on December 5, 1916 at the age of 26 on the Somme front.

Arthur Robert Lingham was born in 1890 in Barwon Heads, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of William Octavius Lingham (1859-1939) and Jane Clotilda Lingham (née Liddy, 1858-1941), of "Acheron" ,Royal Avenue,Glen Huntly, Victoria, Australia. He had two brothers,Walter Henry Lewis Lingham, Bertram Gordon Clement Lingham (1901-1941) and one sister, Elsie May Maud Lingham (1887-1952). Before the outbreak of the war, he worked as a postal assistant and was a very good tenor singer who was very loved by all those who knew him and who heard him sing.

After a training period of just over three months, first at Seymour Camp and then at Broadmeadows Camp along with the three other battalions of the 8th Brigade, Arthur embarked with his unit from Melbourne, on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on November 10, 1915 and sailed for Egypt.

On December 7, 1915, Arthur arrived in Egypt and was disembarked at Suez where the 29th Battalion was mainly and effectively employed in a defensive role in fighting to protect the Suez Canal against Ottoman forces. Three months later,on March 10, 1916 , Arthur was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in Tel-El-Kebir where he followed a new period of training then on June 16, with his unit were sent to Alexandria where they joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) and proceeded overseas for France on board "Tunisian".

On June 23, 1916, after a week of uneventful voyage on the Mediterranean Sea, Arthur arrived in France and was disembarked at Marseilles and on July 1, while the British offensive on the Somme began, the 29th Battalion marched into in a rather quiet area called "nursery" in Hazebrouck where they received new helmets, gas masks and followed a training period including anti-gas exercises, musketry exercises then on July 9, moved to Erquinghem and the next day,entered the trenches of Bois-Grenier. On the night of July 10 to 11, they occupied two distinct sectors of Bois-Grenier known under the name of "Boutillerie" and "Cordonnerie" where they relieved the 13th Australian Infantry Battalion then on July 19, moved to the northern end of Fromelles and were involved in a costly attack on Delangre Farm held by the 21st Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.

Little did they realise that the Brigade's first major action would be recorded as one of the most costly in Australia's military history.The 8th Brigade was on the left of the 5th Division attack.Many of the men broke through the forward lines of German trenches looking for what they had been told was a second line of trenches.Instead all they found were a series of shallow drainage ditches.As the attack was halted to their right, they became exposed in a salient jutting into the German lines and were quickly enfiladed (meaning the men were strung out along the length of the arc of fire of machine guns to their flanks), and subject to counter-attacks and then clearance operations. In the end they basically had to fight their way back to their own lines, "run for it", or be killed, wounded or captured.

Many of the casualties of the 8th Brigade lay behind German lines and were buried in mass graves.One of them became famous in 2008, when the Pheasant Wood mass grave was discovered. In it lay the remains of many 8th Brigade men, previously listed as "Missing" "No Known Grave" or "Known unto God".The nearby Pheasant Wood cemetery was established to receive the remains of these men.

During the attack on Delangre Farm, Arthur was seriously injured by a gunshot wound to the wrist and was admitted to the 8th Australian Field Ambulance on July 20, 1916 and transferred to the 25th General Hospital the following day. On July 24, he embarked on board the hospital ship "St David" and sailed for England where he arrived on July 26 and was admitted the same day to the Kitchener Hospital located in Brighton, East Sussex. A month later, on August 26, after recovering of his injury, he was taken on strenght to Number 1 Command Depot not far from Brighton and after a period of training in the 8th Training Battalion, he proceeded overseas to France on October 14.

On October 16, 1916, Arthur arrived for the last time in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 5th Australian Divisional Base Depot, was placed on the supernumerary list on October 20, marched out to unit on October 24 and joined the 29th Battalion on next day in Flers, Somme, directly in the front line in a position known as "Crest Trench" in particularly difficult conditions, in the worst winter that the Somme has known. During this period of intense cold, rations were scarce and the men of the 29th Battalion fought tormented by hunger and frozen mud and to make matters worse, faced relentless German artillery. On October 31, the battalion was finally relieved by the 7th Brigade and moved to Mametz but the rest was very short-lived and on November 1, Arthur and his unit moved back to the Flers trenches and prepared for a major attack against a heavily fortified German trench system known as "The Maze".

This attack was planned for November 2, 1916 and the main objective for the men of the 29th Battalion was to take and capture two lines of German trenches known as "Bayonet Trench" and "Lime Trench" but because of the terrible weather, the offensive was postponed to November 5 but on November 4, the battalion moved to Fricourt and did not take part in this first attack against "The Maze" which was a very costly failure. On November 6, the battalion left Fricourt and marched through Buire, Amiens and arrived at Vignacourt the following day where they received new uniforms and equipment and underwent a further period of training which ended on November 17. The following day the 29th Battalion moved to Ribemont and then to Mametz on November 20, when Arthur was promoted to Company Serjeant Major.
On November 21, 1916, Arthur and his unit left Mametz and moved to Trones Wood Camp and then on November 23 entered the front line at Gueudecourt where the 29th Battalion occupied several positions known as "Needle Trench", "Zenith Trench", Spring Trench", "Spectrum Trench" and "Windmill Trench". On November 27, the battalion was relieved and moved to Montauban then on November 29 moved back to Trones Wood, relieved the 30th Australian Infantry Battalion and again occupied the Needle Trench. Unfortunately, a few days later, on December 3, 1916, Arthur met his fate. While he and his company were deployed in the "Rose Trench", near Trones Wood, he was severely wounded by a shell and immediately evacuated to the 1st ANZAC Medical Dressing Station then transferred to the 38th Casualty Clearing Station on December 5, located in Mericourt-l'Abbe, Somme, but died of his injuries the same day, he was 26 years old.

Today, Arthur Robert Lingham rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-l'Abbe, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Our beloved son and gifted tenor singer."

Arthur, it is with determined courage that in the prime of your life you answered the call of duty to join your friends and brothers in arms to do your part in this great war, to preserve our humanity and justice, then with conviction and with your head held high you marched with determination through the fields and roads of northern France bathed in light which, in that winter of 1916, disappeared into darkness and dragged the world into madness and the fury of a war which set the hearts of men ablaze and which, in murderous charges on no man's land, were destroyed in the clash of bayonets from which flowed the blood and the flesh of a whole generation whose youth was lost in the trenches and in the the battles which were among the deadliest of the 20th century but with courage they held the front line, they held their position and fought fiercely to protect our old country, to help the French people who looked at the young Australian soldiers with a new ray of hope as they passed through the ruined villages destroyed by the bites of the shells, a prelude to a hell that lasted four years and which stretched through the peaceful green valleys and the fields of poppies once peaceful and silent which, under the shrapnel, the bullets, the gases and the flames became fields of death bruised and scarified forever by the brutality of the battles that forever changed the face of the world but despite this apocalypse, despite the death, pain and suffering caused by this insatiable beast thirsty for blood and flesh, the young Diggers, alongside their French and British brothers in arms never backed down and made their determination to fight even stronger, they showed a courage that was never overwhelmed or broken by what they endured.

The young Diggers, alongside their French and British brothers in arms never backed down and made their determination to fight even stronger, they showed a courage that was never overwhelmed or broken by what they endured and went through in Pozieres and at the Mouquet Farm where 23,000 of them fell in less than seven nightmarish weeks under the shells which fell on them at an unprecedented rate and which, without anywhere to hide, without any protection, resisted and bit the ground gained in the price of the most terrible sacrifices paid by the entire Australian Imperial Force who, again and again, always in the front line under fire at Flers, Trones Wood, Gueudecourt fought tirelessly in the name of peace and freedom, in the name of the most high values ​​that define us and that in the mud and blood of the battlefields united them and gave them the strength to move forward in the face of the death that awaited them, lurking in the shadows, sly and silent with their names inscribed on the bullets that mowed them down mercilessly through the barbed wire from which they could not escape.Admired, their French brothers had a high regard for the Australians and said of them that they were the bravest men they had ever seen, that they were not afraid of anything, that they always had a smile despite what they lived in the front line, they became more than our brothers in arms, they became our brothers, our sons adopted with tenderness and love by French children and families and in Villers-Bretonneux, in Amiens, they stopped the last German offensive but the price of victory, of peace was very high and today, thousands of young Australian soldiers rest in peace in our cemeteries in which the shadow of the cross of sacrifice rises between the eternal rows and immaculate of their white tombs over which I will always watch with respect as the faithful guardian of their memory that I will always keep strong and alive so that the faces, the courage and the sacrifices of these heroes, regardless of age or rank, will never be forgotten, so that their stories and their names, just like the ANZAC spirit, live forever.Thank you so much Arthur, for everything.At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him, we will remember them.