I wrote this article for the 2018 edition of the Chapka, the Regimental Journal of The Royal Lancers (the Chapka was the distinctive helmet adopted by British lancers in the late 19th century). The Royal Lancers incorporates the 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers, the regiment of my grandfather Tom Verrinder and his brother Edgar during the First World War, and this article is based on their experiences on 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme - the day that tanks were first used in action. A comprehensive account of my grandfather’s experiences with the 9th Lancers during the war forms the basis of a book currently in preparation.

The article contains acknowledgements to all who helped in the research and preparation of this piece, as well as for copyright material. I would again express my thanks to Angela Tarnowski of the 9th/12th Lancers Museum, to Stephanie Rolt and Nicola Wood of Queen Mary, University of London Archives, to my mother Ann Verrinder Gibbins, her brother David Verrinder and their cousin Irene Joan Parker, respectively the daughter and son of Tom and the the daughter of Edgar Verrinder, and to Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Lort-Phillips, Major Arthur Morton Grenfell’s grandson. The war diaries quoted here are in the National Archives; Basil Henriques’ accounts are in his memoir The Indiscretions of a Warden (1937) and in a manuscript in the University of Southampton Special Collections (MS 132 AJ 195/3/9); and Major Grenfell’s papers are quoted and illustrated courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives (Grenfell Family Papers; NL/GRE/112; Arthur Grenfell First World War Memorandums, 1916).

The citation for this article is:

Gibbins, D.J.L., 2018, The 9th Lancers and the assault on the ‘Quadrilateral’ during the Battle of the Somme, 15 September 1916. The Chapka (Regimental Journal of the Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth’s Own)) 4: 138-41.

The Chapka is published by Crest Publications on behalf of the Regiment.