NAM.2023-08-3-1-2

Scabbard for French Lebel bayonet, pattern 1886, taken at the Battle of the Somme by Pte Alfred Henry Watson, 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, 1916. Watson was wounded during the battle of the Somme, suffering an injury to his right knee. According to the family ‘While fighting he was injured on enemy lines. German soldiers were using their bayonets to make sure any injured soldiers were dead, targeting those with medals. Alfred saw this and pulled off his medals and lay still as they were coming over to him. The soldiers didn't bayonet him when they saw he had no medals. He had been shot in the leg. He lay with the dead for a number of days, having to resort to drinking his own urine to survive. He was later rescued. He brought back a discarded bayonet with him’.

Somme, Battle of the, 1916 (World War One, Western Front 1914-1918)