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Lt.Col. Colmer William Donald Lynch DSO
British Army 9th Btn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
(d.1st Jul 1916)
Colmer Lynch was killed in action 1st July 1916 aged 35. He is buried in the Norfolk Cemetery in France.
It was on July 1st, 1916 when Lt.-Col. Colmer William Donald Lynch DSO of the 9th King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was killed in action at Fricourt (Somme) aged 35. His grandmother had been born on a sailing ship to Australia and married a Queensland MLA and Treasurer. His father was Maj.Gen. William Wiltshire Lynch who died of cholera in India and served during the Indian Mutiny. His uncle Captain Douglas McLean died in the Boer War aged 37.
On July 1st, Lt.Col. Colmer William Donald Lynch with his battalion advanced. The leading waves were cut down by rifle and machine gun fire, the supporting troops shot down by shrapnel shells. Musketier Karl Blenk of the 169th Regiment who were defending the village statedâ€. "You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them. If only they had run, they would have overwhelmed us". Some men made the village and their bodies were discovered when the Germans gave up the village in 1917. The regiment commenced the day with over 800 men and finished the day with 80 men and 4 officers. To quote Private Pearson, “We were two years in the making and ten minutes in the destroyingâ€.
