THE STORY OF THE SOMME 4 | Training - Private Donald Murray

Welcome to THE STORY OF THE SOMME podcast series, which tells the story of the Somme Offensive in the words of those fighting on the Western Front and their families back home. The series was commissioned by the DEPARTMENT FOR DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT and developed in partnership with the FIRST WORLD WAR CENTENARY BATTLEFIELD TOURS PROGRAMME and CHROMERADIO. It was first released to accompany the SOMME100 VIGIL at Westminster Abbey, held through the night of 30 June/1 July 2016 to mark the centenary of the opening of the Battle of the Somme. In this podcast, we hear from PRIVATE DONALD MURRAY about preparations for the Battle of the Somme. Donald Murray was born in Bradford in 1893 into a working class family of six children. When Britain declared war in August 1914, he decided to join up. He and his fellow apprentices went straight to the recruiting office and enlisted as a group in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He arrived in France in May 1915, and his battalion went ‘over the top’ on the first day of the Somme. SOURCE | IWM Audio Archive, Interview with Donald Murray, 1973. PRODUCTION | ChromeRadio for the DEPARTMENT FOR DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT | Producer - Catriona Oliphant | Narrator - Nicholas Rowe | Reader - Joel Williams-Modeste, St John's Gravesend | The Last Post played by LSgt Stuart Laing, Welsh Guards on a First World War bugle.