From the Ulster Tower continue southeast onto the D73 past Connaught Cemetery on the edge of Thiepval Wood.  In the centre of Thiepval turn right in front of the church then fork immediately left off the D151 to approach the Thiepval Memorial and Visitor Centre.

On 1 July 1916, the fortified village and ruined Thiepval Château was the objective of the 32nd Division’s attack.  It was beaten off by German machine guns, which then turned on the Ulster Division which was attacking the nearby Schwaben Redoubt.  Thiepval was not taken until September.  Wilfred Walton, Second-in-Command of B Company of the 2nd Salford Pals (16th Lancashire Fusiliers), was among the men who fought here.  His company had the task of supporting the 1st Salford Pals’ attack, and providing a defensive flank on the left of the Division.  Walton’s company moved forward at 07.50, and he was wounded in the thigh.

In 1932 the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission completed the Somme Memorial to the Missing.  This imposing monument, the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens, 45m high and visible for many miles around, commemorates more than 72,000 British and South African servicemen who fell on the Somme between July 1915 and March 1918 and who have no known grave.  The Memorial was built on the site of the Thiepval Chateau.  It was inaugurated by The Prince of Wales in 1932. Among the soldiers commemorated on this memorial are Kenneth Macardle, Percy Boswell and Percy Morter.

On 24 September 2004, the Thiepval Visitor Centre, adjacent to the Memorial, was inaugurated by HRH The Duke of Kent, Patron of the Thiepval Project, President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and President of the Board of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum.  The Centre was created jointly by the Thiepval Project, the Historial de la Grande Guerre and the Conseil Général de la Somme.  It houses a permanent trilingual exhibition of texts, photographs and videos about the Battle of the Somme and the Great War, and includes a bookshop and facilities for visitors.

The Thiepval Visitor Centre
8 rue de l'Ancre
80300 Thiepval
France

Tel: 00 33 (0)3 2274 6047
Fax: 00 33 (0)3 2247 6544
Web: http://www.thiepval.org.uk/