CONTINUING their tradition of seven centuries earlier, when Foresters were granted freeminers' rights after sappers' duties at the Siege of Berwick, the Forest contributed a Pioneer Battalion to the Western Front during the Great War.

It was raised by Forest MP Harry Webb, knighted for his wartime services. Volunteers were paid tuppence a day more than other infantrymen, and miners from other coalfields signed on with the 13th Battalion of the Royal Gloucesters.

After training in the Malverns, they were sent to the Somme in mid-1915. Their job was digging trenches, wiring, and building huts for the other troops.

In advance of the Somme offensive, they took part in a brigade-scale attack on a German salient nick-named the "Boar's Head." "It was a disaster," records amateur military historian Sam Eedle.

Their role was to dig communications trenches during the attack, but as the assault broke down they were machine-gunned as they crossed no man's land. "The Battalion lost 20 killed and nearly 60 wounded," Mr Eedle notes.

The wounded included Sgt Ben Hope who, having been invalided out, died in a Portsmouth hospital. He lies in a War Commission grave in Drybrook's Holy Trinity churchyard.

After bitter fighting during the main event, the battalion continued in service up to the Germans' last offensive in Spring 1918 when they suffered 300 casualties in a week. A month later they were so badly mauled by a German attack at Mount Kemmel, Belgium, they were pulled out of the line.

This Saturday, Sam Eedle is recounting the story at a Forest Local History Society meeting at Cinderford's Belle Vue Centre at 3pm (all welcome). Photos he will be showing include that of Cinderford's Harry Grindle who, having survived hostilities, returned to build up the family coach firm.

"I came across the Pioneers when I was in the Malvern Hills and found a memorial to their commanding officer who died in the 1930s," Sam told the Review from his Tewkesbury home.

After some years of research, he is in the process of preparing his material for publication as a book.