55017: Group of new recruits, 26th Bankers' Battalion, Royal Fusiliers

This is a photograph of the new recruits to the Bankers' (Service) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. They later went on to Aldershot for training, landing in France in May 1916. Thier first action was at Flers in Septmeber 1916 as part of the Somme campaign, where the Battalion suffered heavy losses. Private Ernest Powell is the extreme left of the second row. In 1916, he was seconded to the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps, as a member of a tank crew.