The Ulster
Memorial Tower stands on what was the German front line during the Battle of the
Somme, July to November 1916. It is opposite Thiepval Wood from where the 36th (Ulster)
Division made its historic charge on the 1st July
1916 and is in close proximity to the village of Thiepval. The Ulster
Tower stands 70 feet tall and is a lasting tribute to the men of Ulster
who gave their lives during the First World War. Its position on the battlefield
is a permanent reminder of the 36th (Ulster)
Division’s heroic charge at the Battle of the Somme on the opening day of that
great offensive.
The Ulster Divisions attack on that fateful morning of 1st July 1916 was one of
the few successful actions on what became a day of disaster for the British
Army. However, there they were soon trapped as other units to right and left,
such as the Northumberland Fusiliers (at Thiepval), had been unable to move
forward. As a result, the Germans were able to counter–attack with shell fire
and machine gun fire from both flanks as well as from the front. The 36th Ulster
Division fought in the Schwaben for seven hours until by mid–afternoon they had
reached the limits of their endurance. Heavy German machinegun fire from the
untaken village of Thiepval prevented their pioneer units digging communication
trenches across the old no–man’s–land to their rear, and an ever–increasing
number of men were being wounded or killed as German attacks and fire grew ever
stronger. There was little hope of reinforcement as all 12 infantry battalions
in the division had been committed to the morning attack.
By nightfall what was left of the 36th Ulster division was back in the lines
from which they had started in the morning. About one man in four, more then
5,000 men, was either killed, wounded or missing. Some units were especially
badly affected. The 13th Battalion Royal Irish rifles (County Down Volunteers)
had lost 595 men, well over half the battalion. One officer described the
post–battle roll call:
"Not
a few of the men cried and I cried. A hell of an hysterical exhibition it was.
It is a very small company now. I took 115 other ranks and 4 officers (including
myself) into action. I am the only officer and only 34 other ranks are with me
now."
When demands grew for the construction of a
publicly-funded battlefield memorial at Thiepval in honour of Ulster’s fallen,
Sir James Craig (later the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) proposed,
at a meeting held in Belfast’s Old Town Hall on 17th November
1919, that the monument should take the form of a prominent Ulster landmark,
Helen's Tower. Helen's Tower was located in the centre of the training
camp on the Dufferin and Ava Estate at Clandeboye, County Down, where thousands
of Ulstermen of the 36th Division answered Lord Kitchener's call for volunteer's
at the outbreak of the war in August 1914. Many were members of the Protestant
organisation called the Ulster Volunteer Force. The three regiments forming the
36th Division were; The Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers - The Royal Irish Fusiliers
and The Royal Irish Rifles.
In July 1915, 36th (Ulster) Division left Northern Ireland for England, spending
three months training in Sussex before departing for France in the first Week of
October 1915. A view of St. Helen's Tower would have been one of the last things
they would have seen as the they left the training camp in July 1915. Many
hundreds of them would never return.
The architects appointed to design the memorial tower were
Messrs Bowden and Abbot of Craven Street in London. The construction of the
Ulster Memorial Tower was carried out by Fenning and Company Ltd. of
Hammersmith, London and the Société de Construction et Travaux Publics d'Arras.
The Memorial Tower measures 70 feet (approximately 21 metres) at its highest
point, and was the first official
memorial to be erected on the Western Front. It was dedicated on 19th November
1921 by Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The
principal room inside the Tower is the memorial chamber, faced throughout in
stone, with an inscription tablet in marble. The inscription reads:
This Tower
is dedicated to the Glory of God, in grateful memory of the Officers,
Non-Commissioned Officers and Men of the 36th (Ulster)
Division and of the Sons of Ulster in other Forces who laid down their lives in
the Great War, and of all their Comrades-in-Arms, who, by Divine Grace, were
spared to testify to their glorious deeds.