On the 15 September 1916 the the Battle of Flers Courcelette (a phase of the greater Battle of the Somme) commenced. It is mostly famous for the introduction of the tank into battle (to mixed results). Less well known now is that it was the day that the Prime Ministers own son Lt. Raymond Asquith was killed when he went into action with his unit, the 3rd Grenadier Guards. It turned out to be the battalion's bloodiest single day of the war. Asquith's death is recorded in the battalion war diary that I transcribed while I was researching my own Great Grandfather. This website is now saved as part of the UK Web Archive and will be available for future research even if the original goes offline.

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, JULY-NOVEMBER 1916© IWM (CO 802)

Commemorating the Somme and the First World war
The UK Web Archive has been collecting websites about the First World war since 2014 and will continue to do so until at least 2019. So far we have 726 individual websites in the collection, 128 of which are available to view through the public website.

There is already a great range of websites in the collection. Many of them look at memorials linked to places (e.g. Crich parish roll of honour) or individual units (e.g. 36th Ulster Division). Others commemorate individual family members such as William Thomas Clarke.

The home front is not forgotten in projects such as 'A Year in the Life of Avon Dassett' or 'Sunderland in the First World war'.

We need your help!
We welcome any suggestions for making this collection as complete as possible. If you have a UK website that relates to the First World War (or know of one), please let us know through twitter (@ukwebarchive) or our nomination form.

Online resources often only last a few years and the UK Web Archive aims to keep copies of these First World War centenary websites in perpetuity. Help us keep these memories alive.

By Jason Webber, Web Archiving Engagement Manager, The British Library