The Lone Tree

When I was walking in the Haddo woods this morning I came across this lone silver birch and was immediately reminded of the famous lone tree on the First World War battlefield at Loos.


Lone Tree was a flowering Cherry that was shelled to a stump in the Battle of Loos in September 1915. It was the principle feature of Lone Tree Ridge and  was marked on every trench map of the Loos battlefield. It sat in No Man's Land on the front of 1st Division on 25th September 1915, and the 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1st Loyal North Lancs and 10th Gloucestershire Regiment both attacked close to it. The 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment and London Scottish came in the later waves and also fought there that day. In this battle the British used poison gas for the first time (it drifted back into their own lines) and suffered 60,000 casualties, mostly in the first 24 hours. 

In 1995 a new tree was planted on the site by members of the Western Front Association and a small memorial erected.