Secret dig at Somme

TWO men are to give a talk about their ancestors’ role in tunnelling under enemy lines during the First World War.

Robin Sanderson and Richard Crompton’s relatives were among 25,000 miners and sewer workers who dug the excavations during the Somme campaign in which more than 450,000 British soldiers perished.

Their work was carried out in secret, with even regular troops knowing little of its existence, and hundreds who took part died from drowning or suffocating underground.

The men’s talk will be held at Dunsden village hall on Tuesday from 7.30pm and will include demonstrations of artefacts from that period.

The talk is part of a series of lectures organised by the Dunsden Owen Association, which was founded to mark war poet Wilfred Owen’s connections with the village.