Sunday Morning Beer

Crown Inn (left) [Z1432]

Tuesday 29th August 1916: The 71 year old landlady of the Crown Inn at Leighton Buzzard, Mrs Margaret Gotzheim, has appeared at the Leighton Police Court following a raid on the Crown and an adjacent cottage, as a result of which she was charged with selling intoxicating liquors during prohibited hours, and for selling beer to a child which was not in a sealed container. Her case was heard together with those of two men and a women who were charged with being on licensed premises during prohibited hours and with sending a child for beer. Two of these co-defendants were Henry James Dover and his wife Amelia, a daughter of Mrs. Gotzheim, who lived next door to the Crown at 2 Bedford Street.

Police Superintendent Matthews wished to read the statement from Mrs. Nellie Mell of 78 North Street to the court, but the defending solicitor objected as she was present to give her own evidence. Superintendent Matthews complained that she was now a hostile witness making statements the opposite of those she made to his police sergeant. Mrs Mell admitted signing a statement but said she was not responsible for what she said as she was so upset; she was looking after two invalids and had not been to bed for thirteen weeks. The sergeant had come into the yard on Sunday morning as she was “doing her vegetables” without invitation. He asked what had been brought to her from Mrs Dover’s house and she said milk; she also said some beer had been brought, but did not say when. The beer had actually been brought round on Saturday evening but as she was upstairs with her invalids she did not find it and drink it until just before the police came. She agreed that by then the beer was rather flat!  

Evidence was given by the police to the effect that jugs full of beer were being taken from the back door of the Crown into the Dovers’ house next door, where they were being drunk or passed on to others. The situation was complicated by the reluctance of family members to give evidence which might support the police case. One of Mrs. Gotzheim’s forty grandchildren, Henry Charles Samuel, admitted seeing his aunt, Mrs Dover, drink a half pint, but said he had never seen any beer sold before opening hours on a Sunday. Another co-defendant, Mr. George Short, was found in the Crown Inn, but said he was delivering papers, as he had done regularly for several years; he denied having been served with anything although there were drops of beer hanging on his moustache. No beer was found by the police in the Dovers’ house. 

Mrs. Gotzheim’s solicitor pointed out that his client had a clear record except for one occasion the previous year when she appeared in court on a charge of travelling to Luton without permission while registered as an alien; this would not have happened except for the war and she had held a licence for 35 years without any problems. He argued that the police evidence was based on suspicion, and all the coming and going was natural enough when those involved were relatives. The whole case hinged on a jug found at Mrs. Mell’s and the half pint drunk by Mrs. Dover. Mrs. Gotzheim explained that her daughter normally cooked a Sunday joint for her as she had a gas stove whereas the Crown did not, and she usually gave her a glass of beer for her trouble. The magistrates concluded that there was insufficient evidence and dismissed the case.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 5th September 1916

The Big Push – Battle of the Somme at the Empire

Friday 25^th August: The film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ will be shown at the Empire in Bedford on Monday, by special permission of the War Office. The film has already been shown in London and Bedford will be one of the first towns to see the film outside the capital. The film charts ‘the big push’, and promises to be a thrilling and heart-catching realisation of war:

“This film has not been produced for entertainment, but as a moving illustration of the events of the war for those who are removed from its grim and terrible realism. The government believe that the nation is strong enough to face the truth, and that when people know war as it is they will the more gratefully honour and reverence the men who have given their all that Britain may live.”

Part I of the film shows the preparatory action between 25^th and 30^th July, including the movement of the ‘Brave Bedfords’ on the eve of the attack. Part II shows the big day itself, with scenes of soldiers fixing wire cutters to their rifles in order to force their way through German barbed wire, a field battery in action and the memorable rush over the trenches in the face of devastating fire. Deeds of rescue are highlighted, one man bearing a comrade across his back as he crawls through a mass of barbed wire to safety. A hard fought British victory is celebrated, with footage of cheering Tommies and the burial of the German dead. The film lasts an hour and a quarter and the profits from the film will be sent to war charities.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 25/08/1916

Interior of the Empire cinema, c.1920
Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (ref: BTNegM8/52)

Four Brave Brothers

Frederick Walter and Percy Holliman

Thursday 24th August 1916: The four eldest sons of Mr and Mrs Ernest Holliman of 300 High Street North, Dunstable all joined the army to fight for their country, and two have paid the ultimate price. The family lived at Houghton Regis for twenty years before moving to Dunstable, and the father is well-known as a platelayer on the London and North-Western Railway. The youngest of the brothers, Private Percy Holliman, was only 17 years old when his unit was mobilised in August 1914. He was among those sent to the Dardanelles last summer with the 5th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and died on the 26th September from the effects of wounds received at Suvla Bay. Before the war he worked for a coal merchant at Dunstable. The next brother, 20 year old Private Frederick Walter Holliman, died on August 3rd of wounds received fighting with the Bedfordshire Regiment in France, where he had served for a year and ten months. He was previously employed at Chantry Farm, Houghton Regis. The two older brothers are Driver Jack Holliman, aged 23, who has been in France since 1914 with the Royal Field Artillery, and Private Joseph E. Holliman, aged 24, a regular soldier who completed his term of service last February and re-enlisted. He was invalided home from France last year following an attack of enteric fever, and has since been based at Landguard Camp.

Source: Luton News, 24th August 1916

Lighting Offences

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

Tuesday 22nd August 1916:  The need to keep lights shaded is still causing difficulties for local residents. Henry Impey of Eaton Bray has pleaded guilty to failing to subdue the lights in his house on 1st August. He was asked to do so by special constable Edward William Brown who was on duty that night due to air raid reports. He saw a light in Mr. Impey’s cottage at Chapel Yard at 12.15 and told Mr. Impey to put it out. Mr. Impey did so, but at 2.10am another light was visible through the sides of the window blind. The defendant said that one of his three children was very frightened of the dark and had to have a small light. He had now altered the blind and shaded the light so that it cannot be seen through the window, but he was still fined nine shillings with costs.

Emily Evans, a domestic servant at “Northcourt”, Leighton Buzzard also pleaded guilty to failing to sufficiently reduce or shade an inside light on the same night. Special Constable T. H. Bishop said that he had seen the light through the trees at the side of “Northcourt” while on air raid duty in Heath Road at 1 a.m. The window blind was up and the light full on. When he called out the gas was immediately put out. Nineteen year old Miss Evans said she was the only one in the bedroom, and the light was only a candle. She was fined ten shillings.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 22 August 1916

Military Cross for Bedford Officer

Friday 18^th August: Second Lieutenant J. H Bennet, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, met a remarkable escape from death while fighting in France. Three weeks ago his parents, of Campbell Road, Bedford, received a letter from their son stating that he had been shot through his tunic. Last Friday, Mr and Mrs Bennet received a parcel from their son containing his gold-rimmed glasses and glasses case, which he kept in his pocket. A shrapnel bullet had lodged into the case, jamming it closed. The case saved Lieutenant Bennet’s life. 

On Tuesday, news was received that Lieutenant Bennet had been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on the battlefield on the 15^th July, around the time when he wrote to say he had been shot. Bennet attended Bedford Modern School and joined-up with the Universities and Public School Battalion before getting a commission in the Royal Munsters.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 18/08/1916

Private Arthur Bozier of Luton

Thursday 17th August 1916: Private Arthur Bozier of 59 May Street, Luton, has had “a rather rough time of it” since joining the army. He was severely wounded by shrapnel in the left foot at the Battle of Loos, and spent many months in Reading and Wokingham hospitals. He has now been left with partial paralysis caused by trench foot and is now on light duty at Bedford. He has six young children and a sick wife, who is being treated in a sanatorium at Chesterfield[1]. Before he enlisted he was employed by Mr. Martin, bleacher and dyer, as a gardener.

Source: Luton News, 17th August 1916

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[1] His wife Lucy evidently recovered, as they went on to have a further four children between 1917 and 1923. His daughter Irene, born in 1917, was given the unusual middle name “Verdun”.

Bigamy in Bedford

Wednesday 16^th August: Annie Emmie Tully (nee Williams), aged 20 years, of Union Street, Bedford, is charged with bigamy at Bedford Borough Sessions. Annie confessed to marrying Private Herbert Parry whilst her husband, Charles Tully, was alive. Annie married Tully on the 14 March 1914 in Llaneley [presumably Llanelly, Monmouthshire], but two years later she married Private Parry of the 2/1^st Brecknocks (South Wales Borderers) at Trinity Church, Bedford. The 2/1^st Brecknocks were billeted at 72 Chaucer Road, two streets away from where Annie lived on Union Street. This marriage was witnessed by a Miss Florence Haddow of Russell Street, Bedford. On the 7^th August, Annie turned herself in and signed a statement in which she testified that Charles Tully had ‘knocked her about’ shortly after getting married, and, several months later during her pregnancy. Her baby had been born dead following a beating and Annie left home, taking the bed sheets to pay for lodgings. Annie returned to her husband upon his request, but found him to be just as violent and so left him for good in January 1915.

Chaucer Road, Bedford, c.1910
 (Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service, ref: Z1306/10/12/1)

Interestingly, Parry testified that he had known Annie for two years, so it would appear they met not long after Annie married Charles Tully in March 1914. It seems likely that Annie met Parry when his regiment was formed in Brecon, Monmouthshire (the regiment served as a ‘home’ regiment and did not serve overseas) in September 1914 and that she followed him and the regiment to Bedford in 1915. It would be an extraordinary coincidence if they both happened to be from the same part of Wales and ended-up a few streets away from each other in Bedford. 

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 18/08/1916