Much of the popular attention on the Battle of the Somme 1916 is focussed on the first day of the infantry assault, 1st July, when such high hopes were dashed and British casualties ran into the tens of thousands. However, the Somme was a battle that lasted over twenty weeks, running well into the autumn.

Bob Paterson was born and educated in Dundee. He gained an M.A. in British First World War Studies at the University of Birmingham some 33 years after he took his first degree in 1979.
In 2008 he established the Tayside Branch of the Western Front Association and went on to serve on the Association's Executive Committee as European Officer and later as Chairman. During this period he personally led the refurbishment of the Butte de Warlencourt, which at that time was owned by the W.F.A.
Bob and his wife Julia purchased and renovated a house in the village of Morval on the Somme battlefields and where they normally spend a considerable period over the summer and autumn months. During the Battle of the Somme, Morval fell to the allies in the Battle of Morval on 25 September 1916.
Bob has been married to Julia for over forty years and they have two grown up children who both work and live in Scotland. Apart from a passion for the First World War - especially the areas around the Butte de Warlencourt, Combles and also south of the River Somme where the French fought - Bob is a keen photographer and golfer; and he and his wife have been season ticket holders at an English Premier League football team for a number of years.