Not long after dawn on this coming Friday, July 1, Harry Bond’s nephew, Les, will set off.

Leaving his antique Lee Enfield rifle at home, he will walk the streets of the Lancashire town of Accrington, where his forebear once learnt to parade. By 7.20 sharp, the 70-year-old will be in position. He will listen as a soldier blows a whistle then stand in silence as the name of each Accrington man to fall in the Battle of the Somme is read in turn.

“It will take quite some time,” says Mr Bond.

Exactly a century earlier, his uncle, Pte Henry Bond – Harry to his friends – also rose early. Along a 15-mile front of French meadowland, 100,000 British troops – 720 of them from Accrington and its surrounding towns – were kneeling down to pray, kissing photographs of their relatives or stepping onto fire-steps to peer out on to their fate. At last, it was time for the Big Push.

That first day of the Somme, which would last for five months, resulted in 57,470 casualties - still the worst day in our Army’s history.

Of the ten battalions which suffered the highest losses on 1 July 1916, others lost more men, but Accrington’s was the battalion most closely associated with one single place. By the end of that day, 303 men from Accrington and nearby settlements lay dead in French fields.

Back home, a whole town had reason to grieve.