The Great War

An exhibition by Melbourn History Group

to those who died, we remember; to those who survived, we hear you; to future generations, let us never forget.

The Great War Exhibition

Melbourn History Group 2014. From the left: Ann Dekkers, Eric Johnston, Sally Wright, Mavis Howard, Peter Simmonett, Colin Limming and Jan Simmonett.

The Melbourn History group would like to thank the following for their help in making a very successful exhibition: Meldreth History Group; Melbourn Village College; Barrington Royal British Legion; The Rev. Andrew O’Brien, SOAS and the many visitors that attended the exhibition.

The printing of this book was sponsored by Melbourn History Group and Melbourn Magazine. A free copy was given to every household in the Parish and pupils at Melbourn Village College and the Primary School.

Due to the age of many of the images used in this publication, it has not been possible to identify if ownership still exists. If any are brought to our notice, we will be happy to acknowledge the owner.

Melbourn History Group 2014

2014 marked the 100th anniversary since the start of the First World War. To commemorate this, in July 2014, the Melbourn History group put together an exhibition using 15 large display panels and numerous artefacts on loan from many residents throughout the village and contributions from Barrington Royal British Legion.

These artefacts ranged from photographs, medals, mementos to personal letters from family members that had fought in the war.

Held at All Saints’ Church, part of the exhibition was on display in the Lady Chapel, which is dedicated to those who died in the Great War. The display panels convey a wealth of information covering all aspects of the war. The progress of the war is chronicled in time-lines, which cover the many campaigns and significant events. While closer to home, village life is described with the use of school records, council minutes and newspaper reports and a detailed report of the Melbourn man who escaped from the Germans.

Two display panels record the experiences and views of students from Melbourn Village College who visited many of the memorials in Flanders during the summer of 2014. View life in Meldreth with stories of Soldiers, Lewis Albert V Harrup and William ‘Bill” Wing Snr., and life at the German prisoner of war camp.

From this exhibition, we have created this publication. Each display panel has been completely reproduced to give an insight to a war that at the beginning was expected to be a short conflict, but became one of the most tragic events in British history.

1914 – 1918

The Great War The full horrors and devastation of the Great War cannot be told in just a few words and pictures ... we will never fully appreciate what the men went through. we hope this book will give you a brief insight into

‘The war to end all wars’.

They say time is a great healer and yet 100 years after the outbreak of the ‘War to end all wars’, the suffering of the many that fought in the Great War still moves us today as much as it did those directly involved.

With over three million casualties from the British Empire, it took its toll in every village, town and city throughout the country, with very few families unaffected by a loss of a family member.

Melbourn’s loss can be seen on the memorial at the Cross, where 46 men who lost their lives during the conflict are remembered. Some were returned to the village, but for many they lie in marked or unmarked graves throughout France and Belgium, their names remembered on the many memorials.

All are remembered here.

A Soldier’s tale “We thought we had got accustomed to the atrociousness of all this, and at home you may forget the monstrous events. At the front for days our senses and nerves must certainly have suffered from these awful three years. Spirit and feelings seek to escape the intolerable horror, but it is no use. Here, up against the worst form of slaughter, again these nameless noises bring it home to you with overpowering force.”

Life in the Trenches

A Soldier’s tale “A good standing trench was about six foot deep, so that a man could walk upright during the day in safety from rifle-fire. In each bay of the trench we constructed fire-steps about two feet higher than the bottom of the trench, which enabled us to stand head and shoulders above the parapet.

During the day we were working in reliefs, and we would snatch an hour’s sleep, when we could, on a wet and muddy fire-step, wet through to the skin ourselves.

If anyone had to go to the company on our right in the daytime he had to walk through thirty yards of waterlogged trench, which was chest-deep in water in some places.

The duckboard track was constantly shelled, and in places a hundred yards of it had been blown to smithereens. It was better to keep off the track when walking back and forth, but then a man had to make his way sometimes through very heavy mud … wet snow had begun to fall, which turned into rain and some parts of the land were soon a bog of mud to get drowned in.”

Because the Germans dug in first, they were able to seize the high ground. This not only gave them a tactical advantage, it also kept them much drier than the British and French, who were forced

to dig in areas that were typically only 2 to 3 feet above sea level. This led to frequent flooding and an almost constant presence of water in Allied trenches.

German bunkers were more sophisticated.

Unlike the shallower dugouts of the British, the Germans constructed elaborate and sophisticated tunnels and trench structures, some with living quarters more than 50 feet below the surface, complete with concrete stairs. Many German dugouts had electricity, bunk beds, water tanks with taps, boarded floors walls and ceilings, as well as toilets, luxuries that contrasted sharply with the open-air trenches of the Allies.

A Soldier’s tale “To add to the general discomfort, the trenches were alive with rats. The knowledge that these gigantic rodents had grown fat through feeding on the dead bodies in No Man’s Land made us hate them more fiercely than almost anything else.”

Melbourn History Group 2014

Life in the trenches during the First World War varied widely from sector to sector, but it was not the life the eager young recruits expected when they signed up for war in August 1914.

Unlike previous wars where soldiers were constantly on the move, the First World War was typified by its lack of movement, with years of stalemate.

The war began dramatically with the Germans advancing through Belgium and France on their way to Paris. After the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 just one month after the war truly began, the Germans were pushed back to the River Aisne.

The Germans, not wanting to lose the territory they had gained in France and Belgium, dug trenches to defend against the British and French troops. Realizing that they could not break through these trenches, the British and French soon began digging their own. Thus trench warfare began.

The shallow British trenches regularly flooded, they were cold, smelly, squalid and riddled with disease and rats – millions of them. A soldiers life meant living in constant fear. Fear of disease, such as cholera and trench foot and of course, the constant fear of bombardment and attack from the enemy.

Did you know...

To support the troops with manual labour the British and French recruited manpower from China. Over 140,000 Chinese labourers (40,000 with the French and 100,000 with the British forces), served on the Western Front over the course of the First World War. They were known as the Chinese Labour Corps.

Did you know...

It was calculated that the French front lines contained about 6,250 miles of trenches and the British about 6,000 miles. With the Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary and other nations allied with them trenches added together came to about 25,000 miles – a trench sufficient to circle the earth! Theoretically it would have been possible to walk from Belgium to Switzerland entirely underground! (Though there were gaps).

A Soldier’s tale “We were always hungry. Many times we only got one slice of bread, often without butter or jam, for breakfast and hard biscuits for tea. These were so hard that you had to put them on a firm surface and smash them with a stone or something.

Sometimes when drinking water did not arrive, we had to boil rainwater from shell holes.”

A Soldier’s tale “I sat in a quiet corner of a barn, de-lousing myself as best I could. The things lie in the seams of my trousers, in the deep furrows of long thick woolly pants, and seemed impregnable in their deep entrenchments. A lighted candle applied where they were at their thickest made them pop like Chinese crackers. After a session of this, my face would be covered with small spots from extra big fellows which had popped too vigorously.”

… and finally the smell

The appalling smell from many contributing factors must have been dreadful. From the thousands of rotting carcases that lay where they fell, overflowing toilets that ran through the trenches and gave off an equally offensive stench, plus the lack of hygiene, where men did not have the luxury of a proper wash or bath for weeks or months.

The trenches would also smell of creosol (creosote) or chloride of lime (bleach), used to stave off the constant threat of disease and infection. The smell of cordite (gunpowder), the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking food.

Although the men grew accustomed to it, their return after just a short break in the rear lines would have been sickening.

Following the declaration of war on the 4th August 1914, there was an unprecedented rapid expansion of the British land forces. By 1918, over five million British men, almost a quarter of the male population had served their country. Remarkably, nearly half of those (2,466,719) were volunteers and many had enlisted in response to an appeal from Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener.

New Armies The day after Britain declared war on Germany, Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener, a national hero, became Secretary of State for War. Kitchener was one of the few serving British officers or statesmen to predict that the war was going to be long and costly, and that the existing British Expeditionary Force (BEF) would be far too small to play an influential part in any major conflict.

His solution was to create a series of ‘New Armies’, by introducing voluntary enlistment to expand the British Forces. These New Armies would duplicate the original British Expeditionary Force and would become known as ‘Kitchener’s Army’.

On 11 August 1914, the government published a poster entitled, ‘Your King and Country need you: a call to arms’. This explained the new terms of service and called for the first 100,000 men to enlist.

A surge in recruiting During the first weekend of the war, over 100 men an hour (3,000 per day) signed up to join the armed forces and by 21st August, Kitchener had achieved his goal with 100,000 new recruits.

By September, 478,893 men had joined – 33,204 of these volunteered in one day, on 3 September. By the end of 1914, 1,186,337 men had enlisted.

Patriotism and a sense of duty to ‘King and Empire’, helped to encourage recruitment.

Many, joined for adventure or to escape arduous, dangerous, or humdrum jobs. For some, it was

Crowds besiege the recruiting office

Did you know...

As part of the recruitment drive, 54 million posters were issued, 8 million personal letters were sent, 12,000 meetings were held, and 20,000 speeches were delivered by military spokesmen.

a means of escape from unemployment and starvation. However, one important factor was the formation of the ‘Pals’ battalions. Brothers, cousins, men from the same community or workplace, villages, churches and even football teams were able to join up together, on the understanding that they would train and fight together.

By the end of September 1914, over 50 towns had formed Pals battalions with many larger towns and cities forming several battalions each. The first to be formed was the ‘Stockbrokers’, which went on to become the 10th Service Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

Members of the Automobile Association

‘Pals’ were not just about a few men getting together to go off to war – within a week, 1,600 men from across London had joined the Stockbrokers’ Battalion. As with the Stockbrokers’, many battalions were formed from local communities or companies, such as the Grimsby Chums, Hull Commercials and the Glasgow Tramways Battalion.

The Sportsmen’s Battalion was made up of men who had made their name in sports such as cricket, boxing and football and the sporting media. The Football Battalion, the core of which was a group of professional footballers, were also joined by fans from the various football clubs.

After training, many of the Pals battalions saw their first major action at the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, with many of these units sustaining heavy casualties. One of the most famous was Accrington Pals, a group of around 700 men from Lancashire. On the first day of the battle, they attacked the German lines, but just 20 minutes later, 235 Pals were killed and over 350 wounded.

Melbourn History Group 2014

Kitchener’s army

Did you know...

Cambridge recruits build their own huts

Kitchener’s Eastern command consisted of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Recruitment centres were set up in most major towns and cities. For this area Cambridge and Royston were the main centres, but new recruits were also able to enlist in local villages, as they did in Melbourn.

Although many joined the Cambridge Pals, there was the opportunity to choose a regiment with many opting for local regiments including the Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk Regiments.

The iconic image of Kitchener pointing a finger and the words ‘Your Country Needs You’ first appeared as the cover of a weekly magazine ‘London Opinion’.

The original government recruitment poster at the outbreak of war, was an image of the Union-Jack with the words ‘Your King and Country Need You’. The poster using the iconic image did not appear until the end of September 1914.

The Military Service Act Although 2,466,719 men had voluntarily joined the British army, this vast amount was insufficient to maintain the British Expeditionary Force.

As a result of declining recruitment figures, on 27th January 1916 the government introduced conscription for single men of military age, extended in May of that year to include married men.

In June 1916 Lord Kitchener was sent on a mission to Russia to encourage continued Russian resistance to Germany. He died on 5th June when his ship, H.M.S. Hampshire struck a German mine off the Orkneys and sank.

Trinity College Cambridge in the hands of the military

Kit inspection of a unit of Kitchener’s army at Cambridge

The Battle of the Somme was the first real taste of warfare for many of ‘Kitchener’s Volunteer Army’... and one of the bloodiest battles of any war. On 1st July 1916 – the first day of the battle, 20,000 British soldiers were killed. By 18th November 1916, over one million British, French and German soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured.

The plan was simple: attack and take control of a 24 km stretch of the River Somme. After an initial week long artillery bombardment, it was expected that the German front line defences would be destroyed, and “not even a rat would be alive at the end of it”. The Infantry would then advance to take hold of the German positions and a charge of Cavalry would sweep through the lines, breaking the enemy line in two.

Unfortunately, this approach did not go according to plan. The preliminary artillery bombardment had the unfortunate effect of warning the enemy that an attack was imminent, giving them plenty of time to prepare. The German dugouts were well constructed, heavily fortified; the German soldiers were able to shelter in their underground bunkers in relative safety until the infantry attack started. Many of the British shells failed to explode (leaving parts of the German defences virtually untouched in some areas), those that did explode had churned up the

A Soldier’s tale “We hadn’t gone far up the trench before we came across three of our own lads lying dead. Their heads been badly damaged by a shell. We had to go scrambling over the poor fellows – in and out, in and out. It was one of the awful sights I had ever witnessed and at this point our own lads was coming out wounded as we was following them in.”

Did you know...

Tanks were first used during the Battle of the Somme.

The first tank, known as Little Willie, was not able to drive across the trenches and could reach speeds of about 3 km per hour.

ground badly, making the British advance difficult.

When the British troops went over-the-top at 7:30 am on 1st July, wave after wave were simply mown down by enemy fire. Approximately 60,000 men were wounded, killed or taken prisoner on that first day of fighting.

The commanders were convinced of their eventual success and so the slaughter and bloodshed was allowed to continue, despite the growing losses. By the time the ‘Great Push’ was called off on 18th November 1916, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties. The French, 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.

After four months of fighting the Allies had advanced a distance of no more than 8 kilometres.

Did you know...

In the course of the battle, 51 Victoria Crosses were won by British soldiers. 31 by NCO’s and 20 by officers. Of these 51 medals, 17 were awarded posthumously – 10 to NCO’s and 7 to officers.

Melbourn History Group 2014

The Somme

A Soldier’s tale “I made up my mind that I was going to be killed.

I was to be in the third wave. While I was waiting, during the last half-hour, I kept saying to myself: ‘In half an hour you will be dead. In twenty-five minutes you will be dead. In twenty minutes you will be dead. In a quarter of an hour you will be dead.’ I wondered what it would feel like to be dead. I thought of all the people I liked, and the things I wanted to do, and told myself that it was all over, that I had done with that; but I was sick with sorrow all the same. Sorrow isn’t the word either: it is an ache and anger and longing to be alive.

There was a terrific noise and confusion, but I kept thinking that I heard a lark; I think a lark had been singing there before the shelling increased. A rat dodged down the trench among the men, and the men hit at it, but it got away. I felt very fond of all my men. I hoped that they would all come through it. I had told them some time before to ‘fix swords.’ I wondered how many of them would unfix swords, and when.

Then I thought, ‘When I start I must keep a clear head. I must remember this and this and this.’

Then I thought again, ‘In about five minutes now I shall be dead.’ I envied people whom I had seen in billets two nights before. I thought, ‘They will be alive at dinner-time today, and tonight they’ll be snug in bed; but where shall I be? My body will be out there in No Man’s Land; but where shall I be?

What is done to people when they die?’ The time seemed to drag like hours and at the same to race.

The noise became a perfect hell of noise, and the barrage came down on us, and I knew that the first wave had started.

After that I had no leisure for thought, for we went over.”

A Soldier’s tale “The next morning we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of us ... it became clear that the Germans always had a commanding view of No Man’s Land. Our attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water-mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as if they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. Machine gun fire had done its terrible work.”

The Soldier

IF I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Originally entitled ‘The Recruit’, ‘The Soldier’ was a sonnet by Rupert Brooke. Written at the beginning of the First World War, the poem tells the story of a soldier who loves his country dearly and believes that if he should die in a far away battlefield, that people should remember of him only that he was English. If he is to die in a land other than England, that the soil would be made better because there would now be a piece of England within it.

At the outbreak of the War the Cavalry units were considered an essential element to the British Armies battle force. However, the course of the Great War on the Western Front with the ‘new’ trench system, modern artillery and machine guns meant the Cavalry horse became vulnerable and its usefulness was reduced on the battlefield.

Their continued use resulted in the loss of thousands of troops and horses in fruitless attacks against German machine guns. On 24th August, 1914, the 9th Lancers and 4th Dragoon Guards attacked German infantry and guns. The charge resulted in a loss of 250 men and 300 horses.

Despite their lacklustre performance on the Front, Britain continued to use the cavalry throughout the war, and in 1917, the Household Cavalry conducted its last mounted charge on the Hindenburg Line at Arras. They charged into heavy machine gun fire and barbed wire; nearly two-thirds of their numbers were slaughtered by the German defenders.

A Soldier’s tale We moved forward, but the conditions were terrible. The ammunition that had been prepared by our leaders for this great spring offensive had to be brought up with the supplies, over roads, which were sometimes up to one’s knees in slimy yellowbrown mud. The horses were up to their bellies in mud. We’d put them on a picket line between the wagon wheels at night and they’d be sunk in over their fetlocks the next day. We had to shoot quite a number.

Did you know...

Between the Somme in July 1916, and the Armistice in November 1918, the British Army recorded 58,090 horses killed and 77,410 wounded by gunfire; 211 were killed and 2,220 wounded by poison gas; whilst several hundred were killed by aeroplane bombs.

It is estimated that nearly eight million horses from both sides perished in the four years of the Great War, often suffering unimaginable deaths from starvation, disease, wounds or simple exhaustion.

However, horses, donkeys and mules proved to be indispensable to the British war effort. The deep mud widespread in many parts of the front, made horses invaluable, as they were the only means of getting supplies to the front and guns moved from place to place. Thousands of horses were employed to carry essential supplies, pull ammunition wagons, ambulances and field guns – it took six to twelve horses to pull each gun.

Many horses died as a result of the conditions at the front – exhaustion, drowning, becoming mired in mud and falling into shell holes. They also endured poor feeding and care, poison gas attacks and skin conditions such as mange.

At the end of the war, the younger horses were sold off to slaughterhouses as meat to Belgian butchers. Others went to landowners and farmers.

A few were returned home, but thousands were killed due to age or illness.

Man’s best friend Like the horse, dogs played a vital role in the War. As trench warfare took hold throughout the Western Front they were used for a variety of roles. Dogs were trained as messengers, sentries, food, ammunition and gun carriers, scouts, guards, ambulance dogs, ratters, Red Cross casualty-mercy dogs, and even cigarette dogs.

Melbourn History Group 2014

Animals in WW1

Communication was crucial on the battlefield, with wireless radio still in its infancy and transmissions extremely unreliable and vulnerable to enemy interception, Messenger dogs proved to be one solution. A trained dog was faster and presented less of a target to a sniper than a soldier.

Sentinel dogs were used to stand on the top of the trench and let the soldiers know ‘quietly’ if anyone attempted to approach. Sentry dogs accompanied by a guard were used to patrol the lines. They would give a warning signal to indicate when the enemy was in the area. Scout dogs were highly trained and could detect enemy scent up to 1000 yards away.

The dogs would stiffen, raise its hackles and point its tail to indicate the enemy was close. Casualty or Mercy dogs were vital in the war. These dogs were trained to find the wounded on battlefields and were equipped with medical supplies. Those soldiers who were able to help themselves to supplies would tend to their own wounds, whilst those gravely wounded would seek the company of a Mercy dog to wait with them whilst they died. Terriers were chosen as ratters because their natural instinct to hunt and kill vermin and kept the muddy trenches’ rat population down. Small dogs were also chosen as cigarette dogs to carry supplies of cigarettes to soldiers on the front lines.

It is estimated that by the end of the war, Germany had used 30,000 dogs, Britain, France and Belgian, 20,000 and Italy 3000. Approximately 7,000 dogs from Britain were family pets donated by their families, others were recruited from dogs’ homes or came from police forces.

Did you know...

Glow-worms were collected by soldiers in the trenches by the thousand and put in jars. These insects emit light on their tails, and with enough glow-worms the light was sufficient for soldiers to study maps, read reports and letters from home.

With the unreliability of the wireless system, the British Army also turned to the Homing Pigeon, which proved to be an effective means of sending important messages.

The pigeon’s great strength was not only its extraordinary homing instinct, but also the speed at which it flew. Shooting one down would have been extremely difficult, although many pigeons were killed. But with over 100,000 used, they had an amazing success rate of 95% getting through to their destination with messages. Their overall success was sufficient to merit the establishment of the Pigeon Corps in 1915.

As the War raged on and with the military commandeering most of Britain’s horses to send to the Front, farmers and industry were forced to find alternative beasts of burden. There was none more exotic than the Elephant and Camel, which were used in industry to transport heavy equipment and on farms, to plough fields and move large agricultural loads.

Lizzie, an Indian elephant, was from a travelling zoo and was conscripted in 1916 to help with heavy labour at a scrap metal merchants. Fitted with a harness, her task was to transport munitions, machines and scrap metal – a job previously done by three horses. She went on to ploughing fields on a farm.

Melbourn 1914–1917

We apologise for any errors or omissions.

1914 August

Melbourn Ladies Sewing Group immediately get together, daily, to make articles for the families of soldiers and sailors and for the wounded. £26 was collected to purchase materials.

September

Public meeting held informing Melbourn men of their patriotic duty. Pay was 6/8 per week.

Salvation Army Band played on The Green, collected 19 shillings (90p) for the Prince of Wales National Relief Fund.

October

A meeting was held between Melbourn and Meldreth to decide what could be done for the Belgian refugees. An elected committee of 12 agreed that 2 families should be taken into a house provided

by Mr Hope of the Steam Laundry. Furnishings and gifts made by parishioners, and offers of weekly amounts from 6d to 5s for their upkeep.

Farmers allowed to keep back one man of enlisting age, and boys were taken off school to help with the harvest.

1915 February

Voluntary rationing called for. Suggested that 4lbs bread, 2lbs meat and 3/4lb of sugar was sufficient for a week.

April

Belgian refugees causing trouble in some places, but Magistrate Mr Snow Fordham reported that there was ‘no trouble whatsoever’ in Melbourn.

May

German Measles closed schools for several weeks.

Several Melbourn lads were wounded and sent back to front after recovery.

Churches gave comfort, and letters from the trenches’ were read out by ministers.

The Great Fire of Dolphin Lane distracted people from the war.

Thirteen cottages were destroyed, the displaced families placing an extra burden on the village. It was reported in The New York Times. Mr. Fordham from The Bury set up a Relief Fund and a Jumble Sale in the Congregational Schoolroom, which raised £10 1s.

October

Parish Council decreed that no gas lamps would be lit for the duration of the war. No lights were to be shown in windows.

1916 Doctor Edmund Gregor established a surgery at Greenbanks in the High Street. Miss Fryatt was the Village Nurse.

People paid into a Sick and Dividing Club, but most relied on old fashioned remedies.

Few men seen in civilian clothes. They risked being presented with a White Feather, a symbol of cowardice.

Conscientious Objectors, ‘conchies’, were sent to drive ambulances, or act as orderlies in hospitals.

Those who refused were imprisoned.

January

Belgian Refugees now leaving. Last to leave were Mme and Mlle Langeau.

February

Annual licensing report. Melbourn, population 1,422, with 4 public houses, 9 beer houses and 2 licensed grocers.

Rev W. H. Wrigley (URC) read letters from the trenches from Melbourn and Meldreth soldiers. The Vicar, Rev. M. de Courcy Ireland also preached on self-denial and avoidance of waste.

April

Cllr A Palmer called attention to having the fire engine ready as there was more danger of fire from air raids. Voted £2 for upkeep of engine.

May

Pte Frank Chapman wounded Sale of Lordship Farm (late Mr Spencer). Sold in parts to W Pepper, Collis Palmer, W. Stockbridge.

Realised £9,195.

Egg weighing 5½ ounces laid by hen belonging to Moss Huggins of Red Cow. People viewed on payment to Red Cross Fund.

Edith Catley (84) died. She had 7 children, 23 grand children and 7 great grand children.

Melbourn History Group 2014

This chronology of events in Melbourn during the Great War of 1914-1918 was compiled from Parish Council Minutes, Church Records, School Log books and the local press. Those who died in the conflict are listed on the War Memorial board, while those who were wounded are listed here.

June

Pte Willis Ward and Pte Frederick Smith wounded.

Harry Cranfield (grocer and postmaster) fined £1 for using an unstamped 2oz weight, which was short by 5 grains!

Thomas Titchmarsh of Holland Hall Farm has a Corporal and 6 men of Herts Reg. to help with hay harvest.

July

Pte Frank Bunton wounded.

September

Pte Jack Fuller wounded.

Both Minister of Congregational and Baptist Churches leaving Melbourn. New Baptist Minister Rev W. R. Foster.

Pte Henry Crabtree wins Military Medal for carrying dispatches under fire.

of stealing 4s 2d from Melbourn Conservative Club. Mead bound over for 12 months and put on probation. Pepper sent to reformatory school until 19, but it was said he liked the sea so ‘a ship of a reformatory school character’ might be found.

December

Meeting regarding gas supply held in Council Schools. Agreed to hire Mr. Hope’s gas works for 6 months and to seek guarantees against future possible losses.

Children at Council Schools contributed 14s 6d to Daily News Christmas Pudding Fund.

Local magistrates agreed to closure of all public houses in the Division at 9pm every night.

1917 February

November

Call for food rationing. If not voluntary it will be enforced. Suggested 4lbs bread, 2½lbs meat and ¾lb sugar should be sufficient for weekly needs.

Annual licensing report. Melbourn population 1422 with 4 public houses, 9 beer houses and 2 licensed grocers.

Fred Mead (17) and John Pepper (15) convicted

Death of Thomas woods, baker for over 30 years.

October

Pte Fred Holland wounded.

Gunner Richard Guiver of Orchard Road in hospital suffering from shell shock and other complications.

Belgian refugees

Melbourn 1917–1918 March

Meeting to form War Savings Association. Mr W. H. Taylor (Chairman of Parish Council) was appointed Treasurer and Miss H. Brett Secretary. 60 names enrolled, who contributed a total of £25 12s 6d.

Collapse of house in Meeting Lane occupied by Mrs G. Scott, whose husband George Scott is serving in France. No-one in house, but neighbours moved furniture.

Mr Gus Hale applied for a license to stage plays at the Old Chapel (the one in use now, the ‘new’ one was demolished.) Granted for 1 day only, provided there were two sureties. Misses Elbourn and Adams agreed to act.

May

Pte Frederick Pepper wounded.

War Savings Association. 79 members + 188 certificates have been bought of which 153 were by single payments and 35 from money raised by sale of coupons.

Medical Officer of Health’s report – birth rate 17 per 1000 , national average 21.6. Infant deaths 47 per 1000 with national average 91. Adult deaths 15.9 per 1000, national average 14 per 1000. Regretted that’ death rates and birth rates nearly balance each other which was too high for a healthy district like Melbourn’.

Mr. C. D. Bowling, living with sister at ‘Townsend’ has had a picture hung in Royal Academy.

Owing to war the Sunday delivery of mail from Royston through to Thriplow was to be stopped and as letters to and from Royston were going by train deliveries would be later.

Mrs. George Scott died at brother-in-law’s house in New Road, probably from shock of house collapse in March. Husband in France unable to return in time.

August

Death of Daniel Job Stanford (79) a senior deacon at Baptist Church.

Charles Day (69) in the employ of Mr A. R. Fordham, killed on railway near The Bury.

October

‘Our Day’. House to house collections and sale of flags raised £13 2s 0d. Collectors were Misses Campkin, James, Bunton, Brett, and Mrs Hubert Ward.

Sale of work organised by Mrs Foley of The Manor House raised £22 10s 0d for the Red Cross. Mrs Foley also arranged two concerts by the orchestra of the 31st Middlesex Regiment to raise money for the Fund for sending postal order Christmas presents to every man in the village on active service.

Pte Douglas Gouldthorpe, only son of Mr and ‘Mrs Walter Gouldthorpe of High Street wounded in both hands.

Pte B Wedd (2nd son of Mr and Mrs Arthur Wedd of Dolphin Lane wounded. He was moved from France to Bournemouth for recuperation, granted 12 days leave and then returned to France.

November

Diamond wedding of Mr. and Mrs. John Preston Hale (81 and 78) married at All Saints’ in 1857. 10 children, 6 sons and 4 daughters of whom 8 are still living, and 36 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

Price of coal fixed by law at 36s 8d per ton for best house coal and 35s per ton for kitchen cobbles. Also 1s 11d per cwt from hawker’s cart or 1s 10d for kitchen cobbles from cart.

Men’s service at Parish Church featured L/Cpl Hart on the organ who was said to be one of the guards at the ‘prisoners camp’.

Cpl A. C. Blows of the Machine Gun Corps awarded Military medal.

December

Funeral of Mrs H.W. Taylor of The Lawns.

Service at Parish Church on Holy Innocents day.

Tea after service with tricks and ventriloquism by Pte Hodge Prizes to 15 infants, 21 girls and 14 boys.

Certificates for full attendance and marks to Beatrice Abrey, Alice Price, Ralph Day and Albert Collis.

1918 January

New Year’s party in the Congregational schoolroom for every child of school age – over 300 present. Mothers had to bring a baby to be admitted – some borrowed one! Father Christmas with presents for everyone including Vicar and Village Policeman. All presents given by Mrs Foley of the Manor House – her concert parties had enabled a 5s postal order to be sent to all serving men. Dr Williams was Father Christmas. Cecil Goss, on behalf of all the children, thanked Mrs Foley.

Arthur Bell, a foreman at New Road Farm, died of lockjaw from a small wound in his hand.

Mrs Foley opened a soup kitchen where a pint of soup cost 1d. 40 gallons were made and all drunk.

It was to be open every day (except Sunday) 12.15 – 1.00pm. She hopes also to supply meat, and asks for gifts of vegetables to be taken to the Manor House.

Melbourn History Group 2014

1917 continued

February

August

Doris Winifred Parr (14) convicted of stealing half bushel of potatoes valued at 1s 3d, the property of Ralph Wedd. Said to be neglected by her mother with no food or clothes. Sent to Home for Girls at Rottingdean near Brighton for 3 years and her mother warned about her future conduct.

War Weapons Week – £625 purchased in War Savings Certificates.

Parish Council announced that rationing would be in force from Mar 25th.

April

Mr. Harman of Council School left after 15 years.

Given a pair of binoculars and War Savings Certificates. Infants presented a pipe, pouch and tobacco.

Horace Frank Wedd (13) charged with wounding brother William with a knife in Dolphin Lane. Bound over to keep the peace for 6 months (£5) George Crafts (63) employed by Oscar Campkin as a cabinetmaker found dead in a cottage in Mortlock Street with his throat cut. Lived alone and was said to be depressed. Verdict self-inflicted injuries while insane.

May

Measles closes Council Schools.

Sgt Alfred Charles Blows of Machine Gun Corps has right leg badly shattered – he had been employed at Cement Works.

War Savings Melbourn, March total £106 18s 6d.

April total £237 0s 6d.

Pte Bertie Wedd POW Pte Chris Handscombe, Gunner J. H. Stockbridge and Pte Frank Harper wounded.

September

Small quantity of sugar for blackberry jam making made available to Melbourn Local Food Control Committee for distribution.

Agricultural Wages Board fixed minimum rates for female workers as follows: 18 yrs 5d/hour, 17–18 yrs 4½d /hr, 16–17 yrs 4d/hr, 14–16 yrs 3½d/hr, under 14 yrs 2½d /hr.

Overtime rates: 18 yrs 6d on weekday and 7½ d on Sunday, 17–18 yrs 5½d and 7d, 16–17yrs 5d and 6d, 15–16 yrs 4½d and 5d, 14–15 yrs 4d and 4½d, under 14 yrs, 3d and 4d.

November

Armistice Day November 11th 11am, Church bells rang out unmuffled. The flag of St George was flown from the church tower.

Parish Council Meeting. No mention of armistice in minutes!

Influenza epidemic, so-called Spanish ‘flu, in village, but service of thanksgiving for the end of the war goes ahead.

December

6th General Election Campaign in UK Rt. Hon. Edwin Montagu (Secretary of State for India) versus Albert Ernest Stubbs (Labour) Below: Red Cross ambulances on Cherry Hinton Road.

Cambridgeshire Collection at the Cambridge Central Library

Charles Dodkins From the autumn of 1914, millions of men fought and died along a front stretching 450 miles which rarely advanced or retreated more than a few hundred yards, for over four years.

The photographs from the time are haunting and reflect the carnage in a grey hell of barren mud. But unless you were there, you can not begin to understand the ugliness that greeted the new recruits. The sounds, the smells – day-in, day-out – haunted men for the rest of their lives.

The men who went off to fight the Great War for their King and Country, came from all walks of life including ship workers, miners, engineers, stockbrokers, teachers, shop-keepers, doctors, footballers and farmers.

Charles posthumously received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal

Heath Farm, Melbourn, August 1913

Melbourn History Group 2014

Charles ‘Charley’ Dodkin was born in September 1893 in Melbourn, the second youngest child of three boys and two girls to parents, George Dodkin and Mary Ann Abrahams. George had also been born in the village.

Charley and his family lived at Heath Cottages, Newmarket Road, a ‘2-up, 2-down’ with 8 family members living under the same roof.

His father was a farm labourer, working on Heath Farm, where he became the horsekeeper. He was later promoted to Foreman and with this position the family moved from the cottages to the main Farm House.

In 1911, at the age of 17, Charley was recorded as being a farm labourer at Heath Farm working with his father, as were his two brothers Walter and Alick. His eldest sister, Lily Grace, was a domestic servant – the youngest child, Gertrude was eight years old at the time.

Charles enlisted at Royston in the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment and served in France and Flanders.

The Hertfordshire’s joined the British Expeditionary Force in France on 6th November 1914, serving in the trenches during the closing stages of the First Ypres campaign which saw 56,000 British casualties. In May 1915, the Regiment was again in action during the Battle of Festubert, consolidating the advance of the Irish Guards under heavy shellfire. The British suffered 16,648 casualties. In August 1915, the Hertfordshire’s were involved in the Battle of Loos, the largest British offensive mounted that year, with over 59,000 casualties.

The Regiment was also involved in the Battle of the Somme in June 1916.

Charles died on 22nd June 1916 from wounds he sustained at the front and is buried in Merville Communal Cemetery, Nord, France. His name is recorded on the War Memorial at All Saints’ Church, Melbourn.

In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

John McCrae, May 1915

Merville Communal Cemetery Merville, Nord, in France was the scene of fighting early in October 1914 and from the 9th October 1914 to 11th April 1918, it remained in Allied hands. From October 1914, the town was the headquarters of the Indian Corps. It was a railway supply depot until May 1915, and a billeting and hospital centre from 1915–1918.

On the evening of 11th April 1918, during the Battle of the Lys, the Germans retook the town and held it until 19th August, where once again the Allies recaptured it.

The cemeteries were not used until the concentration of battlefield burials into the Extension began, after the Armistice.

Merville Communal Cemetery Extension was opened in August 1916, and used by the Commonwealth hospitals until April 1918. It was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields immediately north and east of Merville.

Somewhere in France his body lies Amid the battle’s din, But a spirit freed, death’s power denies, And leaves a world of sin.

Somewhere at home a tear is shed, And sorrow rends a breast, But a trusting soul by pure faith fed, Just whispers, “God knows best.”

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

II. Timothy iv. 7.

escapes from the Germans Private Sidney Webb from Melbourn, was in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War and in an interview with a reporter from the Royston Crow on 6th November 1914, he gave an interesting account of his fight in the sharp action on 1st September 1914 in the neighbourhood of Compiègne. Private Webb was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. Here, he tells how he hid under a bed and was overlooked by the Germans when they took away their prisoners.

“On 1st September my Company”, said Private Webb, “were at a place called Villers Cotterets, a few miles south-east of Compiègne, acting as rear guard to our regiment, when we heard there were some German scouts in a wood, and we got ready to turn them out, but we found there were about 6,000 of them. We were ordered to retire, and some of our fellows were left in the wood to cover our retreat.

About twenty minutes afterwards, we saw the Germans about 120 yards away on our left flank.

We were not sure at first whether they were our own men or not.

They ran like rabbits “Our officer gave the order to retire in formation, but about 20 yards further on we saw a body of Germans, and we charged them with fixed bayonets. When they saw us they turned and ran like rabbits. We then lined a ridge and commenced firing. We made another rush but could not get near them. Shots were flying all around us, and I was struck in the left arm, and at the same time something struck my tongue and my mouth was full of blood, but I kept on and presently came to some more of my mates who had taken cover along some ridges.

His mates on his right and his left were killed “I laid down and commenced shooting as fast as I could, although my arm was very painful and bleeding. I had to keep spitting the blood out of my mouth as well. I spoke to my mate – ‘Ginger’ he was called. I said, “Ginger, I’ve tasted a German bullet.” He said, “Stick it mate, we’ll soon pop some of them over.” He spoke no more for a bullet had crashed through his head. I then called to another pal and told him to keep his head down. He replied, “No fear, I’m going to have a go at ’em.” He soon afterwards fell back dead with another bullet through his head. I kept on firing until I could hardly hold my rifle, the barrel had got nearly red hot.

Taken prisoner by the Germans “I was still firing away when I happened to look round and saw a German about to stick his bayonet into me. There were suddenly Germans in front of me, behind me, and all around me. I was too completely done and exhausted to show fight. He took my rifle away and told me to get up. A lot more Germans came up, and I had no chance to do anything. One bandaged my arm, a Red Cross man, who could speak English quite well. He said it had been a hot fight, and it was bad for both sides. He told me he had lived in England for fifteen years, and used to work in Camden Town before the war.

About 120 of our fellows were missing, and 70 or more, lay dead. The Coldstreams and the Irish Guards were in it as well.

A meal of billposter’s paste “A German officer came along and looked at us.

He said “You are not gentlemen. Hands up or we fire!” I thought we were going to be shot then.

The Germans were having a meal then, but all we got was the ‘smell’. We had heard they were

Melbourn History Group 2014

Melbourn Man

starving, but this lot were doing it all right. They had with them cart loads of fowls and sheep, and they were driving lots of bullocks along. Even with all this they took away my tin of bully. When they had finished their meal they marched us to a village and put us in a Church, and after about an hour they sent in a bucket of what looked like billposter’s paste. I don’t know what it was and it hadn’t much of a taste either. We were, however, hungry, and glad to get anything. They didn’t bring us any spoons, and we grabbed what we could with our hands. There were about 50 of us, so we didn’t get much. We got nothing else but water that night. There were shocks of corn about the Church for us to lay on, and we rubbed the grain out and ate that. Next day the wounded, I amongst them, were removed to a big house, but we were given no more food. There was a big garden at the back in which were plenty of apples, and we existed on them for five or six days. Then the Germans sent us some bread and half-a-sheep. We dug up some ‘spuds’ in the garden and made a fine stew. We were there for about a week and then we heard the French were coming, and that the Germans were going to take all of us chaps who could walk away with them.

Hid under the bed “I heard them coming for us and ran into the house and slipped upstairs into a top room, and hid under a bed. I was up there for about an hour when I heard someone coming up the stairs. They came into the room, and I saw they were Germans by their boots. I thought it was all up when they came into the room, but they never looked under the bed. I lay there for about an hour-and-and-a-half.

Not in there – sir!

“I crawled out and took a look out of the window, and saw the Germans and our chaps disappearing

out of sight. I then went downstairs and found they had left a lot of our chaps behind who were unable to walk. There was an English doctor in the room. He looked surprised when he saw me and said “What are you doing here? You ought to have gone with the other prisoners.” I said “Not in there – sir!” He laughed, and asked me where I had been. I told him “Under the bed.” He walked away laughing. About three hours afterwards the French came into the town. They told us we were the first English they had seen since the war began.

The French Artillery were busy all that night. We were later sent down to an English Hospital. On the way the people gave us anything we wanted.

I was afterwards sent to England and taken to the Military Hospital in Vauxhall Bridge Road. I was there a fortnight and came home on Tuesday, October 27th.”

Did you know...

Compiègne in the region of Picardy, northern France, is notable as the site of the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting in western Europe and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany. It was signed at 11.00 am on 11th November 1918, aboard the railway carriage of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Commander-in-Chief (Généralissime) of the Allied Armies at the clearing at Rethondes in the forest of Compaiègne.

Meldreth during the Great War 1914–18

A British Prisoner of War Fred Harper of the Gloucester Regiment was aged 20 at the time of his capture on Messines Ridge 1918, Fred spent 9 months in Jeumont Camp, Northern France 416 admitted to Jeumont.

Only 75 survived.

Fred recalled during his time at Jeumont he worked on the railways, from six in the morning until six at night. However, they were never required to work on a Sunday unless it was considered absolutely necessary. He told the Herts and Cambs Reporter that the “grub was absolutely rotten and meals were often missed”. The prisoners of

Messines Ridge, West Flanders, Belgium.

war slept in a kind of three-tier bed, two in each tier, on palliases filled with wood shavings – they were swarming with lice and fleas. Disease and illness were rife and he remembers helping to bury fourteen of his fellow British soldiers in one day after they had died of influenza.

The German people were so short of food themselves that they asked to buy the food the British prisoners received from their families. When the Armistice was signed he recalled that they were given one piece of black bread a day. Soon after this they were on their way through Holland. Arriving by train in Rotterdam, he embarked for Hull, returning home on 4th December 1918.

A Meldreth Soldier Lewis Albert V Harrup was born in Meldreth in 1892. He spent some time living and working as a coal carman at the station yard.

In 1915 he married a local girl Emily May Jarman.

Melbourn History Group 2014

Daily life in Meldreth’s rural community carried on as usual in early 1914 with the threat of war with Germany lingering on the horizon. Meldreth had a population of about 600, mainly farm workers and seasonal orchard workers.

The local newspapers were, in the early part of 1914, indicating that war was inevitable. By September the Cambridge Independent Press was publishing lists of men enlisting from both Cambridge and the villages, in their weekly Roll of Honour column. There were figures published stating the number of recruits needed and the importance of achieving that target number.

Some keywords used were ‘Duty’ and ‘Flock to the Colours’. The Clergy were also encouraging men to sign up. This type of recruitment continued in the area until May 1915.

The first notable ‘Call to Arms’ in Meldreth was at a meeting held at the school on the 4th September 1914 when 5 men from Meldreth volunteered. The recruiting officer was H.O.S Ellis from Meldreth. In future months and years more Meldreth men signed up.

The Government had to give guarantees nationally that all the soldiers’ families would receive financial support whilst they were at war.

The Government paid a weekly payment of 12s 6d to wives and 20s if 3 or more children.

From the outbreak of the war Meldreth and all the local villages around the area were fund raising, holding jumble sales and dances to provide for those in need at home and for the soldiers at the Front.

Newspaper reports mentioned some stockpiling of food in the area and this had to be curtailed early to prevent panic buying.

Many of the women took on the work of the men during WW1 especially important in keeping the food chain working.

He signed up in 1916 to become a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was wounded in one arm and became partially deaf. On his return from the war he continued with his old occupation and lived in Meldreth with his wife and family. During WW2 he served in the Meldreth Homeguard.

German Prisoners of War in Meldreth Hope Folly in Whitecroft Road, Meldreth was commandeered as one of 161 Prisoner of War work camps attached to Pattishall POW camp Towcester, Northants, during WW1 and a number of German prisoners were housed there from 1916. The German POW’s worked on the land and River Mel drainage in Meldreth.

The soldiers were kept in the long room which had been cleared of machinery. Officers and guards ‘enjoyed’ the living quarters on the other side. The ground outside was surrounded with wire and used as an exercise ground. One of the guards was a local man called Charles Thurley Fit prisoners were hired out to local farmers, many of these young men were received kindly by local people and after the war remained in contact with families, sometimes sending gifts once the war was over.

Bill Wing was given Christmas leave in 1915 and as he came down the little path from the station he saw a group of German prisoners of war coming up the street towards him. They had been clearing out the river. “I thought I’d got away from the Germans!” said Bill.

Meldreth War Memorial The war memorial situated on the junction of Whitecroft Road and Station Road was dedicated in 1920 and inaugurated in 1923. There are twelve World War 1 names of Meldreth Men who lost their lives.

Ernest Abrey, died 1915; Nelson Fielding, died 1915; Albert Negus, died 1915; Reuben Dash, died 1916; John William Fuller, died 1916; Wilfred Harrup, died 1916; Ernest Pepper, died 1916; Samuel Mark Pepper, died 1916; Sidney Spot Chamberlain, died 1917; Jabez East, died 1917; Ralph Farnham, died 1918; Henry Flack died 1918.

A number of other men who had left Meldreth prior to WW1 are commemorated on other war memorials. They include Percy Felstead, died 1917, Herbert Dash RN died 1916.

A Soldier’s tale William ‘Bill’ Wing Snr (below) enlisted in the Territorials in 1912 and was mobilised in 1914.

He fought in the battles of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Loos and the Somme and survived them all. He came home in 1919, married and had a family.

He lived to 101.

Before embarking for France in 1914 he watched the horses being put in cradles and then lifted by dockside cranes into the hold of the ship. At the beginning of the Great War he remembers that horses were used to move most of the supplies and munitions up to the front line.

Bill recalls “there wasn’t much motor transport, just a few lorries and those not very large. They were just as vulnerable to the shelling as the soldiers. I lost three horses altogether.

Two, a chap took over when I come home on the first leave in 1915 and he got hit by a shell and they were killed – I missed that. I lost another one in 1917. A shell hit him just behind my leg and we had to shoot him.”

Timeline 1914–1915

The Guardian, Wednesday 5 August 1914

1914 June 28 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg at Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The Archduke was heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire; his killer – 19 year old Bosnian-Serb Gavrilo Princep – a member of a group whose aim was to see Austrian-Bosnia as part of a new Slav state. Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia demanding the assassins are brought to justice, which effectively nullifies Serbia’s sovereignty.

July 28 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

August 1 Germany declares war on Russia.

Russia, bound by treaty with Serbia, mobilises its army. Germany, allied to the Austria-Hungary by treaty, views the Russian mobilisation as an act of war.

3 Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium.

France, bound by treaty to Russia, finds itself at war against Germany. Germany invades neutral Belgium so as to reach Paris by the shortest possible route.

4 Britain declares war on Germany.

Britain agrees to protect Belgium citing the Treaty of London 1839 and the 1904 Entente cordiale with France.

America declares neutrality.

6 First British casualties of war.

Royal Navy cruiser HMS Amphion sunk by German mines – 150 deaths.

7 British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) land in France.

13 First squadrons of Royal Flying Corps arrive in France.

23 Germany invades France.

British and French troops retreat from Mons, in Belgium.

26 Battle of Le Cateau (Northern France).

7,812 allied casualties, 700 deaths. Allies forced to retreat.

Russian army defeated at Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes (East Prussia, now Poland).

September 5–12 Battle of the Marne (Marne River, near Paris) 263,000 allied casualties, 81,700 deaths.

October 18 October–22 November First Battle of Ypres (Flanders, Belgium). 163,000 allied casualties.

29 Turkey enters the war on German side.

Turkish leader alleges severe diplomatic pressure

by Germany and Britain abandoning Turkey for Russia.

November 22 Trenches established along entire Western Front.

23 British enter Basra (Iraq).

Securing oil supplies in the Middle East.

December 8 Battle of the Falklands.

29 British casualties, 10 deaths.

16 German Fleet bombard Hartlepool, Whitby & Scarborough.

137 civilians killed.

1915 January 19 First Zeppelin raid.

Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn attacked, 5 civilians killed.

February 18 Start of the blockade of Britain by German U-Boats.

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The Cabinet yesterday delivered an ultimatum to Germany. Announcing the fact to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister said: “We have repeated the request made last week to the German Government that they should give us the same assurance in regard to Belgian neutrality that was given to us and Belgium by France last week. We have asked that it should be given before midnight.

Last evening a reply was received from Germany.

This being unsatisfactory the King held at once a Council which had been called for midnight. The declaration of war was then signed. The Foreign Office issued the following official statement: Owing to the summary rejection by the German Government of the request made by his Majesty’s Government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium will be respected, his Majesty’s Ambassador to Berlin has received his passports, and his Majesty’s Government declared to the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from 11 p.m. on August 4, 1914.”

19 February–18 March Dardanelles Campaign.

700 killed.

March 10–13 British offensive at Neuve Chapelle.

11,200 British casualties (4,200 from India).

April 22 April–25 May Second Battle of Ypres.

70,000 killed, wounded or missing. First use of poison gas by Germany – 6,000 French casualties from gas attack.

25 April–9 January 1916 Gallipoli Campaign (Turkey). 252,000 allied casualties.

May 7 The RMS Lusitania sunk by German U Boat.

1,198 civilians killed. The sinking of the Lusitania turned international opinion against Germany and eventually led to America’s entry into World War I. 23 Italy declares war on Germany and Austria.

At the start of World War 1 Italy was allied to both Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, in May 1915, Italy joined the conflict by siding with the Allies against the Germans.

31 First Zeppelin raid on London.

Seven killed, 35 injured.

Did you know...

Nurse Edith Cavell was executed by German firing squad (despite international condemnation) for helping POWs escape from Belgium to Holland.

Painting of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg at Sarajevo, Bosnia at the hands of a Serb nationalist.

Illustration of the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7th 1915. She was briefly the world’s biggest ship. Of the 1,198 passengers drowned, 128 were Americans, and in part helped influence Americans decision to go to war with Germany.

June 30 Germans use flame throwers against British troops at Hooge, Ypres.

August 5 Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians.

16 U-Boat bombards Whitehaven.

September 25–14 October Battle of Loos (North-eastern France).

British use gas for first time, but wind blows it back over own troops. 2,632 casualties with seven deaths.

October 12 British Nurse Edith Cavell executed.

31 Steel helmets introduced on British Front.

December 15 Sir Douglas Haig replaces Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces.

Timeline 1916–1918 January 27 Conscription is introduced in Britain.

February 21 February-20 December Battle of Verdun (North-eastern France).

Longest and costliest battle on Western Front.

542,000 allied casualties, 156,000 deaths.

March 9 Germany declares war on Portugal.

Although Portugal began the war as neutral, they had remained allied to Britain throughout.

Did you know...

The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (or Aliança LusoBritânica), ratified at the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, is the oldest alliance in the world and is still in force today.

April 29 The British surrender to Turkish forces at Kut, Mesopotamia.

13,164 soldiers taken captive. They are treated with cruelty and routine brutality, a significant number die while in captivity.

May 31 May–1 June Battle of Jutland (North Sea, near Denmark).

Greatest naval battle of WW1 and only the third fleet action between steel ships.

6,768 casualties, 6,094 deaths.

June 4 June–20 September Brusilov offensive on the Eastern Front (Modern day Ukraine).

A Russian victory although they suffered 1,400,000 casualties.

5 HMS Hampshire mined off Orkney.

643 deaths including Lord Kitchener and his general staff.

8 Voluntary enlistment replaced by Compulsion.

July 1 July–13 November Battle of the Somme.

One of humanities bloodiest battles.

623,907 allied casualties.

August 26 East Africa Campaign.

10,000 British deaths. 365,000 civilians deaths.

28 Italy declares war on Germany.

September 2 First Zeppelin shot down over Britain.

15 First use of tanks in combat (Battle of the Somme).

November 13 Battle of Ancre (North central Somme).

Last British attack of the year as a harsh winter sets in. 22,000 allied casualties.

December 7 Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister.

12 Germany delivers Peace Note to Allies.

The peace note came with conditions to which the Allies would not agree to: that of a permanent German military presence in Belgium, possession of all its railways and ports and denial of a Belgian army.

1917 February 1 Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare campaign begins.

3 America severs diplomatic links with Germany as U-Boats threaten US shipping.

March 11 Baghdad taken by British.

15 Tsar Nicholas abdicates.

Russia falls to revolutionaries.

April 6 America declares war on Germany.

9 Battle of Arras.

160,000 British casualties.

16 France launches unsuccessful offensive on Western Front.

June 7 Battle of Messines Ridge (Flanders, Belgium).

Explosions heard in England.

13 Germans launch first major heavy bomber raid over London.

162 deaths, 432 injured.

July 31 July–10 November Battle of Passchendaele.

325,000 Allied casualties.

October 24 Battle of Caporetto.

Italian Army heavily defeated 305,000 Italian casualties.

November 6 Britain launches major offensive on the Western Front.

10 Battle of Passendaele ends.

Allies advance only 5 miles.

Estimated 448,614 casualties (140,000 deaths).

20 Victory for British tanks at Cambrai (Northern France).

Melbourn History Group 2014

1916

December

August

5 Armistice between Germany and Russia.

9 Britain captures Jerusalem from the Turks.

8–12 Battle of Amiens (Northern France).

Ends 673 years of Turkish rule.

1918 January 16 Riots in Vienna and Budapest.

Austro-Hungarians express dissatisfaction with war.

March 3 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed between Russia and Germany.

21 Germany breaks through on the Somme.

29 Marshall Foch appointed Allied Commander on the Western Front.

April 9 Germany starts offensive in Flanders.

22 Allies carry out raids against the harbours of Zeebrugge and Ostend. Raid on Ostend is unsuccessful.

May 19 Germany launches largest and final air raid on London.

Six out of 33 aircraft lost, 49 civilian deaths and 177 wounded.

July 15 July–6 August Battle of Reims (North-eastern France).

132.717 allied casualties.

Below: Painting of the allied representatives at the signing of the armistice.

22,200 allied casualties.

September 19 Battle of Megiddo (Northern Palestine).

1,168 allied casualties.

October 4 Germany requests armistice with Allies.

29 Mutiny of German Navy.

30 Peace Treaty signed between Turkish Empire and Allies

November 3 Austro-Hungarian Army lays down arms.

9 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates.

11 Germany signs armistice with Allies, marking the end of World War One.

Did you know...

As a condition of the Armistice agreement of 11 November 1918, 74 ships of Germany’s Navy were escorted to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, Scotland to be interned.

On 21 June 1919 fearing the ships would be taken and divided up between the allied powers, the German commander, gave the order to scuttle all the warships, by late afternoon 52 warships and 14 battleships had been sunk. Some ships were saved by British sailors running them ashore before they foundered In the confusion, nine Germans were shot dead and around 16 wounded, as the British tried to order them to stop the scuttle. These can be considered the last fatalities of the First World War.

Beyond the Western Front ​ o mention the Great War often conjures up T images of a horrific bloodbath fought in the trenches on the Western Front. Whilst this certainly captures some of the reality of the war, what is often overlooked is that the war spread far beyond Europe.

The Great War was a global conflict with nearly forty nations fighting in support of the Allies. The countries included: Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), British India, Republic of China, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovak Legions, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liberia, Malta, Montenegro, Nepal, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Rhodesia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Siam, South Africa, Taiwan a​ nd the United States. (Those The battlefields in Europe and the Middle East.

countries shown above in italics were at the time part of the British Empire and are often referred to as part of the British Army.) Countries under the flag of the Central Powers included AustriaHungary, Bulgaria, Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

There were over twelve major campaigns between 1914 and 1918, which ​were classified as operations conducted over a large area of territory and over a long period of time. The​​most renowned is the Western Front, but other campaigns include the Eastern and Macedonian Front, the Italian, Caucasus, Serbian, Gallipoli, Sinai, Palestine, Mesopotamian and African Campaigns.

Within these campaigns there were over 150 battles, which were r​ eferred to as ​short periods of intense fighting localised to a specific area and over a specific period of time. Some of the most well-known battles include: Tannenberg (Eastern Front), Neutral States Allies Year and direction of Allies offensives (i.e.1914)

14

Battle front

Sweden

Major battle

Finland

Central Powers

Norway

Occupied by the Central Powers

IC SE

Great Britain

A

NORTH SEA

Dogger Bank 1915

Jutland 1916

Netherlands

Berlin

London

France

18 18

14

Germany 14

18

Portugal

18

Isonzo 1915

18

Montenegro

Spain

Rome

17 14 Eastern 14 15 Front 16 Warsaw 15 18 14 16 17

AustriaHungary

Western Front Switzerland

18

BALT

Denmark

Petrograd

Sarajevo

CA

SP

IA

15

Bulgaria

Greece

Gallipoli 1915

15

Ottoman Empire

1000 km

15

Persia 15 18

18

Libya (Italy)

16 17 15

17 500

A

16

MEDITERRANEAN SEA 0

SE

16

BLACK SEA

16 16

N

Eastern Front

Romania

15

Algeria (France)

N

Russian Empire

18

18

Albania

Moscow

16 16

Serbia

Italy

Year and direction of Central Powers offensives

14

Egypt

Beersheba 1917

Suez Canal

Kuwait Arabia

Melbourn History Group 2014

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Marne, Gallipoli (Ottoman Empire), Verdun, Somme and Ypres.

The Battle of Liege on 5th August 1914 signified the first land battle of the war, as the German Second Army crossed the frontier into neutral Belgium,​so as to attack France from the north. The Battle ran for twelve days from 5–16 August and resulted in surprisingly heavy losses upon the German invasion force by the numerically heavily outnumbered Belgians.

the line of trenches, dug-outs and barbed-wire fences moved very little between 1914–1918, despite attempts on both sides to break through.

Over 13,000,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, captured or missing.

The shaded areas on the map below illustrates the battlefield areas of the Western Front from​​the ​ northern end on the Belgian coast,​to the village of Pfetterhouse on the Swiss frontier at ​the ​southern end. The map ​also ​shows the Franco-German border as it was in 1914 when​war broke out.

Battlefields of the Western Front Known as ‘die Westfront’ by the German forces, the Western Front, was the name applied to the fighting zone in France and Flanders. Stretching 440 miles from the Swiss border to the North Sea,

The Western Front

The ​locations of the ​main battlefield​s​​shown on the map below are numbered with ​information o​ f the battle. Regions are shown in italic.

Holland

Zeebrugge Ostende 1 Nieuwpoort

LONDON Dover

England

2

BELGIAN ARMY Dunkirque

Calais

Folkestone

er

So

mm

e

8

Amiens

7 9

se

i rO

e

r Se

Riv

ine

Chantilly

Namur

Maubeuge Koblenz

St. Quentin

Charleville

GERMAN ARMY

Soissons

Mézières

Luxembourg

Mainz

14

River Aisne

15

ChâteauThierry

13

Reims

Verdun

River Marn

e

Metz

16

Battle Front, June 1916

U.S. ARMY (1918)

River Meurthe

Toul

St. Die River Meuse

Épinal

General Headquarters Allied Armies General Headquarters German Army Fortified Town

River Rhine

Nancy

St. Mihiel

FRENCH ARMY

GERMAN ARMY

17

PARIS

Western Front Battlefields 1914–1918

Imperial Germany (1871-1918)

use

r Me

Rive

12

France Rive

11

Mons Le Cateau

Albert

Compiègne

Köln Liège

BRUSSELS

Cambrai 10

FRENCH ARMY

Le Havre

Belgium

Lille

Lens Vimy

6

Riv

4

5

Arras

BRITISH ARMY

GERMAN ARMY

3

Ypres

Armentières St. Omer

English Channel

N

Antwerp

FRENCH ARMY

Strasbourg 18

Colmar

River Moselle

19

GERMAN ARMY

Mulhouse Neutral States

Belfort Pfetterhouse

1 The Belgian Coast

11 Liège, Namur and Mons Belgian Wallonia

2 The Yser Belgian Flanders

12 Aisne Picardy

3 Ypres Salient Belgian Flanders

13 Marne Champagne

4 French Flanders 5 La Bassée-Lens Artois 6 Loretto Heights and Vimy Ridge Artois 7 Arras Artois

14 Champagne 15 Verdun Lorraine 16 St. Mihiel Salient Lorraine

8 Picardy The Somme

17 Moselle and Meurthe Lorraine

9 Cambrai Flanders

18 Vosges Mountains Alsace

10 Maubeuge to St. Quentin French Flanders/Picardy

19 Rhine Plain Alsace

A Field trip to the Somme 2014 Melbourn Village College In late June 2014, as part of the ACT project and with the support of All Saints’ Church, Melbourn and our local community, one hundred and twenty students from Melbourn Village College visited the Picardie region of France for a five day fieldtrip to the Somme.

The ACT project is a five million Euro, innovative cross-border collaboration between leading arts and education partners from France and England and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund Interreg IV A France (Channel) England Programme. Led by the Orchestre de Picardie, the partners in this network are The Purcell Singers, Brighton Festival Chorus, Opera de Rouen Haute Normandie, Comedie de Picardie, Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, Royal Opera House Education, Southend YMCA, The Gateway Learning Community, University of the Creative Arts, Thurrock Music Services and Melbourn Village College.

This ACT Fieldtrip to the Somme is the largest, fully funded foreign field trip to date, in the history of Melbourn Village College.

Somme 1916 Museum, Albert.

The purpose of this journey was to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, and for students to learn, understand and reflect upon the impact of these historical events on our local and European communities, both then, now and for the future.

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Melbourn History Group 2014

Thiepval Museum for the Missing.

Newfoundland Memorial.

Students visited the Somme 1916 Museum at Albert, Lochnagar Crater, The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, The Newfoundland Memorial, Historial de la Grande Guerre Museum at Peronne, Rancourt Military Cemetery, Notre Dame de Lorette.

The Fieldtrip included a day trip to the capital city of the region Amiens where students visited ACT lead partner the Orchestra de Picardie, and partner Comedie de Picardie, taking part in cultural and educational exchanges. Students also visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Amiens cathedral and learnt of its role during the war.

Melbourn Village College believes in learning inside and outside the classroom all departments and subject areas contributed to the Fieldtrip: Art, Citizenship, Drama, English, History, Modern Languages, Music, Mathematics, Religious Education, Science and Sports all playing their part in encouraging a lifetime’s interest in our national story and world history.

The ACT project promotes learning about peoples and communities across borders through cultural and educational exchange of a shared heritage.

Students had a profoundly moving experience that opened their eyes to the horrors of war, the sacrifice of a generation, the debt owed to the fallen, and the shared responsibility of all for the future. The experience of this Fieldtrip to the Somme, the battlefields of the First World War and commemorating the centenary will last a life time.

Cross Lochnagar, La Boisselle, Somme Battlefield.

Rancourt Military Cemetery.

On the final evening of the fieldtrip Melbourn Village College students gathered at Menin Gate for the Last Post Ceremony in Ypres, where a wreath was laid on behalf of the College and our ACT partners.

Farrah commented “when we went down to Lochnagar we sketched either the crater or the large wooden cross, but it was the panorama of the site that made the most impact on me, the crater was vast.

Seeing this and the century old trenches were the things that made me think the most”.

A Field trip to the Somme 2014 Melbourn Village College to understand the cruelty of the First World War and to remember the sacrifice made by so many soldiers for our freedom, we owe them such a debt”.

At Amiens Alyssa found herself inspired “I was amazed at how the stained glass window was structured and the height of the ceiling, it was monumental. The cathedral was spectacular and added so much colour after the sight of so many crosses at Rancourt, the contrast was thought provoking”.

Theo appreciated the Somme 1916 Museum “the Albert museum was a very good way to learn

Newfoundland Memorial site preserved battlefield.

Newfoundland Memorial.

Theipval Memorial.

more about the First World War, we saw statues of soldiers in trenches, saw first-hand accounts of the battle and heard the terrible noises of the Somme”.

For Holly the scale of Rancourt took on a special meaning “as we walked it hit hard that the number of men that we killed in order to fight for our country and our communities were so high. There were thousands of brave soldiers laying peacefully as we paid our solemn respects. It made us realise the full scale of the war”.

Carys considered the Menin Gate ceremony “when we arrived the first thing that struck me was the amount of people who were there for the ceremony but then I looked inside and saw the names of men who had died fighting for their country, everywhere I looked I saw more names. It made me proud to think that this solemn moment of remembrance happens every day”.

Others were struck by the Thiepval Memorial where several Melbourn men were inscribed “it was a very emotional moment” said one student.

Melbourn History Group 2014

Jack remembered the Newfoundland Memorial “walking through the trenches in the memorial was emotional: every crater and mark on the land had been preserved. In this small area 86% of the Newfoundland regiment were taken as casualties. It had been a struggle for the people to raise so many men – they were all volunteers. It had only taken a few minutes and two thousand metres for so many women back home to become widows or for families to lose a son.

The names of these men, or boys as some were under the age of sixteen, carved into the memorial almost brought me to tears. The countryside all around had the wounds of a century old conflict scarred into their fields and farms, their villages and minds forever.”

Emma described the purpose of the trip “it was

Another commented “I’ll never forget the huge arch with so many names and I think it’s right that the people of Melbourn and the world never forget”.

Chapel of Remembrance, Rancourt Military Cemetery.

Impressions from the Somme battlefields with Melbourn Village College students I was lucky to be an adult volunteer accompanying Melbourn students on a trip to the Somme battlefields in June 2014.

It was my first visit and I had a strong emotional response to the sites we visited. However I was also interested in the response of the students and three aspects seemed to reverberate strongly with them: The pupils had researched the fallen from

Melbourn and carefully hunted for the relevant names amongst the huge numbers on the stone walls. They delved into the books listing the names held at each memorial. However they were also fascinated to find long lists of people with the same surname as themselves. They wondered … Could this person be related to me in some way? Even more powerfully some remarked, in hushed tones… ”this could have been me”.

The similarity of the landscape to Cambridgeshire. There was a realisation that the hills, ridges, woods and villages that were fought over with such a huge loss of life on both sides were strongly reminiscent of the panorama around Melbourn and surrounding villages. One could easily imagine the devastation occurring in our own lanes and fields.

The structure of the trenches: only two metres deep and 100 yards between the enemy lines in places. Where the barbed wire was still in place and the machine gun posts still in position the ease of immediate death was only too apparent. This made a powerful link to the long lists of the dead.

The trip was not all sad memories of the past. We had exciting visits to a local orchestra and theatre and the splendour of Amiens Cathedral.

We returned tired, but with an enriched memory bank.

Bruce Huett, field trip volunteer.

Rancourt British Memorial.

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The recruitment drive

love for your Country by persuading them to go?’

Posters weren’t just used to recruit people into joining the armed forces – before rationing was introduced; posters encouraged people to cut down on resources that were becoming harder to come by – such as bread. Others simply encouraged continued support for the government policy.

By the time conscription was made compulsory in March 1916, 164 different types of posters had been issued.

Melbourn History Group 2014

Following the success of the government’s initial poster campaign, ‘Your King and Country need you: a call to arms’, the government began a recruitment drive using posters to persuade more men to join the army. They were displayed in public areas around towns, cities and villages, on train and bus stations and on billboards and hoardings.

The early themes of people from every walk of life joining together to beat the enemy were popular and made people feel patriotic. Institutions were used to show that life on the front was going to be one of comfort and enjoyment. Some posters turned to emotional blackmail, playing on the conscience of working men who had yet to volunteer. The messages included ‘Get into khaki? You’ll be wanted.

Enlist at once’, ‘Don’t stand looking at this - go and help!’ and ‘Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?’ Others targeted the wives and girlfriends, urging them to persuade their loved ones to join the army.

‘To the women of Britain. Some of your men folk are holding back on your account. Won’t you prove your

On the Home Front At the outbreak of the Great War, a woman’s place was still largely at home looking after the house and family or in domestic service. However, as the men headed off to fight, women started to fill their jobs en-masse on farms in factories, shops and offices across the country. Over a million women would eventually take on previously male-dominated roles across all industries.

Working alongside those men exempt from military service, women worked as bus, tram and train drivers, guards, conductresses and cleaners, postal workers, police patrols, fire-fighters and as bank ‘tellers’ and clerks. Some women worked with heavy or precision machinery in engineering and scientific laboratories, many worked on farms and in the civil service. They took on most jobs that were once deemed exclusive to men.

The war was fought on a massive industrial scale and the high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women. It is the wartime woman worker producing munitions for the front that is often among the most familiar visual role of women during the war.

For the ‘Munitionettes’, as they came to be called, the conditions in which they worked were poor and often arduous and dangerous – accidents were common. In April 1916, an explosion at Faversham, Kent killed 109 people. An explosion at a munitions plant in East London in January 1917, killed 73 and injured 400. It destroyed hundreds of nearby homes. At the National (Shell) Filling Factory at Chilwell in Nottinghamshire, an explosion in July 1918, killed 137 and injured 250.

Dangerous chemicals also caused health problems that lasted well beyond the end of the war.

TNT, a high explosive and a yellow-coloured toxic

substance, turned thousands of workers’ skin yellow.

These women became known as the ‘canaries’ of the arms factories.

In the munitions factories, 400 women died between 1914 and 1918.

A great number of women found employment on the land and joined the ‘Women’s Land Army’ with jobs as varied as commerce, administration, education, forestry and agriculture.

Like many other villages, Melbourn was surrounded by farmland, with local women from farming families already working on the land. Many local women did seasonal work picking fruit.

However, the war brought about a big change.

Women were drafted in from the villages, towns and cities and taught to plough fields, plant crops, weed and harvest vegetables and grain for flour. It was hard work with long hours in all kinds of weather.

The transport industry saw the largest intake of women, where they worked as drivers, conductresses and cleaners on buses, trams, trains and underground trains.

There was also a huge rise in the numbers of women involved in nursing during the war.

Organisations already established before the war began, saw the numbers of volunteers increase to over 90,000. Women volunteers over the age of twenty-three were also able to serve overseas in hospitals on the Western Front, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia.

In 1916 the armed forces began to recruit women.

The Royal Navy formed the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), followed by the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) and the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF). These women filled administrative posts such as clerks and telephonists, worked as cooks, instructors, code experts and electricians.

Business as usual!

For some, life after the war offered new opportunities.

For the first time women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. This was followed by the right for women to be elected into Parliament. In 1919 The Sex Disqualification Act made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their gender.

However, in the same year the Restoration of PreWar Practices Act forced most women to leave their wartime roles. This brought a time of economic hardship for them, many grieving for their loved ones or caring for an injured husband or son.

The information on this page was not produced as a display board for the exhibition. But the war was fought both abroad and at home with the men in the trenches and the many thousands of women, old and young left behind. It is important to remember their involvement in helping the war effort.

The Great War – The Unseen enemy At the beginning of 1918 – the final year of the Great War – over 8 million soldiers and 6 million civilians had lost their lives. However, in the Spring of that year a new, more lethal enemy emerged – one that would go far beyond those fighting at the ‘front’. It would attack the young and elderly alike throughout the world and in just one year, it would kill over 50 million men, women and children.

A doctors report…

“It starts with what appears to be an ordinary attack of La Grippe. When brought to the hospital, patients very rapidly develop the most vicious type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. Two hours after admission, they have brown/red spots over the cheekbones, and a few hours later their face begins to turn blue. It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes and it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate. It is horrible.”

What the papers say…

“Wash inside nose with soap and water each night and morning; force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply. Do not wear a muffler; take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work; eat plenty of porridge.”

The News of the World, 3 November 1918

Communal gathering places such as theatres, dance halls and churches in many towns and cities throughout the country were closed in an attempt to curb infection. Streets were sprayed with chemicals and people wore anti-germ masks for protection. Some factories relaxed no-smoking rules believing that cigarettes would help prevent infection. Within months, 228,000 people had died in Britain. A fifth of those infected would develop pneumonia or septicaemia.

The pandemic afflicted over 500 million people and encompassed the globe. Every country was affected and although Australia had imposed strict quarantine rules, by the end of the pandemic 10,000 people had died. India was the worst-hit, where an estimated 16 million people died.

In Central Europe, France had become the centre of the 1918 flu pandemic due to major troop movements throughout the country.

As the illness swept across Europe, Spain (a neutral country, under no wartime censorship restrictions) reported details of the outbreak to the world, while in contrast the Allies and German countries made very little mention of it. This gave the impression that Spain was the most-affected area and led to the pandemic being dubbed the ‘Spanish Flu’ or ‘Spanish Lady’. It was estimated that 260,000 died in Spain due to the outbreak. In Germany there were 400,000 civilian deaths.

A third wave of the pandemic struck in early 1919 but it died away swiftly. The disease that had wreaked such havoc disappeared almost as quickly as it had come.

Over 50 million people had died, with some estimates putting the figure as high as 100 million. Over one fifth of the world’s population had fallen sick.

Melbourn History Group 2014

The new enemy was a virus which would wreak more devastation than any amount of bullets or bombs. The virus would become known as the ‘Spanish Flu’.

No one knows precisely where, when or how the flu pandemic originated, however, the first recorded case was said to have been in America and this coincided with a mild form of a flu outbreak in Europe shortly after the American troops entered the war in April 1917.

By the winter of that year, soldiers in the trenches at the ‘front’ became ill with what was known as La Grippe. They complained of sore throats, headaches and a loss of appetite. The illness was highly infectious and with the overcrowded conditions at the front, the spread of La Grippe was inevitable. Recovery however, from this first wave of the virus was swift and doctors called it ‘three-day fever’.

By early 1918, a second and a much more virulent strain of the virus had taken hold and the illness spread throughout Britain. It struck so suddenly and severely that many of its victims died within hours of coming down with the first symptoms; many died a day or two later. Where most influenza outbreaks strike the very young and elderly, or the weak (typically those fighting at the ‘front’), this strain killed healthy young adults. Half of those who died were aged between 20 and 40. Almost half the American soldiers killed during the Great War, died at the hands of this new enemy.

Poems of the Great War For The Fallen

Glory of Women

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free.

You love us when we’re heroes, home on leave, Or wounded in a mentionable place.

You worship decorations; you believe That chivalry redeems the war’s disgrace.

You make us shells. You listen with delight, By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.

You crown our distant ardours while we fight, And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed.

You can’t believe that British troops ‘retire’ When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run, Trampling the terrible corpses--blind with blood.

O German mother dreaming by the fire, While you are knitting socks to send your son His face is trodden deeper in the mud.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

They mingle not with laughing comrades again; They sit no more at familiar tables of home; They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night; As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end, they remain.

‘For The Fallen’, was written in 1914 by Laurence Binyon.

The poem’s fourth verse is now used during the service of remembrance.

When you see millions of the mouthless dead When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you’ll remember. For you need not so.

Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?

Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.

Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.

Say only this, ‘They are dead.’ Then add thereto, ‘Yet many a better one has died before.’

Then, scanning all the o’ercrowded mass, should you Perceive one face that you loved heretofore, It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.

Great death has made all his for evermore.

‘When you see millions of the mouthless dead’, was Charles Sorley’s last poem, which was recovered from his kit after his death on 13th October 1915 at Hulluch, France.

‘Glory of Women’, was written by Siegfried Sassoon a leading poet of the First World War.

Dulce et Decorum Est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, was written by Wilfred Owen MC who died on 4 November 1918 at Sambre–Oise Canal. This was one of the last Allied victories of the Great War before the Armistice.

Melbourn War Memorial To those who died, we remember, to those who survived, let us never forget.

Private Edgar Ernest Brown, ‘D’ Company, 1/5th Battalion, (Territorial) Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed in action on Wednesday, 10th April 1918.

Buried in Morbecque British Cemetery, France.

Private John Burton, 10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died on Wednesday, 23rd October 1918 at Flanders, aged 24. Buried in Erquelinnes Cemetery, Erquelinnes, Hainaut, Belgium.

Corporal George William Catley, 2/20th London Regiment, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), died of wounds on Monday, 2nd September 1918, aged 27. Buried in Bac-Du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval, Pas de Calais, France.

2nd Lieutenant Henry Brodie Day, ‘C’ Company 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment, was killed in action on Sunday, 4th February 1918.

Buried in Fins New British Cemetery, Sorel-le-Grand, Somme, France.

Private Frank William Day, 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action on Monday, 9th April 1917, aged 19. Buried in Athies Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

Private Charles Dodkin, 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on Thursday, 22nd June 1916. Buried in Merville Communal Cemetery, Nord, France.

Lance Sergeant Charles Fordham, 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), was killed in action on Friday, 7th July 1916, aged 31. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

Private Lionel Beaufoy Frost, 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was killed in action on Wednesday, 30th August 1916, aged 19. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

Gunner Ernest John Green, 180th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died at home on Wednesday, 5th January 1916, aged 18. Buried in Melbourn Cemetery.

Private Frederick C Green, 10th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, died of wounds on Wednesday, 28th August 1918. Buried in Martinpuich British Cemetery. Pas de Calais, France.

Private Jesse Guiver, 1/7th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), died of wounds on Sunday, 23rd March 1917, aged 35. (Enlisted, Royal Engineers). Buried in Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, Nord, France.

Sergeant Thomas Guiver, 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales Own), Household Cavalry, was killed in action on Friday, 6th November 1914, aged 34.

Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

2nd Lieutenant Edward Lionel Hall, 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, died on Wednesday, 27th March 1918, aged 21.

Commemorated on Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France.

Sergeant William Charles Harper, 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment, died of wounds on Thursday, 11th April 1918. Buried in St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen (Seine-Maritime), France.

Gunner Louis Robinson, 279th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, died on Thursday 29th November 1917, aged 32. Buried in Vlamertlnghe Military Cemetery, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Sergeant Albert Holland, 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment (Machine Gun section), killed in action on Saturday, 18th December 1915, aged 22.

Buried in Le Brique, Belgium.

Private Harold E Rumbold, 7/8th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, died of pneumonia on Thursday, 4th November 1918. Buried in Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

Sapper William Charles Howes, 128th Field Company Royal Engineers, died on Friday, 31st December 1915, aged 33. Buried in Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard, Nord, France.

Rifleman Frederick Saunderson, 11th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifles Corps, died on Monday, 5th February 1917, aged 32. (Enlisted, Cambridgeshire Regiment). Buried in La Neuville Communal Cemetery, Corbie, Somme, France.

Private Charles Henry Huggins, 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, was killed in action on Tuesday, 14th August 1917. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Private James Saunderson, 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 1st July1916, aged 20. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

Private William Thomas Jacklin, 6th Battalion Buffs (East Kent Regiment), was killed in action on Monday, 9th April 1917. Commemorated on Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Private Alfred H Smith, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, died of wounds on Wednesday, 17th October 1917, aged 24. Buried in Wimereux Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

Lance Corporal Frederick James King, ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 25th September 1915, aged 26. Commemorated on Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Private Job Stanford, 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, killed in action on Sunday, 29th September 1918. Buried in Unicorn Cemetery, Vend’huile, Aisne, France.

Private Walter Alfred Littlechild, 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 1st July 1916, aged 36. Buried in Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Somme, France.

Private Albert (Alfred) Negus, 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 24th April 1915. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Private Samuel Northrop, 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on Monday, 10th January 1916, aged 31. Buried in Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy, Pas de Calais. France.

Private George Pateman, 51st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, died on Wednesday, 23rd October 1918.

Buried in Maing Cemetery, France.

Private Frederick George Pepper, 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, died of wounds on Thursday, 28th September 1916, aged 30. Buried in Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval, Somme, France.

Corporal William Henry Pullen, 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on Wednesday, 27th March 1918. A prisoner of war in November 1917, but escaped after eight weeks. Commemorated on Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France.

Private John William Reed, 2nd Battalion, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), was killed in action on Monday, 14th May 1917. Commemorated on Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Private Robert H Reed, 2/7th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), died of wounds on Sunday, 30th September 1917, aged 19. Buried in Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Lance Corporal Stanley J Waldock, 8th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, was killed in action on Wednesday, 22nd August 1917, aged 24. Buried in The Huts Cemetery, Ieper, West Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Guardsman Percy Wedd, 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, was killed in action on Sunday, 24th March 1918, aged 22. Commemorated on Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Private William Willings, 2/4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, died on Monday, 24th June 1918. Buried in Neuf-Brisach Communal Cemetery Extension, Haut-Rhin, France.

Private Rydal Sidney Lockhart Wing, 2/5th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, was killed in action on Tuesday 9th October 1917, aged 20. Buried in Whitehouse Cemetery, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Private Alfred John Winter, 10th Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 11th August 1917, aged 20. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Private Frederick Winter, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday, 5th May 1917. Buried in Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

The names below also appear on the War memorial, but there is no additional information available.

Arthur H Carter, Arthur King, Walter Lee, Joseph Smith, Harry Squires, Frederick Throssell

Melbourn History Group 2014

Pioneer Edgar Rial Abrey, 3rd Field Survey Company Royal Engineers, was killed on Monday 28th October 1918, by a shell, whilst standing outside his billet. Buried in Vendegies Cross Roads, British Cemetery, Bermerain, France.