White Feathers

Image: Wikipedia

7th September 1914, Luton: White feathers have been sent to young single men in Luton who have not enlisted. Some of the sillier girls have been convinced by what they read in the papers that any young man not in uniform is an unpatriotic shirker. They do not seem to realise that with so many men joining the army even some former soldiers are finding it difficult to re-enlist. One young man who had served as an officer in the Territorials tried to rejoin his battalion as soon as the war began. The battalion was at full strength and he has been waiting for a commission in another regiment. He would be happy to join the ranks, but has heard that new Territorial battalions are being formed and hopes to be needed by one of them. Despite this he received a white feather in the post. It may also be that single men have family responsibilities, caring for parents or siblings, or are not fit enough to be accepted into the Forces. They say that although Lord Kitchener asked for 200,000 men to join up, over 300,000 have now enlisted and the War Office does not have the resources to equip or train all the new recruits. Even if there were cause to believe a young man may be shirking his duty and to tell him so with a white feather, it would surely be better to give it to him personally and give him a chance to explain himself rather than to take the coward’s course and send a feather anonymously.

Source: Luton News 3/9/1914 and 10/9/1914

Hospital Beds for Soldiers

The County Hospital, Bedford, 1909 [Z1306/10/6/3]

6th September 1914, Bedford: The County Hospital at Bedford has offered fifty beds to be used by wounded soldiers and expects to receive its first military patients any time now. They have asked for help from anyone able to lend bedsteads and mattresses to the hospital and also need bedding and clothing for fifty men. 

The training given to nurses by the Red Cross includes advice on how wards should be arranged:

Red Cross Nursing Notes: Accommodation for Sick Ward

Walls. Should be good thickness. Their main face smooth, impervious surface, rounded angles at floor & ceiling, so as to facilitate cleanliness and avoid harbouring dust.

Ventilation. Windows on opposite sides, one facing S.E. and the other N.W.

Windows. With double hung sashes & fan light above, they should fall inwards with side cheeks to prevent down draught.

Warming. Must be sufficient. The best system is that combined with ventilation & which warms incoming air. Bath must be warmed with hot water for baths, waste pipe of sink should have 3 inch base drain.

Closets and sinks. Should be in an annex.

Space per patient:
- 12 linear feet of wall space
- 144 square feet floor space
- 2000 cubic feet air space
NB. This applies to ward and hospital but as purity of air depends upon how often it is changed a less cubic capacity can be used in exceptional cases if ventilation is efficient.

Source: Lecture notes of E.M.Bacchus, of Newnham Lodge, Newnham Road, Bedford, Red Cross Nursing Detachment No.10, August 1914 [Z160/287]

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[1] Ethel May Bacchus was born in Croydon c.1883 but had moved with her family to Bedford by 1891. She died in Bedford in 1976 age 94.

Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey, 2008 © Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service

5th September 1914, Woburn: Many of the employees of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and Park have already left to join the Forces. More are expected to follow as the Duke has made it crystal clear that after the war he will not continue to employ any single men who fail to serve their Country. All his workers have received the following notice:

“To all employees on the estates of the Duke of Bedford, K.G. His Grace directs that at the conclusion of the war posts now held by single men between the ages of 19 and 35 who are physically fit, and have not accepted service in any of the Naval and Military Forces of the Crown, will be thrown open to men who return from the war in want of employment, and that the present occupants of those posts must not expect to retain them.”

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914

The Russians are Coming!

A Russian Hussar, 1914. Image: Wikipedia

4th September 1914, Bedford: Rumours about the Russians abound. It has been said that Lord Kitchener has an “unknown factor” up his sleeve – surely this must indicate he knows the Russian army will soon strike heavily at the Germans. Trains have been seen speeding from north to south with their blinds drawn. These are supposed to be carrying Russian soldiers who have been transported by sea from Archangel to Leith in Scotland, from where they are being sent to France and Belgium. More evidence that Russians are being sent across the Channel from England came from a marine who returned to Bedford from Belgium and told his friends they had been ordered to leave Ostend when the Russians arrived. On Tuesday news came that the Kaiser and his HQ staff had retired to Metz because an army of Russians was advancing against them from the coast. This rumour has not been confirmed but almost everyone believes it to be true.

Source: Beds Times 11/9/1914

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Note: In fact there was no truth to the rumours of Russian involvement on the Western Front in the early stages of the war. At the end of August the Germans had defeated the Russian 2nd army in the East at the Battle of Tannenberg and during the early part of September the 3rd and 8th Russian armies were advancing against the Austrians. The French requested in December 1915 that Russian troops should be sent to the Western Front in exchange for munitions and the first Russian soldiers arrived in France in April 1916.

Luton Lads Enlist

"Luton boys leaving Luton to enlist at St Albans, August 1914", Photo by Mr W H Cox, Luton, from Luton News Almanac, 1915 [Z1516/4]

Thursday 3rd September 1914, Luton: On Tuesday a group of twenty seven men from an engineering works in Luton went to Bedford to join Lord Kitchener’s army. Although they had telephoned to find out where to go and when, they arrived in Bedford only to find there was no medical doctor available to examine them and were told to go home and return the next day. Yesterday they tried again, with their group expanded by another would-be recruit, and twenty two out of the twenty eight were enrolled. Another group of lads from Luton went together to St Albans to enlist in the 24th City of London Rifles. All but two passed the medical test and they have signed up for four years of foreign service.

Source: Luton News 3rd September 1914

Littered With Loafers

Bedfordshire County Council 1897. Samuel Howard Whitbread is seventh from left in the second row from the front, and George Payne is tenth from left in the same row [CCV33/65/1]

2nd September 1914, Leighton Buzzard: A public meeting was held in the Leighton Assembly Room tonight to consider forming a committee to deal with any distress arising as a result of the war. Mr George Payne, the Chairman of the Leighton Buzzard Urban District Council, chaired the meeting and read a letter he had received from Mr Samuel Howard Whitbread, the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire. Mr Whitbread asked that such committees should be formed to work with the County Committee for the relief of distress. He also requested that subscriptions should be collected for the Prince of Wales’ National Relief Fund and the Bedfordshire Branch of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families’ Association In response to the letter Mr Payne put forward a proposal for a committee as requested. Mr Ernest Saunt, however, stated that the time had come for some very plain speaking and that he had never lived in a place so “choked with charity” as Leighton Buzzard. In his opinion “Leighton Buzzard was littered with loafers”. He considered it a disgrace that men wanted to be paid a bonus to do their duty and had heard a man say that “he did not care if the Germans did come to England, he had nothing to lose; let the ‘nibs’ do the fighting, the people who got the money out of it”. In his opinion nobody would make money out of the war as once the fighting was done Europe would be ruined for a quarter of a century. He would only have anything to do with the committee if he was absolutely satisfied that relief was going to the right people “instead of it getting into the hands of the usual cadging crowd”. The Chairman reassured Mr Saunt that only genuine applications would be considered and the constitution of the committee was approved.

Source: Extract from Leighton Buzzard Observer, 8 September 1914, WW1/RD5/4/1

German Arrested At Biggleswade

North Bridge Street, Shefford, c.1910 [Z50/101/37]

1st September 1914, Biggleswade: A German musician named Erich Borchardt was fined £2 at a special police court held at Biggleswade Town Hall today. Borchardt had registered as an alien but admitted travelling outside the permitted five mile limit without permission. It appears he had left his motor cycle for repair at a shop in Shefford in July and had come from London to collect it. Borchardt’s wife paid the fine and they caught the train back to London.

Source: Beds Times 4/9/1914

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Note: Borchardt was subsequently fined £20 with the alternative of two months imprisonment at Marlborough Street Police Court on Wednesday 2nd September for failing to notify his possession of a motor cycle.