This was in the area of responsibility of the 47th (London) Division, a Territorial formation, and during the Somme offensive the wood was finally cleared of enemy troops on 15th September 1916 - at a high cost in lives. Now the fallen are commemorated again with the rebuilding of a monument that had been sliding into collapse. The rededication service was attended by about 350 people. The rebuilding was largely achieved through the tireless voluntary efforts of two former Territorials of the Balham TA centre of the Royal Fusiliers, ex-Sergeant Bert Mayle and ex-Warrant Officer George Reed.
A few days after the battle, the divisional engineers erected a huge wooden cross of rough beams in front of the wasteland of what had once been the wood. Back home, a fund was started and by 1925 a stone memorial was erected to replace the wooden cross (which was shipped home to London and now stands in the forecourt of the Duke of York's Headquarters, Chelsea).
With the passing of seven decades, the roadside memorial made of stone quarried at Verdun, had developed a dangerous list. It had been built over an old trench-system and the tilt was aggravated by the vibration of sugarbeet lorries travelling along the road. By 1993, the tilt in the height of the 17ft cross exceeded a foot and the French authorities gave warning that it would have to be demolished on safety grounds.
Step forward the Federation of OCAs of the London Territorial and Auxiliary Units. For years, the Federation had been paying money to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to maintain High Wood memorial and another memorial to the 47th (London) Division at Martinpuich, a few miles away, but the threat of demolition demanded the sort of funds the Federation did not possess. Nevertheless, it started an appeal largely targeted at the London livery companies that have traditionally supported the part-time military forces. Later Sue Cox and other members of the WFA gave their support.
More than £15,000 was raised but no local builder was prepared to undertake the task for the sum available.
Enter the Fusiliers. Bert Mayle and George Reed boldly volunteered to get the work done within budget - and their own services would be given free. Bert's son Gary, a quantity surveyor, costed the operation. To allow for contingent problems in a land in which unions and workmen can play rough, a number of Fusilier officers pledged cash that might or might not be needed to allow the work to go ahead with confidence. The London area of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Association gave £500. Bert and George assembled their team, which included two skilled stonemasons - Brian Waterman, a relative of a former Fusilier CSM, and his son Steve Waterman. A local crane/digger operator was recruited as were two young English lads resident in the area.
Detailed elevations of the stonework were photographed and the work started but disaster threatened when a huge section of the memorial broke off and the demolition came more rapidly and more spectacularly than expected. It turned out that instead of being built of solid blocks of stone, the monument consisted of little more than a veneer of stone, with the interior being made up of concrete and rubble. No one would have blamed the team if they had packed up and gone home. Instead they soldiered on, albeit warily, excavating nine cubic metres of earth and replacing it with solid concrete that allowed the monument to be re-erected a few feet farther from the road.
The team stored some of the stones at the South African war memorial and museum complex, thanks to the permission of the curator; other stones were carried to London in the team's minibus and recut while the concrete was given three weeks in which to harden.
In a redesign of the monument, an altar-stone was added, a beautiful memorial tablet of black Nigerian granite was set into the front and lines from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen were cut into the rear. At the rededication ceremony on 13th October, eight standards from units of the Federation and one from a French unit were on parade. The London Regiment commanded by Lt-Col Rory Ingle by-Mackenzie were on parade with bugles and drums of the London Scottish and the London Irish. Also on parade were the Somme Pipe Band from Albert.
Wreaths were laid by Colonel Sir Greville Spratt of the HAC, President of the Federation; Colonel Richard Burford of the HAC, Chairman of the Federation; and M. Jean Blondel, Mayor of Longueval. The service was conducted by the Reverend Jonathan Jennings, Chaplain of the London Regiment and the Parade Marshal was the RSM, Warrant Officer J S L Caiger. Readings were given by Colonel Burford, Lt-Col Ingleby-Mackenzie and Sue Cox.
The parade reassembled in front of the village war memorial where wreaths were laid, after which the participants had a vin d'honneur in the village hall.
High Wood is a mass of trees again, unlike the characterless expanse of mud that it was in 1925. And although not really high at all, when viewed from the right position, the white cross stands out symbolically against the dark green. Those London Territorials who gave their lives will be remembered for many more years thanks to the efforts of those who helped rebuild the memorial.
