A MEMORIAL to the Dorset soldiers killed in the First World War has been officially dedicated at the scene of the Battle of the Somme.

Fundraisers spent four years collecting more than £23,000 for the obelisk made of Portland stone near the French village of Authuille, 95 years on from the bloody battle that took place.

Former soldiers of the Devon and Dorset Regiment and relatives of some of the 4,500 soldiers from the regiment who died in the war crossed the Channel for the dedication ceremony.

The funds were raised by a committee of volunteers supported by the Dorset and Wilts Branch Western Front Association.

Committee member Major Roger Coleman said: “It was an amazing and emotive response from the relatives of those who died, some of whom were present at the dedication.”

The memorial was crafted by Stoneform from Bockhampton near Dorchester and at the base has an inscription bearing the Thomas Hardy quotation ‘Victory crowns the just’.

The total number of casualties on day one of the battle on July 1, 1916, was 60,000 – and 19,000 died.

The memorial will stand not just for those who died on the Somme but also the Territorials and Yeomanry who fought and died elsewhere on the Western Front in France, in the Middle East and in Mesopotamia.

For more information visit www.keepmilitarymuseum.org/somme