On 18th August 3rd Battalion The Rifle Brigade attacked German positions at Guillemont Station from their positions in front of Trones Wood. 2nd Lt George Marsden-Smedley, from Matlock in Derbyshire, who had recently celebrated his 19th birthday, was last seen attacking a machine gun position. Having killed the crew, he was shot by a German officer, and fell across the parapet of the German trench. It was to be another month before the shattered village of Guillemont fell, and young Marsden-Smedley's body was never found. After the war, his father located the position of his son's courageous final action, and he fenced the area off, placing a stone in memory. He subsequently bought the tiny piece of land, and it remains to this day one of a handful of private memorials on the Somme. It is still maintained by the family, with the support of The Western Front Association. Its position affords a fine view back towards the now long regrown Trones Wood, and the peaceful fields once, with good reason, known as 'The Valley of Death' which lie in front of it.