Bedford's First Girl Guide Camp

Girl Guide group, c.1915 [Z1176/5]

Tuesday 7th September 1915: Bedford’s Girl Guides have returned from their first camp, held in a field at Biddenham from Saturday 4th to Monday 6th September. Due to the war conditions it was decided it would be better for the girls to march out and back each day rather than to sleep out. It was a small camp with just 17 girls and three officers. They were fortunate to have good weather for all three days and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor life. Their daily timetable was:

• 7 a.m. - Parade
• 7.30 a.m. – Arrive at camp; six cooks, the rest put up tents
• 8.20 a.m. – Breakfast
• 9.00 a.m. – Cooks wash up, rest tidy camp
• 9.45 a.m. – Drill
• 10.45 a.m. – fetch provisions from village
• 10.55 a.m. – Lunch
• 11.00 a.m. – Ambulance
• 11.30 a.m. – Signallying
• 1.00 p.m. – Dinner
• 2.00 p.m. – Rest
• 2.45 p.m. – Signalling
• 3.15 p.m. – Inspection by Commissioner
• 3.45 p.m. – Games
• 4.30 p.m. – Tea
• 5.15 p.m. – Clear up camp and rest
• 6.00 p.m. – Porridge and milk
• 6.30 p.m. – March home

On Sunday the programme was changed to include a Church parade and afternoon bathing. An incident on their march home shows the need for explanation of the usefulness of the Guides’ training. A well dressed women passed the Guides on the Bromham Road, stopped and said loudly, “Did you ever see such fools?” Not only where the girls offended by this remark, they were also astonished that anyone could be so ignorant of what their uniform stands for and of the work they do.

The numbers for this camp were small due to short notice. Now that a beginning has been made to Guide camps in Bedford it is hoped that a large scale camp will take place next summer with the 150 Bedford Guides joined by girls from the surrounding villages where Guide companies are being started.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 10th September 1915

Soldier Cashes Fraudulent Cheque at Linslade

St. Barnabas Church and recreation ground, Linslade c.1906 [Z50/74/1]

Monday 6th September 1915: At Linslade Petty Sessions this morning Private Arthur Basil Bradney of the 16th Service Battlion of the Middlesex Regiment was committed for trial at the Buckinghamshire Assizes next month on a charge of false pretences in cashing a fraudulent cheque at the Hunt Hotel in June. The hotel proprietor, Mr John Holmes was approached by Bradney in the paddock adjoining Bossington House on 15th June. Bradney told Mr. Holmes he was staying at the house and was a great friend of the occupants, the Jacksons. Holmes agreed to cash a £5 cheque for him and did so later the same day at the hotel. The cheque was subsequently returned by the bank marked “No account”.

Mrs. Alice Mary Jackson of Bossington House said that she had met Bradney at Broadstairs about four years ago. On June 15th he came to her house in uniform saying he was on leave and had come to see her. He stayed for tea and dinner and left before 10 o’clock. At one point he had been left alone in the morning room, where her cheque book was either in a drawer or on the blotting pad. A few days later she received a communication from the bank and discovered that the cheque produced in court had been taken out, along with the counterfoil. Before leaving the house Bradney had left her his name and address on an envelope. Nurse E. M. Swaine, who was employed by Mrs. Jackson said that the next she had met Bradney in Leighton Buzzard and he had returned to Bossington House with her for lunch. He was again left alone in the morning room for a short time. When he left in the afternoon she had accompanied him as far as the Hunt Hotel. The National Provincial Bank, Piccadilly, stated the bank had no account in his name.

Sources: Leighton Buzzard Observer 7 September 1915; Luton News 9 September 1915

No Strikes in France

St. John's Street, Biggleswade with church on left, c.1905 [Z1306/16/17/2]

Sunday 5th September 1915: The Reverend Edmund Gatty, a former curate at St. John’s Church, Biggleswade[1], has been out in France for three months driving his car for the Red Cross. He has described the work he has been doing and given some of his impressions of the country to the Bedfordshire Express:

“The mothers and wives and daughters with amazing ability, have assumed full charge of the men’s work in the background. You see them everywhere – working the farms and the factories, doing heavy manual labour, most of them stricken with grief and anxiety, sparing nothing, shirking nothing, to keep things goings. It is their pride to be able to send their men-folk money at the front, and gifts, for there is only nominal pay – for the men in the trenches a halfpenny a day and a totally inadequate separation allowance. There are no strikes in France, and no desire to strike. I never felt so ashamed as when Frenchmen asked me how they were possible in England. All are trying as hard as they can to do their very best possible for their beloved country.”

“Of our own work, 30 cars and 55 men carried 18,000 wounded and sick in three months. The highest number in twenty-four hours was 1,001. We carried them direct from the field ambulance stations, which are about half a mile behind the trenches, to the distributing stations about eight miles back, and thence to different hospitals. One lived in an uproar of traffic and guns, which practically never ceased, but one became entirely accustomed to it, as one did to ghastly sights and risks of infection from nearly every known disease. We were incorporated for the time in the French Army, drawing their rations and pay, and under their discipline.”

Source: Biggleswade Chronicle, 10 September 1915

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[1] The Reverend Percival Edmund Gatty (1866-1937) was the vicar of Offley (Herts) from 1900-1925. He was also known as Edmund Percival.

Sisters At War

Ramridge End, Stopsley 1916 [Z1306/75/15/3]

Saturday 4th September 1915: The Luton Borough Court dealt with an unusual case this morning when Hilda Best, the wife of a sapper in the Royal Engineers, appeared charged with assaulting her sister, Ellen Smith. Although Smith said that she wanted to withdraw the charge the Clerk of the Court was reluctant to permit this due to the severity of the allegations – it was said that Best had grazed her sister’s face with a knife, and had also assaulted her mother who would not press any charges. It appeared to the Clerk that this was a case where the wife of a soldier was spending money received from her husband on drink, had quarrelled with her parents and made a “terrible uproar”. When questioned by the magistrate Smith began to cry and said that on behalf of her parents, her sister’s husband, and her sister herself she did not wish to say anything.

Mrs. Best said that had been living at home but was considered a lodger and nobody had spoken to her for a whole week. When she left for work on Saturday morning she had said she would not be home that night as she was staying in Stopsley with a friend. She arrived home at about 9 pm on Sunday night, only to be told that as she had been out all night her parents had written to her husband. Ellen Smith contradicted her sister, stating that her mother did not know where she was that night. Mrs. Best pointed out that she was married and did not have to ask her parents for permission. She agreed to be bound over to keep the peace towards her parents and others, but said she did not want to have anything more to do with them. When told by the Clerk that it was a shame to have such feelings towards her own parents she replied “I have had too much of it. If I have nothing whatever to do with them they can say nothing.” When told she was to pay 7s 6d costs Mrs. Best complained that her sister should pay as she took out the warrant against her. The Clerk pointed out that she was the person at fault and would have to pay the money, telling her "the sooner you get rid of that obstinate temper the better. It is your temper that has brought all this about”.

Source: Luton News, 9 September 1915

Heavy Losses for Luton

Mayor Walter James Primett

Friday 3rd September 1915: News continues to arrive in Luton of the heavy losses suffered by the 1/5th Bedfords in the Dardanelles, making this an extremely distressing week for the town. Mayor Walter Primett told a meeting of the Emergency Sub-Committee of the South Beds Recruiting Committee last night that he has written to the relatives of all the officers who have been killed. The Committee unanimously agreed that it would also send letters of sympathy. There was considerable regret that the length of the casualty list meant it was not possible to write to the relatives of all the men killed or wounded. It was decided that a record of all these would be kept, and it was hoped that there would come a time when a memorial could be erected. A list of the names of Luton men serving in other units who have given their lives for their country will also be kept.

Source: Luton Times 3 September 1915

Queens Engineering Works Support the Belgians

Thursday 2nd September 1915: Over a year into the war Bedfordshire continues to show its concern for the plight of the people of Belgium. Not only are most of the county’s towns and villages supporting refugees in their midst, but an appeal has now been launched to help those Belgians who have been driven out of their country into Holland and France where they find themselves in a state of complete destitution. A meeting was held yesterday afternoon in the yard of the Queen’s Engineering Works at Bedford presided over by the Company Chairman, Mr. W. H. Allen.

The men were addressed by Mr Hastings Pimbury of the Union des Comités who appealed to their sympathy and generosity. Mr Pimbury had lived in Belgium for twenty years and was president of three working men’s clubs in the village where he lived. He had been there when the German Army invaded the country and had seen villages burnt to the ground. The Belgians who had escaped to Holland and those still in the unconquered part of Belgium were now living as best they could in huts in miserable circumstances. He reminded them of some of the atrocities which had been committed by German soldiers and told them of orphan children living on charity. When asked who was prepared to subscribe every member of the audience raised his hand. Three cheers were given for Mr. Pimbury and for the King of the Belgians.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 3 September 1915

A Shortage of Bellringers

Flitton c.1910 [Z1306/49/6]

Wednesday 1st September 1915

Barton-le-Clay

Although many of the village’s bellringers have gone to the Front, it has still been possible to ring all eight bells every Sunday. Leighton Buzzard has not been so fortunate and has had to replace most of their bellringers with women; these new ringers are said to be making excellent progress.

Flitton and Greenfield

The Parish Church has been insured for £2,000 against damage by aerial craft (war risks) at a cost of £2.

Silsoe

The total number of eggs collected by the Misses Jones over the past three months for the wounded soldiers at Wrest Park Hospital has passed 3,000. The Hospital has now been temporarily closed for alterations. Some of the soldiers have been sent to the Military Hospital at Cambridge, others to private houses which have been converted into convalescent homes, and a few have gone on leave. It is hoped that the supply of eggs will be continued when the hospital reopens.

Source: Monthly Magazine for the parishes of Barton-le-Cley, Clophill, Flitton and Greenfield, Gravenhurst, Silsoe, Westoning, September 1915 [P21/30/17]