900 men in three months. [WWI]

>The Reverend Michael Stanhope Walker went straight from a Lincolnshire parish to the Western Front, and was at a casualty clearing station on the Somme: he buried 900 men in three months. On the first day of the battle he wrote: >>We have 1,500 in and still they come, 3-400 officers, it is a sight – chaps with fearful wounds lying in agony, many so patient, some make a noise, one goes to a stretcher, lays one’s hand on the forehead, it is cold, strike a match, he is dead – here a Communion, there an absolution, there a drink, there a madman. _____________________________ **Source:** Stephens, John Richard. “Heart and Soul.” *Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior*. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 512. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Quoted in Wilkinson *Church* p. 143. _____________________________ **Further Reading:** [Bataille de la Somme / Schlacht an der Somme (Battle of the Somme) / Somme Offensive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme)