THE memory of a pair of Bolton brothers who died for their country at The Battle of the Somme is being preserved as part of a restoration project. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is undertaking large-scale restoration to the Thiepval Memorial - the monument in Northern France that bears the names of more than 72,000 missing men of the First World War. It commemorates British and South African forces killed in the area and is one of the most visited CWGC sites in the world. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme (July 1, 1916) almost 20,000 men under British command died. By the time the battle was over, 141 days later, more than a million people on all sides were killed, wounded, or went missing.
The presence of troops in Għajn Tuffieħa and Għadira camps spelt trouble for the inhabitants of the nearby hamlets. These soldiers found themselves stationed in an isolated area, secluded from the rest of Malta. Entertainment, besides sports like football and cricket organised by the camps’ authorities, could be found in Valletta, but as Mellieħa was not connected to the railway system and the roads were in a bad state, the journey to and fro was a nightmare.
Bored out of their wits, the soldiers looked forward to military manoeuvres. However, while training, they entered fields, demolished rubble walls, trampled the soil and stole crops, thus bringing on the wrath of the farmers whose livelihood they threatened. On many occasions, these manoeuvres were accompanied by an officer whose job was to listen to the farmers’ complaints and issue compensation.