On the anniversary of the first day of the battle of the Somme, Special Collections & Archives commemorates George Andrew Herdman, the son of Professor (later Sir) William Herdman. George was killed in action on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916, aged 20 years. His name appears on the University war memorial in the Victoria Gallery & Museum, and he is featured in the Liverpool Libraries Together joint exhibition Over by Christmas? Life in Liverpool during the First World War which opens on Friday July 11.
Professor and Mrs Herdman endowed a chair in Geology at the University in memory of their son and his father wrote about his life,
for the selfish and loving reason that we wished to have a record of the outline of his short life and of the events of his boyhood that we love to recall written down while all is still fresh in our memories
He printed his account for private circulation in 1917, under the title George Andrew Herdman (1895-1916): the record of a short but strenuous life “as an example” to the next generation.
[He] died like so many others on the opening day of that great battle of the Somme – in which he led his men, they say, with a smiling face, performing at the end a gallant action which his superior officer says saved many lives in the battalion.