ARCHIVIST Steve Berridge continues to take a close look at the activities of the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry – including how soldiers spent the time between Christmas and New Year's Eve in 1916. Andrew Ffrench reports

CHRISTMAS and New Year 1916, was a time of rest from the horrors of battle for soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

The Battle of the Somme ended on November 18, 1916, and although the war was not yet over for soldiers from the regiment, they enjoyed a brief respite from the fighting over the festive period.

Archivist Steve Berridge is transcribing the war diary and regimental chronicle of the 2nd Battalion. His research has shown that troops from the battalion enjoyed sport after Christmas – with a boat race, relay race and football tournament between Yuletide and New Year.

Mr Berridge said: "Christmas was a day of rest but afterwards there would be lots of sports and games.

"This was a good idea as, for a short time, it took the troops' minds off the horrific consequences of the war.

"The sports were a good idea because they helped with team-building and boosting morale."

Mr Berridge said troops separated from their loved ones were heavily reliant on the postal system on the Western Front.

He added: "The postal system was very reliable and troops would be waiting for letters from loved ones and of course presents and parcels.

"These could be food parcels of cakes, biscuits and tinned meats, or other comforts like gloves, socks and woolly hats.

"Soldiers' wives and girlfriends would get together and put together these parcels for soldiers at the front and letters and postcards were very important too as there was no other way of staying in touch."

Mr Berridge said soldiers from the battalion would have been hoping 1916 would be their last Christmas spent away from home, but some of the soldiers would not survive the next 12 months.

The archivist added: "It would be another hard year for the battalion in 1917 – there would be three major battles but of course they did not know what lay ahead."

Mr Berridge is a volunteer at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock and often travels to war memorial sites in France.

A former corporal in the Royal Green Jackets, his interest in the history of the regiment started when he began researching the life story of his great-grandfather Corporal George Berridge, who served in the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion.

The 53-year-old said his great-grandfather joined up in 1902 and was allowed home before the actual Battle of the Somme in 1916 because of his age and length of service.

He died in 1956 at the age of 72 following a long illness that may have been related to being gassed during the First World War.

Mr Berridge said the period of rest and training near the historic forest of Crecy, over Christmas, 1916, was spent under something approaching peacetime conditions.

He added the regiment returned in January, 1917, to the scene of the early Somme fighting of the previous July, and for many weeks held a line of posts on the left of the Albert-Bapaume road, in every kind of discomfort.

They endured very severe weather, with little protection from shellfire and none from the wet and cold.

The health of the regiment, usually excellent, became impaired and a number of cases of trench foot and frost bite occurred.