Today has been marked with commemoration services in Britain and France to remember the terrible loss of life in the 1916 Battle of the Somme.  1st July 1916 was the worst day in the British Army's history, as it lost 57,470 casualties that included 19,240 dead and 2,152 missing (mostly also dead).  1st July was not Orkney's worst day for loss of life in the Great War, in which 12 Orcadians died on three different days.  However, there were four Orcadians killed on 1st July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme and they were movingly remembered in the Cathedral this evening.  A biography of one of those killed, James Linklater of Stromness, has been added as a Word document to the Stromness section of the website.  It can also be downloaded as a pdf using the link below.