National Provincial Bank National Provincial Bank National Provincial Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1833 until 1970 when it was merged into the National Westminster Bank. It continued to exist as a dormant non-trading company until 2016 when it was voluntarily struck off the register and dissolved. Considered one of the "Big Five," the National Provincial Bank expanded during the 19th and 20th centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies. It was based on Bishopsgate, at the thoroughfare's junction with Threadneedle Street, in London. The National Provincial Bank played a unique role in
Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917 Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917 Operations on the Ancre took place from between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter. For the rest of the year and early January 1917, both sides were reduced to surviving the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. As preparations for the offensive at Arras due in the spring of 1917 continued, the British attempted to keep German attention on the