News from Stanbridge

Stanbridge Church 1905 [Z1130/108/1]

Saturday 20th July 1918:  The wedding has taken place today in Stanbridge Church of Corporal Will Jones to Miss Violet Dockrill, the niece of Mr and Mrs John Dockrill of Stanbridge. Corporal Jones is home on leave recovering after being wounded for a second time in Italy. A number of other men from the villages of Stanbridge and Tilsworth are also recovering from recent wounds. Private Reginald Stairs is staying with his sister at Dunstable while on sick leave. He was badly hurt and lost a leg at the first battle of Gaza, where he was left on the battlefield with two dead men on top of him for some hours before being picked up by an ambulance. He had previously been wounded in Gallipoli. Private Philip Mead, who also recently had a leg amputated, underwent another operation last week and is making favourable progress. Just a few weeks after his father joined up, Private William Gurney has been badly wounded in the foot and is in now hospital at Bournemouth. Also recovering from wounds are Private Frank Price, son of James Price of Manor Farm, Tilsworth, and Corporal Charles Horn, who had returned to the fray after suffering wounds at Vimy Ridge last year.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 23rd July 1918

News from Eaton Bray

High Street, Eaton Bray c.1905 [Z1306/39/2/2]

Saturday 27th April 1918: News has been received in Eaton Bray of two deaths, a prisoner and a wedding. Mr. Lewis Ruffett has been informed that his son, Private Fred Ruffett of the Bedfordshire Regiment was killed on 24th March, only two weeks after returning from leave. Private Ruffett had enlisted under the Derby Scheme in February 1916 and was sent to France in April 1917. His brother lost a leg in France eighteen months ago. Corporal Charley Chanin of the Lancers was killed in action a day earlier, on 23rd March. Corporal Chanin enlisted at the beginning of the war and served in Ireland during the 1916 rebellion. The mother of Lance-Corporal William Neville has received a card from her son telling her that he is now a prisoner of war at Cassel, in Germany. He was the first man from the village of Eaton Bray to join up, in September 1914.

Happier news comes from Canada, where Miss Annie Hebbes, the second daughter of Mr. J. A. Hebbes of Eaton Bray has marries Mr. H. G. Tice of Truax, Saskatchewan. The wedding took place at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on 22nd March. The bride’s brother, who has been farming in Alberta, Canada for some years was present. The new Mrs. Tice was formerly the assistant matron at Leighton Buzzard Workhouse.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 30th April 1918

Wedding at Bedford

Banksia Roses (Wikimedia, Creative Commons)

Wednesday 25^th April 1917: A wedding of considerable local interest took place today at St Mary’s Church, Bedford. The bride was Edith Florence Killick, youngest daughter of Caleb Killick of Bedford. The bridegroom was Captain Ernest James Howard of the Royal Flying Corps, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Howard of Essex. Miss Killick was a member of the Bedford branch of the Red Cross Society and did valuable work for the Society over a considerable period of time. She also assisted the Clerk of the Borough Tribunal ably.

The bride was given away by her father and was simply attired in a dress of ivory crepe de chine and serge, with hand embroideries in cream and silver. She carried a bouquet of pink carnations and white heather. The bridesmaid looked pretty in pink crepe de chine with a wreath of Banksia roses. The mother of the bridegroom wore a dress of black silk and carried a bouquet of Parma violets. Following the reception, the happy couple left for Bournemouth. The presents included a framed engraving from the Chairman of the Bedford Tribunal (the Mayor), a silver cream jug and sugar basin from the Town Clerk and a canteen of cutlery from the bridegroom’s fellow officers at Farnborough.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 4/5/1917

Edith Killick attended Bedford Modern School for Girls. Her wedding is recorded in the Old Girls' Association Newsletter of January 1918, held at Bedfordshire Archives (see under 'Personalia' below)

DAH9/1/7/6, Old Girls' Association Newsletter, January 1918 (Bedfordshire Archives & Records Service)

A Wartime Romance

Soldiers at Biscot Camp [Z1306/75/16/14]

Wednesday 12th July 1916: A wartime romance has reached a happy conclusion in Luton with the marriage today of Sergeant R. Hayward, an artillery sergeant at Biscot Camp, to Miss Rose Charlotte Marsh of 112, Leagrave Road. The wedding took place at Christ Church, Luton. The bride wore white with a silk veil and orange blossom and carried a bouquet, with bridesmaids Lily and Violet Marsh wearing white voile, and a third bridesmaid, Miss Eva Kirby, wearing shantung. The bridge and groom met quite recently at a military concert in Luton.

A rather less happy event took place at Biscot this evening when Driver Green of D Battery of the London Royal Field Artillery was playing football. He slipped and fell heavily, sustaining severe bruises and dislocating three fingers. He is now recovering in the Bute Hospital.

Source: Luton News, 20th July 1916

A Military Wedding at Bedford

Church of St. Peter de  Merton with St. Cuthbert, Bedford (Wikimedia)

Thursday 18th November 1915:  A military wedding has taken place at St. Peter’s Church, Bedford this morning between Lena, daughter of Major and Mrs Winton Seton of 15 Cornwall Road, Bedford and Captain Henry Nicholls Beaumont-Walker, O.B.M., of the Army Service Corps, the son of Mr and Mrs R Beaumont-Walker of Nagpur, Bengal.  Captain Beaumont-Walker is an old boy of Bedford Modern school, where he played in both the 1st cricket eleven and the 1st Rugby team. He was gazetted to the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment on 24th December 1909 and transferred to the Army Service Corps in October 1914. He was granted eight days’ leave for his wedding after being at the Front since the beginning of the war, where he took part in the battles of Mons, the Marne, Aisne and Ypres. His brother Captain Robert K Beaumont-Walker[1] is serving with the 24th Regiment, the South Wales Borderers, and has just returned from Tsingtao in China, where the British and Japenese armies jointly destroyed the German naval base.[1]

The bride was attended by her older sister Iernie and her younger sister Brenda as bridesmaids, and the best man was Captain Robert Walker. The new Mrs Beaumont-Walker wore a mole coloured coat and skirt with a matching hat and carried a sheaf of Madonna lilies. The bridesmaids wore dark blue and each carried bouquets of red tulips and lilies of the valley. The reception was held at Cornwall Road.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 19th February 1915

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[1] The siege of Tsingtao was the first Anglo-Japanese operation of the war and took place between 31st October and 7th November 1914.

[2] Both Beaumont-Walker brothers survived the war. Robert (b.1887) reached the rank of Major and died in Hampstead in 1972; Henry (b.1888) died in Surrey in 1978.

A Highland Wedding

Another September wedding, from The Highland Division at Bedford: An Illustrated Souvenir, 3rd edition, published by Beds Times Publishing Co.Ltd. 1915 [X414/162]

Tuesday 22nd September 1914 (Bedford): One of the Highland officers, Lieut. Nigel Blair Mackenzie of the 4th Cameron Highlanders, was married in Bedford today. His fiancée Florence May Brown (née Templeton) came down from Scotland and the service was taken by the rector of Fort William.The guard of honour marched to the church led by pipers – the bagpipes are becoming a familiar sound in Bedford now. After the wedding a reception was held at the Swan Hotel and the pipers played again as the happy couple left. This description of the bride’s and bridesmaid’s dresses was given in the Bedfordshire Times:

“The bride’s dress was of ivory charmeuse, veiled in ninon and lace, the train being caught up with small pink roses. The veil was of fine white net, wreathed with white heather and pink roses, and the bouquet, a gift of the bridegroom, was also of white heather and Mrs G Shawyer roses. She also wore a beautiful flexible bracelet of pearls and diamonds, the gift of the bridegroom. The one bridesmaid, the bride’s sister, Miss Charlotte H B Templeton, wore a dress of white crepe de chene, made in Russian tunic style, edged with skunk fur, and Maltese lace collar, with a charming cap of Maltese lace with streamers of pale blue ribbons and a knot of pink roses. Instead of a bouquet she carried a large muff of dull soft satin, lined with pale blue chiffon and edged with skunk fur, and wore a old bar brooch set with pearls, a gift of the bridegroom.”

Source: Beds Times 25/9/1914