Men's Ward, Biggleswade Workhouse c.1910-20 [Z1306/16/14/11/3]
Thursday 13th April 1916: At today’s meeting of the Ampthill Board of
Guardians it was suggested that if there were any men in the Ampthill Workhouse
who were capable of earning their own living, they should be sent out to work
to help the labour shortage. Unfortunately the Master reported that there was
only one able-bodied man among the residents, and he had been ill, and was
leaving next week. Instructions had been received from the Local Government
Board for dealing with vagrants of military age. The workhouse officials were
to inform the police and the recruiting officer if any such men applied for
admission to the tramp wards. The Master mentioned that a tramp aged about 30
had recently had to be locked up for refusing his task. When asked why he was
not in the Army, he had replied that he did not intend to be a soldier and
would rather crack stones, but was “not very anxious for that”.
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 18th April
1916
No comments:
Post a Comment