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The Ferguson Brothers, Sergeant Stewart Small Ferguson and Second Lieutenant John Roy Ferguson of the Newfoundland Regiment, killed-in-action on the morning of 1 July 1916 – the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

OP-0259 Destroyed Forest on the Somme. Mary Riter Hamilton MIKAN No 2873495

The Ferguson brothers from Couper Angus, Scotland and moved to Newfoundland in 1900. As is common in the Scottish tradition, men often given a family name as a first name but their given name was second.

Stewart Small Ferguson

Stewart Small Ferguson enlisted 1 October 1914 and stood 5′ 4″ tall, 110 pounds, with fair complexion, red hair and blue eyes. He was 23 years old, with four years previous service with Newfoundland Highlanders.

John Roy Ferguson

John Roy Ferguson enlisted 4 January 1915 and stood 5′ 9″ tall with fair complexion, red-brown hair and grey eyes. Also of 67 Springdale Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland, married to Jeannette Ferguson, of Grand Falls. Roy was 26 years of age.

Stobs Camp 1915

Top Row

Studio portrait. Identified, top row, l-r: W. [George Wilbur] Chancey (Regt. # 78); S. [Stanley Cecil] James (Regt. # 0-12, 102); A. [Arthur Robert] Canham (Regt. # 221); C. [Clifford] Rendell (Regt. # 0-144, 621).

Second Row

Second row, standing, l-r: S. [Stanley Charles] Goodyear (Regt. # 0-40, 334); A. [Arthur Joseph] Penney (Regt. # 6); A.S. [Albert Stanley] Newman (Regt. # 0-57, 36); W. [ William] Manston (Regt. # 327); W. [William Thomas] Ryall (Regt. # 0-87, 53); N. [Neil] MacLeod (Regt. # 841); J. [John] Williams (Regt. # 0-115, 5); J. [John Joseph] Robinson (Regt. # 480); W. [Joseph William] Clare (Regt. # 0-111, 536); J. [John Gardiner?] Gardner (Regt. # 144); C. [Cyril Chancey] Duley (Regt. # 0-39, 872); E. [Ernest] Butcher (Regt. # 430); C. [Charles Robert] James (Regt. # 436); G. [Henry George] Hicks (Regt. # 0-72, 833); J. [John Grierson] Bethune (Regt. # 0-163, 845); S. Smith; W. [Wilfrid Douglas] Ayre (Regt. # 0-104, 164).

Sitting

Sitting, l-r: S. [Stewart Small] Ferguson (Regt. # 95); C. [Charles Cunningham] Oke (Regt. # 0-268, 60); G. [George Hayward?] Taylor (Regt. # 0-102, 28); C. [Charles St. Clair] Strong (Regt. # 0-9, 30); W. [William Dowden] Edwards (Regt. # 0-16, 659); B. [Christopher Bertram] Dicks (Regt. # 0-38, 33); S. [Samuel Joseph] Ebsary (Regt. # 0-110, 501); M. McKay [Murdoch James MacKay] (Regt. # 0-138, 1861); G. [George]Paver (Regt. # 534); H. [Hector John] McNeill (Regt. # 0-190, 31); H. [Hector Hugh Alexander] Ross (Regt. # 0-96, 768); R. [John Roy] Ferguson (Regt. # 0-205, 882); W. Miles; L. Murphy; C. [Charles Andrews] Melville (Regt. # 0-272, 759); L. [Leonard Tretheway] Stick (Regt. # 0-71, 1); H. [Harry Reginald Haynes] Peckham (Regt. # 909); D. [Duncan McKinnon] Eaton (Regt. # 811).

Ground

Sitting on ground, left to right: M. [Michael Joseph] Nugent (Regt. # 0-209, 428); E. [William Edward] Barnes (Regt. # 0-23, 857); R. [Robert] Kershaw (Regt. # 0-59, 406); G. [Gerald Guy] Byrne (Regt. # 0-31, 340); J. Snow; E. [Ernest St. Clair] Churchill (Regt. # 0-108, 281); G. [George],Langmead (Regt. # 0-22, 14); A. [Allan] Edwards (Regt. # 831); R. [Robin],Stick (Regt. # 0-18, 46).

Promotions

Private Stewart Small Ferguson promoted to Lance Corporal on 21 September 1914.
Private J Roy Ferguson promoted to Sergeant 24 February 1915.
Sgt J Roy Ferguson promoted to Company Sergeant Major 18 March 1915.
LCpl Stewart Small Ferguson promoted to Corporal 23 April 1915.
Cpl Stewart Small Ferguson promoted to Sergeant 10 July 1915.

Gallipoli

The Newfoundland Regiment embarked from Devonport, England on August 20 and arrived at Alexandria, Egypt on 1 September 1915. It then travelled by train to Cairo. The men spent two weeks in Egypt, acclimating to the stifling heat they would encounter at Gallipoli and changing into lighter uniforms.

The Regiment’s 1,076 men landed on the shores of the Dardanelles at about 3 a.m. on 20 September 1915. The Ferguson Brothers came under immediate fire from Turkish troops.

A view of the old port at Sedd el Bahr, Cape Helles, Turkey, showing damage caused by the naval bombardments prior to the Gallipoli landings, May 1915.

A British soldier stands on sentry amongst the ruins of the old gate.

Turkish prisoners captured during the landings at Gallipoli seen in the courtyard of the old fort at Sedd el Bahr, Cape Helles, Turkey.

Turkish forces frequently shelled the Regiment. The trenches filthy and overcrowded, and No Man’s Land littered with bodies. Disease and illness soon spread among the men. About 600 Turkish bodies lay on the ground near B Company’s trenches, but no one could retrieve and bury the dead without exposing himself to enemy fire.

Gallipoli Casualties

The Gallipoli Campaign had reduced the Newfoundland Regiment to 17 officers and 470 other ranks. Forty-four of its men had died and hundreds more recovering from enemy fire or disease in military hospitals.

The Regiment withdrew to Egypt for two months of training and recuperation. In the spring, it was ordered to the River Somme in northern France.

The Newfoundland Regiment, still with the 88th Brigade of the 29th Division, received word on 25 February 1916 that it would be part of the Somme offensive. It departed Egypt on 14 March 1916 and arrived at France eight days later.

France

For the next three months, the Ferguson Brothers readied for combat. On 24 April 1916, the Regiment sustained five casualties when German bullets wounded four men and killed Private George Curnew, only 19 years old. More casualties followed in the coming weeks.

Preparations of training and planning made by the B.E.F. well before the days of the week-long preparatory bombardment. Raids and patrols carried out into German positions to capture prisoners and confirm which German units holding the line.

CSM J Roy Ferguson promoted to Second Lieutenant 5 June 1916.

At 9:00 p.m. on June 30, the Regiment departed Louvencourt and marched three hours to its trenches on the battlefield.

1 July 1916

The offensive began on the morning of July 1, 1916. At 6 a.m., Allied Forces bombarded the Germans with artillery for about an hour. At 7:20 a.m., they detonated more than 18,000 kilograms of explosives under Hawthorn Ridge.

As the first wave of Allied troops left their trenches at 7:30, they were greeted by a devastating barrage of enemy artillery and machine gun fire. It was far stronger than anyone had anticipated. Most men were killed or wounded in minutes. A second wave of troops left their trenches soon after and met with the same fate. The Newfoundland Regiment still in its trenches, awaiting orders to go over the top as part of a third wave of attack.

A total failure? Or was it the ultimate sacrifice which saved the French at Verdun?

At 8:45 a.m., Brigadier-General Douglas Edward Cayley ordered the Newfoundland Regiment to advance “as soon as possible”.

The Ferguson Brothers left their trenches at 9:15 a.m., with orders to seize the first and second lines of enemy trenches. Within 20 minutes, both men lay dead, along with over 200 men of the regiment.

Casualties

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, no unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded taken next day, only 68 answered their names. Less than one in ten!

The final figures revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion. 233 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack either killed or wounded. Every officer!

King George V in captured German trenches at Fricourt, 10th August 1916.

The bodies of the Ferguson Brothers never found. They are commemorated on the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. Memorial scroll and King’s message received by the Ferguson family in February 1920.

The Ferguson Brothers in the Great War