Bathrooms for Troops

Bathroom at Beamish Museum, County Durham [Wikimedia]

Thursday 2nd December 1915: An appeal has been made to the people of Bedford to allow the use of their bathrooms by soldiers billeted in the town. Alfred Haizelden of the Y.M.C.A. says that they are repeated asked “Where can I have a bath?”  If fifty people would allow the use of their bathroom for one or two hours twice a week it would be a tremendous help. A number of private baths have been given on this basis, but they are all booked a fortnight in advance.

Another group in need of assistance are the young Belgian children who have been rescued from behind the firing line and are now being taught in school colonies. Mrs Shenton of 28 Spenser Road will be glad to receive gifts of clothing for the children either at her home or at the Corn Exchange.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 3rd December 1915

Helping the Troops to Keep Clean

Wednesday 24th March 1915:  We have already heard of the arrangements made for providing troops here at home with baths and showers. Now a soldier from Leighton Buzzard serving with the Sanitary Corps has given an interesting description of the way baths are being provided the Front. In a letter to his parents he says:

Among the many provisions for the comfort and health of our troops in the present war, one that must be almost unique in the history of warfare is the institution of bathing stations to which the men can be sent to obtain a hot bath and clean clothing. A number have now been established in France and Belgium, and it is at one of the most successful of these stations that we are now working. It was started by part of our section in the schools of a little village. … We have three large rooms in use. In the first of these the men take off and leave their uniforms. The next is fitted up for use as a bathroom with twenty-seven tubs (wine casks sawn in halves), wooden grids for standing on, tables for serving out clean clothing, etc. Here the men get a hot bath with carbolic soap, and a complete change of clean underclothing; their uniforms are meanwhile brushed, or if in a very bad condition exchanged for new. 

The third room we use as our billet. We are quite comfortable there, only rather ramped as our stores of clean clothing take up so much space. At first we worked under great difficulties. All the water had to be hand-lined up from a well, the only suitable source near us, and heated in any kind of pot we could lay hands on (even ‘dixies’, camp kettles holding only two or three gallons) over a trench fire in the open, but we have now commandeered a couple of good 80 gallon boilers and made arrangements for a water-cart to supply us. 

With these improvements we are able to put over 800 men through in a day, and satisfy them very well. In the earlier days Tommy was fond of telling us with unnecessary emphasis that the quantity of water he was provided with was more suitable for internal use as a draught than for external application. ‘Bath in that!’ one of the Yorkshire men told us, ‘Why ah cud soop that lot!’  

The work is not exactly what we expected when we set out; it is rather monotonous and not particularly pleasant, but it is certainly very necessary work out here and is greatly appreciated by the men. One man on leaving told us that he felt equal to 40 Germans.”

 Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette 23rd March 1915

New Swimming Baths for Bedford

Friday 26th February 1915: A new swimming baths built for soldiers billeted in Bedford was opened yesterday afternoon. The baths have been built on land next to the Bedford Electric Light Station and will be filled using water taken from the river and warmed by passing through the condensers at the Electric Light Works. This will be pumped into the baths at a temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29ºC) where it will be allowed to cool to 75 degrees (24ºC). The building is made of corrugated iron and is lit by large electric lamps; the pool is 100 feet long, 35 feet wide, from 3 feet to 6 feet in depth, and holds about 98,270 gallons. It will take three hours for the electrically powered pump to fill the baths, at a cost of 1s 3d, and the water will flow continuously at a cost of 5d per hour. The water will be exactly as it comes from the river, except that it will be heated.

The baths were declared open by Major-General Bannatine-Allason, who expressed the hope that when the troops left the town the pool would remain in use as an amenity for the people of Bedford. The first to enter the pool was Miss Ada Stimson, the young daughter of the Town Clerk, who swam two length. This was followed by a series of races which were won by a team from the 6th Argylls who beat the 8th Argylls by a yard. A water polo match between the Highland Division and Bedford ended in a four-four draw after Bedford game back from two goals down. The brass band of the 6th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders entertained the spectators at intervals and prizes were presented to the winners by the Mayoress of Bedford.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 26th February 1915

Warm Showers for Soldiers

Plan for dye works in Dunstable Road, Luton 1895 [X843/1/26]

Monday 26th October 1914: While Bedford is congratulating itself on the sanitary facilities provided for billeted soldiers Luton is considering ways to help its soldiers keep clean. It has been suggested that an idea recently put into action in St Albans should be tried in Luton. A St Albans dyer gave the loan of a shed and allowed the use of steam from his dye works to provide warm showers for soldiers. A jet of steam was fixed into a cistern to heat the water inside, then half a dozen “roses” were attached to create warm showers. If dyers in Luton would be prepared to do the same it would be a great help to the soldiers. A shower bath can be taken very quickly and a large number of men would be able to take advantage of this facility.

Source: Luton News 29th October 1914

Protecting Public Health

Two-seater privy at Swiss Gardens, Old Warden [CR-PH Old Warden]

Sunday 25th October 1914: The Medical Officer of Health for Bedford Borough is delighted with the success of the sanitary arrangements which have been put in place since the arrival of 17,000 Highlanders in the town in August. Many were billeted in unoccupied houses, sometimes with between fifty and one hundred men in a single property, creating what could easily have become a serious public health hazard. The town worked with the military authorities to provide suitable facilities. Fifty permanent latrine blocks with ten places each were built and connected with the town drainage system. The latrines are flushed twice daily by sewer men from the Borough Surveyor’s department, and a deodorant disinfectant is added after each flush. As a result they have all been kept clean and inoffensive. These arrangements have been extremely successful as not a single case of enteric fever has been reported, despite the almost 50% increase in the population of the town.

Source: Borough of Bedford: Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Year 1914 [BorBB2/22/14]

Bath Time

Sketch of Waller Street public baths from Borough Engineer’s plan, December 1910 [X558/6/108/4]

Monday 5th October 1914: We reported last week on the difficulties soldiers were experiencing as a result of living in unhygienic conditions. This matter was discussed at a meeting of the Luton Board of Guardians today. It was said that most of the cases involved soldiers who had been sleeping in sheds and there was concern that there was little point in fumigating the men’s clothes while they were still living in the same conditions. The Mayor of Luton thought it would help if all the men had a bath and a clean shirt every week. He also pointed out that the soldiers were able to have free access to the swimming baths on certain days, but that this offer had not been taken up. Wardown Park was partly closed to civilians in the mornings so that soldiers could bathe in the lake but again this was little used, as was the offer of a private bath at the new Waller Street bath for 2d instead of the usual 4d.

When one of the Guardians, Mr Impey, said that the men affected were mostly from Stopsley and Dunstable district the Dunstable representatives protested, as did Mr B Hartop of Stopsley who said that there were none of “these things” in his premises until the men came. The suggestion was made that farmers were billeting men in fowl houses. In Mr Hartop's view this was a “a most idiotic thing to say”. 

On further investigation it appears that between August 31^st and September 25^th two and a half thousand solders had used the swimming bath free of charge.

Source: Luton News 8.10.1914

Little Visitors

"The Soldier's Chorus" Postcard, 1914 [Z1306/75/16/56]

Friday 25th September 1914: The billeting of large numbers of soldiers in the county has brought with it a number of difficulties.This week the Luton News carried the following report:  

"About thirty of the soldiers at Dunstable were attacked by an insidious enemy, which came on in great numbers and took such skilful advantage of cover that there seemed little hope of repelling it (or them) without assistance.[1] Accordingly, the soldiers retreated on the Luton Union House, the enemy hanging on with great tenacity. Here, by means of very hot baths for the soldiers and fumigation for their clothes, the enemy was completely destroyed. The soldiers stayed the night at the Union House, were made very comfortable by the Master and his staff, and next morning, after a breakfast, “went on their way rejoicing.” The enemy crept upon the soldiers very stealthily and unexpectedly, having, it is said, been brought into contact with the soldiers through the blankets which were supplied to them."

Source: Luton News 

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[1] It is not clear from this extract which bugs the soldiers had to contend with - lice, fleas or bedbugs. Lice were a serious problem in the trenches with as many as 97% of soldiers suffering from infestations, but they were largely confined to the Front so fleas or bedbugs are more likely culprits. For more about body lice during the war see this article at First World War.com.