Leighton Buzzard Gas Company

Billington Road showing damage caused by sand traffic 1917-18 [Hi/CRM/1/3/3]

Thursday 21st February 1918: At the annual meeting of the Leighton Buzzard Gas Company, held yesterday at the Gasworks, it was reported that extensive repairs to both pipes and equipment will need to be made this year. The heavy tractors used for sand traffic in the town have caused considerable damage to the mains and service pipes, increasing the amount of gas lost during the year to around two million cubic feet, valued at £250. Due to the expected cost of repairs the Directors had already increased the price of gas by four pence per 1,000 cubic feet with effect from January 1st.

The Company hopes that the authorities will decide to build a tramway or light railway for the sand traffic before much more damage is done to the roads and the gas mains. It has also become necessary to increase capacity at the gasworks as demand continues to increase, both for industry – especially the munition works – and for eating and cooking. This is not proving easy due to wartime conditions, and it is hoped that permission will be granted to build a water gas plant in the summer in order to meet expected demand for next winter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 26th February 1918

Eggington Vicar's Son Killed in Action

Eggington, c.1910 [Z50/42/3]

Saturday 4th August 1917: Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Joseph Elton Sunderland of the Devon Regiment, the eldest son of the Reverent James Sunderland, Vicar of Eggington, had been killed in action. Colonel Sunderland was born in 1875 and joined the Devon Regiment in 1895. He served in the Boer War, where he took part in the relief of Ladysmith. As a result of his actions in South Africa he received the Queen’s medal with six clasps and the King’s medal with two. He was gazetted Major in September 1915, and temporary Lieutenant-Colonel in March last year.

A Toddington man has been more fortunate. Herbert Alfred Nicholls has written to his father to tell him that he has survived a gas attack but is now in hospital in France. He wrote: “I was coming out of the trenches when Fritz put over a barrage of shell gas. I put my gas helmet on when they sent over shrapnel and high explosives, and it came down and destroyed my gas mask and never touched me. I thought my time was up. I got my handkerchief and water bottle and soaked it, and put it over my mouth when they started dropping gas shells all around me. I made a dash for it as best I could. All I remember is being in the dressing station, and then in the Red Cross train, having had 10oz of blood taken out of my arm to kill the gas in me … I am feeling too weak to write any more.”

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 7th and 14th August 1917

A Biggleswade Footballer Writes Home

Biggleswade Football Club, 1909-10 [X758/2/1/23]

Wednesday 5th January 1916: Private Frank Garner, a former vice-captain of the Biggleswade Football Club now serving with the 9th Seaforths, has written to a friend in the town. He counts himself fortunate to have been out of the firing line over Christmas and hopes that this year will see the end of the war.

“The last day we were [in our billet] we got another taste of the Huns gas. We were in bed when one of our early rising cooks came rushing in the hut and shouted “Gas”. You ought to have seen the scramble for gas helmets, etc. Scrambling for sweets at school treats isn’t in it. Not long after this we had to get extra ammunition and prepare to go into the firing line, but we were not called on, as the Huns attack was checked. On the same night we started back for our rest and had a night at --- and arrived here on Tuesday. We still get our supply of rain, although we do not feel the effect of it so much, we have got used to it, and we only do about one hour’s drill each day. Luck is with us to be resting at Christmas time although the food is only the same as usual. We have a decent barn for a billet and plenty of straw to lie on, and also clothes for covering. We expect to be here for a month to get fit for the coming year, which possibly will be for the finish of the war. I hope so, although I take things calmly and feel content to be alive and in the best of health.”

Source: Biggleswade Chronicle, 7th January 1916

Gas in the Trenches

Football team of British soldiers with gas masks, 1916 (Wikimedia)

Sunday 20th June 1915: Since the first use by the Germans of their appalling chlorine gas against the French on 22nd April news has been filtering through to Bedford of the effects of this terrible weapon. Mr Charles Ritson of St. Paul’s Square, Bedford has received a letter from his nephew, Captain J. Ritson of the Durham Regiment recounting his experiences:

“Some three weeks ago we had a bad time, my company being caught in dug-outs, asleep, without respirators, and several of them were gassed. Poor fellows; they foamed at the mouth, tore their throats, and gasped for breath. We got a bad doing with gas shells, which seem to contain large quantities of prussic acid. They chiefly affect the eyes, turning some men temporarily blind, and all smart terribly. It is a very uncomfortable feeling when we see a greenish-yellow cloud rolling slowly along towards us, filling up all hollows, and knowing the agony we shall have to suffer if our respirators are out of order. As soon as the gas reaches us the Germans start plastering us with high explosive shells and shrapnel, on the odd chance of catching us outside our trench.”

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 18th June 1915

Leighton Buzzard Men in France

The Second Battle of Ypres, by Richard Jack (Wikimedia)

Saturday 1st May 1915: Private Charles Winmill of Leighton Buzzard, who is serving with the Canadian Division, has written to his mother at Church Street from a hospital in a small seaside town in France:

“Well, I am pulling along ‘fine right’ now; with the aid of crutches, I am able to take a walk along the sea beach, and I thank my lucky stars I’m able to be away from the firing line. If I had lost a limb I wouldn’t have said a word, and you can’t wonder at it, because I have had three of the worst days a man could have. The fun kept on for four days, with intervals, but the hottest time of all was when we were called from Ypres to check the advance of the enemy. When the order came for us to extend and fix bayonets we could see whole bunches of French retiring on account of the gases that were used with such good, or bad, effect by the Huns”. [1]

The Canadians also retired in some confusion and dug in until the order came to advance again. “That second advance was just ‘plain hell’, and yet at times it was laughable, for a man would fall over a stone or a big clod of earth with the result that his bayonet would stick in the ground and maybe his gun muzzle would be full of dirt and then you could hear a ‘good round curse’.“  Private Winmill’s battalion held the trenches through Friday night and into Saturday morning when reinforcements arrived, by which time “not many of our boys were left; indeed the honours’ list must be heavy, but we did just what we were told and got what was wanted. About five o’clock on Saturday night I got my souvenir. I could have sung a song after I got it, because I wanted to get away from the slaughter house for a while and forget the things that had happened.” His wound is progressing well and he expects to be going back to the front line soon, but hopes that his next wound will take him to England or Canada for good.

Corporal H. Guess, serving with the Bedfordshire Regiment, has also written to his parents with news of a poison gas attack:

“We have just come out of the trenches for a rest, after five days and six nights forty yards from the Germans – a bit close for a start. They are a rotten lot of cowards, for they tried to poison a lot of us the other day with those gases they send over. There were fourteen of us in the trench I was in, and only four of us are left, and when the gas was coming the Germans rushed another trench and killed and wounded about 150 of our men, but they lost 500 in doing it. The gas did not upset me much. It is a shame to see the way the Germans are treating the poor Belgians. I have seen them homeless, and the towns are in ruins with the houses and Churches blown up. I think, however, that the Germans have had about enough of it. I have come across several Leighton fellows since I have been out here. Will Sewell is all right. I hear Harry Bierton has had his thumb blown off.”

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette, 20th May 1915

---

[1] At the Second Battle of Ypres between 22nd and 25th April the Canadians attempted to defend a position left exposed by the effect of a chlorine gas attack on the French Algerian Division. The Canadians themselves faced a direct gas attack on the 24th. Their efforts stalled the German attack and bought time for the British to advance, but at the cost of 6,000 casualties.