Our daily tweets included the name, rank, age and when possible, an image of a soldier who had died that day
Every day since the 1 July we have been tweeting to remember the soldiers from the King’s Liverpool Regiment who fought at the Battle of the Somme. Now as we enter the final few days of the Battle’s 100th anniversary we’re bringing our daily tweets to an end.
Almost 3,000 of the King’s Liverpool Regiment lost their lives at the Somme. It would have been impossible to truly convey this terrible loss of life in a tweet, but by sharing the name of a single soldier who lost his life that day, the tweets have become a persistent reminder of this a prolonged and dreadful period of fighting.
In the time we’ve been tweeting there has been only one day that had no deaths recorded for the Regiment.
For each soldier we tried to do two tweets, the first to share some basic details; the soldier’s name, rank, age and, where possible, cause of death. The second gave a bit more personal information about the man, for example his former job or the family he had left behind.
The response to the tweets has been very moving, with people taking the time to let us know what they mean to them and regularly sharing them.
The King’s Liverpool Regiment were at the Somme until 16 November which will be the date of our final tweet. Curator of Urban and Military History, Karen O’Rourke has been blogging during the Somme anniversary about the most significant moments for the Regiment and she will be sharing her final blog also on this date.
The official last day of the Battle of the Somme is 18 November. In the 141 days the battle was fought more than a million lives were lost.
First World War: Charity and Liverpool’s Home Front runs at Museum of Liverpool until 30 December.