Lest we forget: the Portsmouth legacy of a soldier who never came home

In the early morning of July 1, 1916, British soldiers poured out of the trenches and ‘over the top’ at the start of the Battle of the Somme.

During that day, the Army suffered a staggering 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 men killed – the bloodiest single day in British military history.

By the time the battle had ended almost five months later, more than 125,000 British officers and men had been killed in action.

One was Rifleman Edward Aubrey Jackson, who was just 21 years old when he fell during an assault on German positions on September 3, 1916.

Years later, a young Charles Haskell began researching his family tree and discovered that he had a great-uncle who had been killed in France so many years before.

It sparked a fascination in Edward’s story, which soon led to a wider interest in the 1914-18 conflict that in turn eventually resulted in the creation of the World War 1 Remembrance Centre in Portsmouth.

Charles, 71, recalls: "When I was a teenager I was interested in tracing the family tree and I asked my gran to tell me about the family.

"She said that she'd had a brother, and he'd been killed in World War 1 during the Battle of the Somme. Until then I didn't even know she'd had a brother and so when I started reading up to find out what the battle was all about.

"I couldn't believe what I was reading – the huge losses and casualties.

"The actual concept of the battle, the thinking, sounded great but it all just went completely pear -shaped.

"I discovered that my great uncle, Edward Aubrey Jackson, was born 1895 and had joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps in London as a rifleman in November 1915.

"He'd been working at Guy’s Hospital making artificial limbs for wounded soldiers but volunteered before conscription came in and off he went to war.

"He was killed on September 3, 1916, in an attack on German troops holding the French village of Beaumont- Hamel.

"The assault started at 5.30am. It’s not clear exactly when he was killed but it looks as though most of the casualties occurred at the start of the attack, possibly by machine gun fire taking them out as they emerged from the trenches.

"Edward’s body probably lay out in No Man’s Land for some time before it was recovered, as was the case with many of his comrades.

"I am sure he will have been buried in a cemetery quite close to where the battle took place, named after the Ancre tributary of the River Somme, where there are masses of graves containing unknown men of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

"I have visited it several times over the years and each time I have made the effort to carefully log where I was in the cemetery in order to ensure that I touched each of the graves of unknown King’s Royal Rifle Corps men in the hope that I was eventually touching Edward’s final resting place as a way of remembering him."

Charles, a former bank official who lives in Paulsgrove, first visited the Ancre cemetery in 1972 and was amazed at the amount debris from the battle that was still there.

"I began to make regular visits and very quickly made lots of French friends’ he said.

"They started to give me lots of bits and pieces from the battle. Luckily I had a cellar in my house at the time in Southsea that was like my man cave where I could store this stuff and my collection very soon built up.

"I began to feel more and more emotionally attached to what had happened at the Somme and in the rest of World War 1 and so decided I wanted to set up a remembrance centre.

"With a lot of help and encouragement from Portsmouth city councillors – and in particular Councillor Dave Fuller – I established a centre at Fort Widley and then about 12 years ago we gained our present home in Hilsea Lines, Bastion 6 at the northern end of the Airport Service Road.

"It was a ruin, with no floors, windows and doors smashed and plant life growing all over the front, and we spent nearly two years renovating the place.

"It’s still simply a massive brick cave with no laid-on facilities – no water, gas or electricity. We have to provide everything, with the help of solar panels and the like."

The centre is now run by a charity formed by Charles and, as chief executive officer, he is proud that it has grown without the use of public money.

"We’ve done it without taking a penny from the council. It’s all come from my pocket and kind donations made by members of the public.

"These have increased as we have grown and now we are well-known and get visitors from all over the world.

"I am glad that so many people visit us and in doing so pay their respects to those who died.

"The losses in World War 1 were horrendous and this was one of the things that caught my imagination all those years ago. I just thought that we should not forget these guys.

"We made a promise to them in the war that they would never be forgotten."

Throughout the year, the remembrance centre opens from 11am to 2pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Entrance is free, as is parking and the guided tours conducted by volunteers at the museum. These include young people on work experience or following a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award course. For those travelling by train, Hilsea Station is a short stroll away.

Visitors are able to wander around what is now a huge collection of artefacts and stories from World War 1.

Among them is a small display dedicated to Rifleman Edward Aubrey Jackson of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps – the man who unwittingly inspired it all. Always remembered.