First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
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Copyright © Julie Phillips, 2016

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1

A Brief History of Kidderminster

2

The Outbreak of War

3

Who Fought?

4

Industry and Agriculture

5

Life Goes On

6

A Woman’s Work is Never Done

7

Crime, Punishment and Tribunals

8

War Charities

9

Letters Home and the Role of Newspapers

10

The Infirmary and the Role of the VAD

11

The End of the War

12

War Memorials – A Legacy

Dedication

No one could have anticipated the extent of the absolute horror and devastation that the Great War bestowed on the world. Many lives were lost in battle on land, at sea and in the air. It is often forgotten that this war was not only fought in Europe but across, what was then, the British Empire too.

This book is dedicated to the men of Kidderminster who fought in the Great War – both those who gave their lives in the ultimate sacrifice and those who survived. Even though they survived the war, their lives were changed irrevocably and they continued to suffer, whether physically or psychologically in their own way from the nightmare they had witnessed, even when they returned home.

It is also dedicated to those women who volunteered their services during the war in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), by working in the munitions factories and those who took on traditionally male roles while those men were away fighting. Also for the women who stayed behind, taking care of their families and keeping the home fires burning despite not knowing when and if their loved ones would return. Their strength and courage was phenomenal.

So great was Kidderminster’s contribution to the war effort that it has been impossible to include every detail in this book. But, nevertheless, the huge contribution is noted and those involved are sincerely thanked.

Acknowledgements

Elizabeth Broadway, The Museum of Carpet

S. Cook

Mavis Crumpton

Chris Deaves

Michael Dowty

Jodie Edwards, The Museum of Carpet

Diane Ferris

Don Gilbert – The Life and Death of Alfred Edward Bland (1881-1916)

Nigel Gilbert: Dr Stretton I Presume, RSM Press.

A History of Kidderminster, Phillimore & Co. Ltd.

Hereford and Worcester County Libraries

Godfrey Jones

Kidderminster Library

Kidderminster Shuttle

Mr B. Knight

The Museum of Carpet

Dorothy Nicole

Chris Owen

David Phillips

Clifford Smout

Mr & Mrs Swain

Fred Tipton

National Tram Museum

David Voice

The Wellcome Trust

Simon Whaley

Malcolm Williams

Stanley Williams

E.M. Young

All the information and images used in this book are correct and attributed appropriately to the best of the author’s knowledge. The war started over 100 years ago and not everything reported at the time was accurate – some was rumour and cannot be verified at other sources. If any mistakes appear or images have inadvertently been incorrectly attributed, my apologies in advance and any errors will be gladly rectified.

*  *  *

Abbreviations

HWCL: Hereford and Worcester County Libraries

KS: Kidderminster Shuttle

MCK: Museum of Carpet Kidderminster

NHS: Newport History Society

NTM: National Tramway Museum

BEF: British Expeditionary Force

CHAPTER 1

A Brief History of Kidderminster

Kidderminster is the largest town in the Wyre Forest District, North Worcestershire in the West Midlands and is home to around 55,530 people. It is well placed within several major routes including to Birmingham, Shropshire and South Wales with the Staffordshire to Worcester Canal running through the town.

The Town Crest of Kidderminster. Author

The earliest evidence of the name Kidderminster is to be found in the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was called Chideminstre. It was a manor held by King William with a range of sixteen surrounding settlements. Minster is an old Saxon name meaning monastery or large church, suggesting there would have been a monastery sited there. Although there is some argument as to the origins of the name as the Bishop of Lichfield was called St Chad or Ceada so it could have been called Ceada’s Minster after him. It is easy to see why people settled there as it was close to the River Stour and protected by hills.

In the middle ages there was a cloth industry which would grow into a thriving carpet industry in the centuries to come. Evidence was unearthed by way of an axe and flints from the Bronze and Stone Age and it is known that later the Romans were in the area too. There were three hill forts near the town and most of the area would have had agricultural use at the time. It was in 736 that King Aethelbald of Mercia gave land to Cyneberht his ealdorman, to build a monastery. An ealdorman is an old English important royal official or ‘elder’ man Being a border town it would have been no stranger to conflict and battles for control. The Anglo Saxons appeared in the area after the Romans left in the fifth Century.

Little is known about the area during the Dark Ages but it is known that King William held the town. It was when King Henry gave up the manor ceding it to his steward, Manser Biset between 1155 and 1162 that the town expanded. When Biset died his son Henry took over.

It was in the twelfth century that the town’s cloth industry, that was to lead to a successful carpet industry, began to take prominence and an assize of cloth was issued by Richard I which attempted to regulate the industry by enabling a small number of men in the borough to keep a check on the industry and ensured the regulation of the size of the cloth. This had no small part to play in the town becoming renowned for trade. Another change was the introduction of a toll that allowed Biset to place a charge on everything sold, a measure called burgage tenure which had the effect of bringing in more skilled and experienced traders and craftsmen to the town.

Trade and markets were important to the town when, due to limited and perilous transport opportunities, trading across the country, out of your own district, was scarce. The town evolved around the market and there were markets in several streets of the town including the High Street and the Bull Ring. A part from being a centre for trade it was also regarded as a religious area.

The Bull Ring, 1900s. Mr B. Knight/HWCL

But the cloth trade stagnated since the cloth produced was of low quality and suitable only for use in the town. The poor quality and reduction in business brought about the Worcestershire Cloth Act, 1533. As the population grew the cloth industry saw a revival and they were trading with London by the seventeenth century.

The production of Kidderminster stuff which was a mixture of linen and worsted, a type of wool, was heavy and known as linsey-woolsey. But it wasn’t highly thought of and became a code word for poor quality. Because Kidderminster rose to the challenge and improved the quality of its product, it was able to cope better with the faltering cloth industry it beat the bigger town of Worcester to become a cloth capital.

But the town, although prosperous in some areas also had its share of poverty and in 1616 there was a petition to ensure provision for the poor was given to the whole parish.

The cloth industry eventually turned into a thriving carpet manufacturing industry in the eighteenth century with companies such as Brintons, and Tompkinson & Adam taking advantage of the advancement of industrialisation and the beginning of Kidderminster as a town of industry, but the existing housing and infrastructure could not cope with the expansion of the population.

Conditions in certain parts of the town were dire which prompted the town in 1813 to take notice of an Act designed to improve paving, streets and cleaning of the town. The Act saw the creation of paving commissioners whose role it was to raise funds and oversee improvements. Some of the improvements included putting up lamps and measures to stop the River Stour from flooding. This Act was amended five years later which led to the first gas lights in the town and the formation of the Kidderminster Gas Light and Coke Company.

Two of the major issues facing the town, however, were its drainage and sanitation. Although some work was done in 1821-1826, going some way to rectify this, it wasn’t enough and as the town continued to expand, due to the success of the carpet industry, the problems became more pressing. Over the two decades, the population rose from 8,000 to almost 15,000 by 1831 signalling the beginning of phenomenal growth of the town.

Poverty was becoming a real problem. The workhouse was never short of inmates and in 1834 out-relief ceased in favour of a new system advocating admittance into the workhouse. To accommodate the inmates a new Union Workhouse was built in 1837 at Blakebrook and people requiring relief had to go there.

Vehicles outside Kidderminster Gas Company, The Bull Ring, 1915, Michael Dowty/KS/HWCL

Swan Street, Kidderminster, 1920s, cobbled street, rear view. HWCL

Despite all the poverty and poor state of the town still the council was reluctant to instigate more improvements. Even a visit from a member of the Health of Towns Commission in 1843 and the efforts of Dr Roden, giving a damning report, failed to move it into action. There were open privies, no drainage and open gutters.

By 1847, the situation was dire and the town had no choice but to hold a meeting to discuss how they were going to address the poverty. There had been an outbreak of cholera in 1832 which they didn’t want repeated. The carpet manufacturing bosses became involved, including Henry Talbot Snr, who raised money to provide coal and soup for the poor.

Progress was slow and in 1848 attention was drawn to the seriousness of the problems by Henry Homfray, a local surgeon. His attention was on the poor water supply and he urged the council to take action by, among other measures, enabling a clean water supply, adequate drainage and street cleansing, but the council chose to concentrate on other issues and, inevitably, cholera returned in 1849.

This galvanised the town into action five years later with the building of baths in Mill Street for public bathing but the council planned to sell the baths in 1861. Even some of the carpet manufacturers decided to build their homes and estates outside the town in an attempt to avoid the appalling conditions.

Although the town had a canal it wasn’t long before the railway appeared, the line from Stourbridge to Evesham opened in May 1852. The industrial advancement continued with the coming of steam-powered looms. This along with the joining together of some powerful and influential families in the industry through marriage saw the carpet industry take off again. In 1853 James Humphries and Co was the first to have the steam-powered loom in operation in the town.

Around this time the population had seen a decline from 21,000 in 1851 to just over 15,000 a decade later. Despite the poverty there was some construction going on including the Music Hall and the Corn Exchange but the health of the town’s inhabitants came under scrutiny when the death rate was said to be higher than in any other town in the country.

Kidderminster Infirmary, 1900s. David Voice

With the focus on health a new infirmary was built in Mill Street and opened in October 1871 at a cost of almost £11,000 but it encountered funding issues leading to a subscription system where people could fund beds and treatment.

The cholera outbreak of 1849 wasn’t to be the last outbreak of disease in the town. The cholera was followed in 1883 by smallpox which killed ten people and a year later fifty-five people died of diarrhoea. Then it was the turn of typhoid. This saw 1,200 townspeople infected resulting in eighty-nine deaths.

Finally the council was forced into sorting out the water supply with the construction of a new, covered reservoir at Sutton Park Road which opened in 1886 and a new well in Green Street in 1898.

The carpet industry was not without trouble itself. In 1828, concern that northern factories could undercut Kidderminster prices led to the factory owners lowering the pay resulting in a five-months general strike. But the owners were insistent until a riot occurred in August 1830 where the cavalry had to intervene. This was followed by further strike action in 1836. The carpetworkers were not happy and this adversely affected the economy of the town with some shopkeepers and traders who relied on the workers’ custom and the work they got through the carpet industry finding themselves going out of business. Some of the carpet manufacturers didn’t get off lightly either with their looms standing idle.

The working day was very long, often fourteen to fifteen hours six days a week and often reliant on child labour. Because of the damage the strikes caused to the economy, there was a noticeable increase in misdemeanour with a corresponding decline in church attendance. And while the children were working they weren’t receiving an education.

The churches had their own schools but only around one thousand children were educated there. There were also the Sunday schools where almost three thousand children were educated. These schools were frequented by the workers’ children. There was a grammar school that catered for the middle classes called King Charles I Grammar School that educated the sons of the town’s Church of England residents and Townshend School which was situated at Proud Cross.

With the coming of the Education Act in 1870, which saw the formation of School Boards in the town, new schools were built. One was in Coventry Street and another in Hume Street. Attendance at school was also made compulsory for children under the age of thirteen.

Back at the looms in 1865, the Kidderminster Industrial Cooperative Society was formed which had its own shop selling provisions and groceries in Worcester Street. In the same year the Power Loom Weavers Association was initiated and almost a decade later there was even more dispute between the workers and the carpet manufacturers over the employment of women, leading to further industrial action.

Despite this the town continued to expand with the building of an art school and library, a new cemetery, school and the opening of Foley Park.

By 1908 the Board of Trade had investigated the cost of living in the town. Although the carpet industry was doing well it wasn’t moving forward but there had been an increase in female workers which would prove to be preparation for the First World War in six years’ time. The population had not changed much either.

The history of Kidderminster would not be complete without a mention of one of its most famous and innovative forefathers, Roland Hill. He was born in Blackwell Street in 1795, eventually becoming a teacher like his father and establishing a school in Birmingham in 1819. He paid great attention to the postal reforms in 1835 as the postal system of the time was corrupt, open to fraud, expensive and inefficient.

Worcester Cross, Kidderminster, 1900s, David Voice. Notice the mill chimneys to the left of the image.

Bull Ring, 1900s, Co-operative Society building with delivery carts. S. Cook/HWCL

Rowland Hill’s Statue resplendent in a jacket for a special celebration, 2015. Author

Science College, 1900s, David Voice

His pamphlet, published in 1837, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability was denounced in some quarters. One of his suggestions was the introduction of stamps. Despite others’ misgivings he was appointed to govern a new system under a two-year contract in 1839. The first adhesive stamp, the Penny Black was introduced a year later at a penny per stamp.

The town, however, being used to industrial action and unrest, was soon to be tested with the coming of the First World War and its industry would switch from making carpets to playing a major role in the war effort.

Inscription, Rowland Hill Statue, 2015. Author

Painting of a Penny Black stamp in the streets of Kidderminster, 2015. Author

CHAPTER 2

The Outbreak of War

‘If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.’ Prince Otto von Bismarck, 1890.

The Assassination

Considering the disaster the events that led to Great Britain’s entry into the war was about to cause, the local newspapers made very little fuss about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914.

They explained that a bomb had been thrown at the car the Archduke was travelling in on a visit to Sarajevo in Bosnia. This was the first assassination attempt, which was foiled by the Archduke who deflected the bomb away from the car. It was the second attempt when they were leaving the town hall that finished the deed and sealed Britain’s fate. The Archduke was very much regarded as the dark horse of international politics and in Germany in particular there were concerns at what would happen when he ascended the Austrian throne.

Little would the people of Kidderminster know that the actions of the assassin Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian sympathiser, would see their sons, brothers, fathers and uncles march off to war to a place they might have read about, but would most probably never have seen had the war not broken out.

Breaking the News

The outbreak of war was featured in the Kidderminster Shuttle (KS) and the newspaper did not mince its words in describing the dire circumstances the world now found itself in. It was also keen to point out the efforts the town was going to in helping the war effort.

‘Never in the world’s history has a greater conflagration threatened the human race.’

The paper told of the many people who took to the streets in the town, eager to find out the latest news of the war. They reported a run on provisions and people panic buying, causing shops to run out of stock and close down. But the paper was quick and clear with its warning:

‘It does not do to be nervy in these days.’

Before it became apparent that Britain was at war, the people of Kidderminster had one thing on their minds: could Great Britain become dragged into the war over the water? There was certainly nothing yet in the local news to suggest the sacrifice and horror that was to come. They were so used to hearing about little spats between the Balkan States and Europe that this was probably just another tiff that would more than likely fizzle out to nothing. The Boer War, 1899-1902, which some family members may have fought in was becoming a distant memory and surely nothing like that would ever happen again?

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, the Foreign Secretary Edward Grey failed in his attempt to form a peace conference between the ambassadors of Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain. The general consensus being that Serbia ‘deserved chastisement’ and that the ‘powers should be content to stand aside until the Austrian military measures against Serbia are completed’.

Standing aside was not in the moral code of Great Britain. Even at this early stage we were already implicated and when Germany decided to invade Belgium, with whom we had a treaty, it was only a matter of time before Great Britain would be joining France at the trenches.

Life, for the moment, however, would carry on as normal in the town of Kidderminster. The council would continue to meet and discuss its roads and its water supply; the guardians would look at the numbers of vagrants and out-relief payments; children would still be in school, not one of them for one minute thinking that, within a few months or years, they might be soldiers fighting in the biggest and most devastating war the world has ever seen. Their teachers and headmasters would never have imagined that their old boys would be sent to war and end up dying in Flanders or Loos.

The Best Laid Plans

While life carried on at home, the Schlieffen Plan was beginning to be put into force abroad. The idea was for German armed forces to advance to the west through Belgium and Northern France while other flanks would close in and Paris would be encircled. The plan was supposed to last no more than forty days, which is why it was thought the war would all be over by Christmas.

When they read that ‘extreme activities’ were taking place in the dockyards of Great Britain, ‘in making preparation against any untoward result of the European situation’, and that leave was on the whole being stopped, the people of Kidderminster, as indeed in many other cities, towns and villages across Great Britain, might just have been thinking that war was not as far away from their rural farms, mills and front doors as they hoped it might be.

When a telegram from Berlin confirmed that Germany had declared a state of war, and Belgium announced that it had mobilised its troops, it is a wonder how many Kidderminster residents remembered that little treaty their country had signed. But still, the official line from the Government was that, in regards to its financial situation caused by the initial rumblings of the war in Europe, there was no need yet for ‘emergency action’.

The British government was, initially, going all out for peace. The government also pledged its support to France should Germany push through the Channel into the North Sea in a hostile manner. Germany even offered not to attack the coast of France if Britain ‘pledged itself to neutrality’, but it was not to be. It is here that Britain’s promise, the Treaty of London, signed in 1839, came into play and Britain’s entry into the war was inevitable.

The order of the day was very much to stand up for your convictions, honour, values and integrity and this would stand the people of the Empire, Great Britain and towns like Kidderminster in good stead for the coming years. The realisation soon was that Britain was at war and the British public would have no option but to support it.

Not everyone agreed with the government’s plans. Sir William Byles, a newspaper owner, MP for Salford North and a pacifist stated that the defence of its people was the first duty of the Government and that by going to war the rights of the British people would be violated. He would be a key supporter of conscientious objectors when the issues of enlistment and exemption were raised.

The government, nonetheless, carried the nation forth into war with calls for councils to place restrictions on aliens, detention and removal of spies, and the then Prime Minister Mr Herbert Henry Asquith read out a message from the King who wanted to provide more for the military services by way of the army reserves being called out on permanent service. The subject of the insurance of shipping against war risk was also discussed and an agreement reached with insurance companies.

The Government Takes Control

As the news of the war sank in, the government made several new laws that meant that they would be providing for men who were to be wounded in the war and their dependants, registering aliens and controlling the ‘too many’ Germans living in Great Britain, increasing the amount of coins, providing paper money and making postal orders legal tender. Measures were also being put in place for the regulation of retail prices and groceries to prevent extortionate rises.

When news reports came in from other parts of the country that some ‘needlessly alarmed’ customers were making ‘excessive purchases’, they were vilified and the British public was warned that their ‘unreasonable conduct cannot be too strongly deprecated’. Within Government ranks, the rousing speeches and rattling of swords were designed to give the British public confidence and rouse their patriotism in the face of the adversity they now faced.

‘In its hour of trial and danger the country has the supreme advantage of unity,’ said Mr Bonar Law. He was the one time Conservative MP for Glasgow Blackfriars in 1900 and then Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in 1902. A plain and charismatic speaker he earned respect becoming Leader of the Conservative party in 1911 but conceded to Lloyd George’s premiership, playing a key role in his new War Cabinet.

The railways were also now controlled by the state and the state would be controlling food supply distribution. Even the Bank Holiday was extended by three days to prevent panic buying and a run on the banks.

Your Country Needs You

The British army in peace time was relatively small at around 750,000 men and it was well documented that there was difficulty getting men to enlist. The media at the time did link this apathy to the Kaiser’s plans of invasion as he knew the British Army was so small. When it is considered that the German Army had around four million men it’s no wonder the Kaiser was laughing. But when the Kaiser’s plans were made apparent and Belgium was invaded, Great Britain and the Empire were given a rude awakening and the men were galvanised into action.

As part of the enlistment campaign the KS carried an advert wanting soldiers for the King. It included a drawing of a soldier standing proudly in his uniform. The caption underneath read ‘He will be looked up to and respected because he answered his country’s call. The regiments at the Front are covering themselves in glory.’ There was no mention that they were also covering themselves in mud and shrapnel too. ‘Enlist today!’ was the order of the day.

The Worcesters marching down the High Street, 1914. HWCL

The main regiment associated with the area was the Worcestershire Regiment (known as the Worcesters). This regiment was formed in 1694 when it was known as Farrington’s Regiment of Foot after their colonel. The British army was made up of both full-time soldiers and part-time territorials or reservists. Before the war the Worcesters had four regular battalions in which Kidderminster had many men. Of these four battalions the 2nd and 3rd were mobilised straight away and were in France by 16 August. However, it would be a while longer before the 1st battalion returned to British soil as they were in Egypt when war broke out and didn’t return to Britain until October. It was an even longer wait for the 4th Battalion to return, having been in Burma. They returned in February 1915.

But what about those reservists? Some of them were destined to form part of the Home Guard with the 5th and 6th battalions being sent directly to Plymouth, Devon. A further two Territorial battalions (7th and 8th) based in Kidderminster and Worcester, respectively, were in Minehead at their summer camp. Their role would be to defend their country from attacks from the North Sea when they left their camp to journey to Essex. Of these battalions, some men were asked to consider volunteering for active service abroad which they did to establish the 1/7th and 1/8th battalions with the remainder creating two new home defence battalions.

In the few days immediately after the war was announced, the town of Kidderminster was alive with activity. People were in awe of the soldiers being mobilised and there was an air of not only trepidation but of great excitement because their men were doing the patriotic thing and preparing to defend their country.

Because of its position and military standing, Kidderminster was the place where many regiments were billeted while en route to their destinations. The 7th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment (Territorials) were to be sent to Minehead and many local men who formed this regiment left the town before 9am and arrived in Minehead without mishap. However, the order was soon given for them to return and they arrived back in Kidderminster with their kit just after 6pm.

The railway station was packed with soldiers waiting to entrain with approximately one thousand men billeted in the town at the time. The men were housed in the Town Hall, The Shrubbery (HQ), the Corn Exchange, The Oaklands, Kingsley Hall and even an old disused carpet factory was utilised in Vicar Street.

The Shrubbery, 1959, former Drill Hall, First World War. Mr & Mrs W.D. Swain/HWCL

The sheer numbers of servicemen and volunteers passing through the town and being billeted did not go unnoticed by some of the more enterprising and opportunist of local businesses. Attwood and Isaac of Regent House, Kidderminster, posted an advert in the KS stating they had plenty of supplies of blankets, sheets and quilts. They were available at prices suitable for all budgets to cater for the soldiers’ needs.

Later on in the war, they posted an advert giving the prices for Officer Field Service uniforms, which could be made at short notice. Their list included great coats from £3 10s to service breeches from £2. They were obviously keen to make their business known and cater for the new influx of soldiers as in another advert they were selling presents for servicemen. Among other items they had balaclava sleeping helmets for around 2s 6d to 2s 9d, khaki sweaters for 10s 6d to 12s 6d, or sleeping bags for 13s 6d.

Local businesses also had something for the men on active service. An advert appeared in the KS for A. Preedy and Sons, based at the Bull Ring, Kidderminster who were selling cigarettes at duty free prices as a special arrangement between the British and French Governments, under the banner ‘For the men at the Front’, exclusively the British Expeditionary Force. Examples were a hundred packets of ten Wild Woodbines for 10s, Player’s Navy Cut Tobacco at 2s 8d per pound and Wills Gold Flake cigarettes in tens or a tin of fifty for 15s per hundred tins.

The town’s businesses were also keen to show that even though there was a war on it was business as usual. It was deemed patriotic to support local businesses as an advert placed in the KS by F.G. Samman, Tailor and Hosier in Oxford Street showed. ‘Please order your new suit NOW, and help to keep British workmen employed.’

Similarly, another business in the town, Clarke’s Stores, urged its customers to ‘Support Your Allies, fighting for a share of your orders by charging terribly low prices.’ Everyone was courting customers as no one wanted to see their business fold. If businesses started to disappear it would play into the hands of the enemy.

Oxford Street, 1900s. David Voice

B.L. Griffiths was a grocer in Swan Street at the time and took great pains to give his customers ‘good value in the face of high cost’. After the initial rush on the shops by townspeople panic buying, Mr Griffiths commented that his stocks were now replenished and some of his prices had come down.

The ‘Garrison Town’

Some locals thought it strange to see the Territorials guarding strategic buildings at night, particularly when they saw they had rifles with bayonets attached. The war was fast becoming a reality in the town and those living in Kidderminster soon realised that life was about to change and that they would soon be losing some of their liberties.

One of the first things to change for the townspeople was the commandeering of the public baths that were closed for a few days for exclusive use by the military. But they would soon be able to use them again as the battalion were due to be moved, once they had been declared fit to fight by Dr Addenbrooke, to Swindon on the Sunday. In fact, the train station was so busy due to the sheer numbers of horses and guns that had to be moved, it struggled to move the men through quickly enough and so there were several delays as the men went through.

As the recruitment drive increased in the town various adverts and notices appeared in the local papers appealing for men. One such notice, an Embodiment from the King, was for the 7th (reserve) Battalion of the Worcester Regiment Territorial Force. It was hoped that most of the recruits would be sent for service abroad, however, some would be kept for the Home Guard.

The notice spelled out terms of service for the recruits which was for four years or the duration of the war. They wanted men aged 19 to 35 for service abroad and men aged 17 to 35 for the Home Guard. It also gave them details of where to report to enlist in Kidderminster and the surrounding towns. It was estimated that in Kidderminster over one thousand men replied to the call to arms from the Embodiment Order and turned up at the HQ (The Shrubbery).

It was clear, however, that the British Army was in no fit state for war. Nationally, by the middle of August 1914 Germany had 1,077 battalions in the field, while the British only had forty-eight battalions. Drastic measures to recruit men were required.

They needed more men and they needed them now. With this in mind the newly formed 2/7th Battalion, under the command of E.V.V. Wheeler came back to the town with the purpose of aiding the recruitment drive at their drill hall, The Shrubbery. They didn’t have long to see their objective fulfilled – within three weeks they were up to full strength.

Despite the admirable efforts of the town to gather recruits, the situation nationally was poor. It took an appeal from Lord Kitchener to vastly improve matters. Lord Kitchener was the Secretary of State for War and a military leader and he soon realised that, early on in the war, Britain needed to drastically increase the size of its army. Whether it was due to his previous extensive experience and knowledge of war or a lucky guess, he was convinced that the war would last for years. With this thought in mind he fronted a campaign to recruit 100,000 men for which the now famous poster, depicting him pointing, with the slogan ‘Your Country Needs You!’ came into play. It proved to be effective and within days Kitchener had secured his 1st Army. This was the first of four appeals from Lord Kitchener and Kidderminster did not let him down with the Worcesters adding four more Battalions (10th, 11th, 12th and 13th).

The Worcesters were not the only regiment in the town to be mobilising. There was a squadron (A) of the Worcestershire Yeomanry and the Royal Field Artillery too. The Yeomanry had been formed in 1794 to support the regular soldiers in the Napoleonic war.

With the increase of recruits in the town, there was a problem with where the men would stay. This was alleviated by local residents being asked to billet the men. Those householders doing so would be paid 3s 4½d a day per man but, when it was realised that the men would need accommodation for a longer period than initially thought, this rate was reduced to 2s 3d.

The town met frequently to discuss recruitment, with the local MP Major Eric Knight insisting that volunteer soldiers would be paid a soldier’s wage, and that a separation allowance of 1s 1d a day for their wives and 2d per day for each child would also be paid. With the main breadwinner away, the Government needed to do something to ensure the financial stability and therefore survival of the soldiers’ families left behind.

The recruitment campaign was influenced by the many events that occurred in the war, not least the arrival of the Belgian refugees following the German atrocities that ravaged their homeland forcing many Belgians to flee their homes and country to be granted sanctuary in the UK.

The Belgian crisis saw an increase in recruits nationally as well as in the town in response to the way the Belgian people had been treated and, in October 1914, 400 men enlisted with many of them going into the Birmingham City Battalion.

In November 1914, those men volunteering to fight were transported to the recruitment place by torchlight in a procession of vehicles provided by the Motor Recruiting Scheme. The town was enthusiastic and the recruits were serenaded with music from the town band with the scouts in attendance.

Be Prepared

The scouts, founded by Baden Powell, himself no stranger to warfare having been made Major-General at the age of 43 and fought in the Boer War, were to show their skills when they were asked to join the war effort on the home front. There was a real fear that the Germans and their allies would attack the UK which was vulnerable. Places that, if targeted, became a matter of national security and the scouts were enlisted to help protect them. Places such as aqueducts and railway bridges, for example, were guarded and by the end of August 1914 the scouts had come under the jurisdiction of the Chief Constable and town authorities.

They were very useful to the war effort being given notebooks and pens and told to keep a watchful eye out for anything unusual or untoward. They were, effectively, the eyes and ears of the Home Front and they took their roles very seriously. They were messengers between farmers and within the local town. One of the main installations local scouts guarded was the Hoobrook Viaduct in nearby Bewdley and a local reservoir and bridge at Lea Castle.

Early on in the war, it was reported in the KS that 150 scouts from the Kidderminster, Bewdley and Hagley area had paraded through the town to the Town Hall. The reasoning behind the parade and meeting was to highlight the duties they had and were about to take on. The address was given by the commissioner who spelled out the necessity for them to remain calm and not give way to ‘unnecessary excitement and fussiness’. They were also urged to think about their promise, ‘To honour God and the King’. The hymn ‘O God Our Help in Ages Past’ was sung with three cheers for the king given at the end. It was said that the Corn Exchange rang with the hearty cheering from the scouts.

The Town Hall, scene of much fundraising and many gatherings, 1900s. HWCL

The Town Hall, 2015. Author

A letter of appeal in the KS also highlighted the fact that in light of the shortage of paper the scouts had been collecting old newspapers for which the resulting money would go to the infirmary. Townspeople were urged to make bundles of newspapers up to 28lbs and the writer was asking if anyone had a set of scales they could use to weigh them.

It wasn’t just the Boy Scouts whose services were engaged by the town either. The Grammar School (King Charles) also used their pupils for the war effort, drilling them as cadets early on in the war. Mr F. Telfer became their commander under the rank of Lieutenant. Their efforts were rewarded by the War Office in 1915 when, as part of the Worcestershire Cadet Battalion, forty of them joined in a ten day exercise at Himley Park.

The whole town, including children and women became involved in the war effort one way or another, many of them with a military feel, including the Civilian Rifle Association, which was formed to allow those who were not enlisting for active service drill and rifle shooting training. They were to be the forerunners of the soon to be formed Volunteer Training Corps.

The Volunteer Training Corps was manned by those exempt from active service and although governed by the same military rules and expectations as the regular army had to find their own equipment and uniforms.

Enlistment

The problem with some men in the town, and nationally, was that it was very difficult for ordinary townspeople to identify or differentiate between those who were shirking their duty and those who had a legitimate reason for not going on active service. It wasn’t uncommon for apparently fit and able men to be accosted in the streets and vilified for their apparent lack of patriotism and labelled, unfairly and unjustly, as cowards. One of the main humiliating and derogatory things to be presented with was a white feather, which became the main way of insulting and shaming men who did not do their duty and fight.

War Badge authorisation certificate for Bernard French, 1917. MCK

Back of the War Badge authorisation certificate. MCK

To help counteract this and make it clear to civilians that these men had or were doing their duty in another way or were exempted from active duty was the presentation of a certificate and war badge that was worn on the lapels of their jackets.

It wasn’t just men the army were after, they also required horses. In the early weeks of the war the War Office permitted some men to act as buyers to round up horses in every town, village and city where good quality horses could be found. The redoubt came to Kidderminster and as a result of the loss of some horses to the military, the Castle Motor Company, which had already given its support in other areas, now pledged to help those businesses that had lost horses by offering the services of their vans and other motor vehicles to help plug the gap. Even though there was a war on, life had to go on, consumers needed supplies and businesses needed to ensure those supplies got to their shops for people to buy so, with or without horses, the job still had to be done.

War Badge. Stanley Williams

Enlistment was becoming a real problem during 1915. The initial rush to the trenches was tempered by a period of apathy with only approximately one third of eligible men in Worcester enlisting. This situation was the same across the country. Despite the rigorous campaigns by Lord Kitchener, they were losing more men on the battlefields and couldn’t replace them.

Apart from the disparity in numbers between those dying in service and those enlisting to replace them, one of the other reasons enlistment had tailed off was the fact that half the men who did volunteer to fight were not physically up to standard and found themselves unable to enlist. This led to those in charge of recruitment increasing their campaigns. The Government decided to lower its military entry standards including the reducing of the minimum height requirements to 5ft 1in and chest measurements to 34in. To encourage those men with families who were still concerned that their enlistment would leave their families vulnerable to destitution they also increased the separation allowance to 9s per week for wives and 2s for each child. A recruitment office was also opened in the Bull Ring and was to be one of eighteen such offices across Worcestershire.

As the war progressed and more men were required, the Medical Board placed a notice in the local paper asking Kidderminster exempted men or those under appeal to report for medical examination at the Town Hall, Vicar Street. Anyone who did not do this and their case came up in the tribunals would be thought of as medically fit for service in Class A. There was no hiding or trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

Do Your Duty

The newspapers also carried adverts aimed at encouraging reluctant men to enlist.

‘The Great Resolution for the New Year – I will be a man and enlist today!’

Various campaign posters also appeared urging men to enlist, often using the added emotional incentive of the men’s families. One such poster depicting a father and his two children had the slogan ‘Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?’

It wasn’t just the men who were being pressed into service as their employers were also feeling the pressure. There was a time coming when there would be nowhere for a man eligible to fight to hide, not behind their boss in the workplace. Employers were expected to do all in their power to give every man who fitted the criteria for service in the armed forces to ensure they could enlist. They were asked to consider if their employees’ jobs would be kept open once they left the forces and whether other assistance was open to them. In response, Kidderminster’s Traders’ Association made changes to allow men to be released into service.

In an attempt to encourage their members to enlist both the Cooperative and borough police gave allowances. With half their members already in service, the police volunteers were given 12s a week if they were married, 7s if not and the Co-operative gave 5s. The obvious recruits were those who had been in military service before so these men were targeted too.

Kidderminster didn’t shirk from its responsibility to encourage more men in the area to volunteer, with Mr Greenwich and his daughter receiving a gold medal for their uncompromising and steadfast efforts in recruiting.

Recruits were paid different amounts depending on their skill base. For instance, a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps could get 1s 2d a day whereas a private in the cavalry could earn 1s 9d a day. A private in the mounted division of the Military Police earned 2s 2d a day. These rates were increased if the soldiers satisfied certain criteria such as proficiency.

Of course the other delay in men getting to the battlefield was that they had to be trained first. Training differed widely with some recruits receiving basic training lasting only a few weeks to some having a few months’ training. All recruits had to go through basic training that was designed to increase their fitness, stamina, skills and confidence: everything they needed to equip them for life on the battlefields. They also had specialised training in, for example, handling a machine gun or repairing equipment in the field depending on the role they were destined to fulfil. The skills that were most sought after by the forces were experience and knowledge of working with horses, including shoeing and veterinary skills, motor vehicle driving, shooting, digging and building.

There were recruitment drives held in the town in an attempt to increase recruitment and those soldiers who did enlist were proudly celebrated and often paraded through the town, its streets lined with well-wishers. Those already enlisted also paraded through town including one thousand men from the 2/7th Worcesters who were inspected by the Marquis of Salisbury following their four months training in the town and prior to their departure to Northampton for further training. Again the town showed their support by coming out into the streets in their droves as the men left the station aboard two trains.

Their commander E.V.V. Wheeler took great care to let the townspeople of Kidderminster know just how much he and his lads appreciated the town’s support during their stay there. ‘I should like to thank those who have so liberally responded to the appeal made for comforts for my men. The good feeling shown towards us by everyone has helped to make our work easier and our stay in Kidderminster a time upon which we can look back with pleasure.’

In Worcestershire, the total number of men who had enlisted by February 1915 was 8,300. This sounds a lot but when you examine what this represents in relation to the number of males in the county at the time within the range of ages eligible to enlist it works out at just over thirty per cent.

The situation of poor recruitment forced Lord Kitchener to write to the Mayor of Kidderminster in May 1915 to see why recruitment was so low. It was felt at the time that it was down to the inequality of recruitment with some being exempt and others not. Whatever the reason Kitchener needed a further 300,000 men and he needed them now.

Conscription

It was inevitable, with dwindling recruitment, that the Government would have to intervene. If some men of Great Britain were not prepared to fight voluntarily, then they would have to be forced. The precursor to conscription, the National Registration Act came into force in July 1915 and required everyone between the ages of 15 and 65 to register for which they received a certificate. The Government was interested in where people worked, what their roles and skills were both in and out of the workplace and whether they were prepared to use their skills in work. In Kidderminster the person responsible for distributing and collecting such forms was the chairman of Brinton’s carpet manufacturing company, Mayor Reginald Seymour Brinton.

When these forms were compiled, nationally there were found to be just over twenty-one million people on the register of which those of military age totalled 5.1 million with 1.5 million in reserved occupations. Reserved occupations at the time of the outbreak of war included bus drivers, coal miners, builders, doctors, farmers and ship builders. These were deemed to be of great importance to keeping the country going at home and losing men from these occupations would have been a threat not only to British security but also would have affected the war effort and Britain’s ability to cope.

It was inevitable, though, that given the ferocity of the fighting, the increasing loss of life and the increasing apathy towards enlisting that conscription would come in. There were around 3.5 million men who could join the forces but had failed to do so, which drove Lord Derby the director of recruitment to introduce the national voluntary attestation of men between the ages of 18-40. This scheme, known as the Derby Scheme ensured that eligible men came forward and were ready to enlist when required. They were identifiable by the arm bands that they wore which were either blue or khaki and it is known that some local men wore these.

Even this scheme failed to have the desired effect as there were still around two million men who hadn’t attested. This led to the Military Service Act being implemented in January 1916 which meant that from February all unmarried men aged 18-41 had to present themselves for enlistment.

There were exceptions to the Act such as religious ministers, those who were disabled or too ill, ex-soldiers who had been discharged and soldiers whose service had ended. But this was still not enough and the Act was amended several times throughout the war. In May 1916, even married men came under the Act and as more men died some of those men who had been previously exempted found themselves being called up as their occupations were released from exemption.

All in all around half the male population in the town, that’s some four to five thousand men, from the town took up arms to fight.

Frederick Henry Youngjohn’s exemption. MCK

Frederick Henry Youngjohn’s exemption Certificate details. MCK

CHAPTER 3

Who Fought?

‘But wives and mothers wept, their tender ken, prophetic, saw the red blood poured like wine.’ Cresandia.

Here We Go Again

With so many men volunteering for war duty, some home and some abroad, it is easy to forget that they were the sons of Kidderminster, someone’s father, husband, brother or sweetheart. In the heat of patriotic duty and the glory of fighting for one’s King and country the thought that they may never see their loved ones again was at the forefront of their minds. Yes, they were proud of their menfolk’s bravery and, for some of them, their ultimate sacrifice, but due to the Boer War that only ended some twelve years earlier, there were those in the town who possibly had fought in that war or lost someone and knew of the horrors that awaited their brave young men, some of whom would have never ventured far from home before and may well have been sitting at a desk in school a few years prior to the war.

It is known that many men fought in the war, some surviving to return home, some offering the ultimate sacrifice and their names are etched into the various memorials around the town. It is easy to forget that among the statistics are individual men who lived and worked in Kidderminster, who had families and lives before they were destroyed or changed forever.

Not only did the war see families separated, but also those businesses and trades in the town saw losses from their workforce too. In April 1916, having already seen twenty of their staff go off to war, C. Dalley & Co., merchants of seed lost another sixteen. Of those traders who were the sole proprietor and worker they often either had to find someone else to take over the running of their business when they were called up or risk it disappearing. Luckily, F.G. Samman who ran a business in Oxford Street found a replacement so his business could continue.

Group of soldiers featuring Alfred Jennings, a carpet manufacturer’s employee. 3rd row back, 1st on the left. MCK

Alfred Jennings. MCK

The local colleges also found their numbers reducing as their students swapped their paint brushes for rifles. The School of Art and Science saw their students on roll reduce to around 500 in 1916 with 100 students of the Dudley Training College, of which many came from Kidderminster, also joining the forces.

Keeping it in the family

As well as publishing letters from the front, the paper also brought news of men from the same family who were serving in the war. It wasn’t uncommon for some families in the district to have more than one family member in the forces at any one time. The burden on these families must have been immense. One such family was the Harpers who lived in Mill Lane. All six of Mr and Mrs Harper’s sons, along with their brother-in-Law Frederick Tilt saw service in First World War.

Albert, 36 and married, was head groom at Rangemore Hall, Burton before joining the Army Remount Service. As a previous coach master in Winchester, William Harper aged 34 was also married and joined the Royal Field Artillery. Alfred, at the age of 31 and unmarried, ended up in the Army Veterinary Corps, when prior to the war he was in employment in Stourport and had been coachman to Mr J. Brinton before his death. He wasn’t the only brother to have worked as a chauffeur; Walter, aged 28, was married, and before joining the 3/1st 2nd South Midland Field Ambulance, had been a driver for Dr Landon. Their brother Frank, aged 25, was single and up until the beginning of the war had been employed by Walter Humphries in Kidderminster before joining the Mechanical Transport Motor Ambulance.

As the youngest of the family, Leonard, aged 23, was a single man and it seems driving was in the family genes because he was also a chauffeur for Dr Bertram Addenbrooke before joining the Motor Transport ASC. Their brother-in-Law Frederick Tilt had been a groom at Shenstone House before joining the 3/7th Worcestershire Yeomanry.

Six of the Harper brothers and brother in law. KS

There were many families in the area like this that had two or more family members fighting for their King and Country. The tragedy was that, more often than not, one or more family member was to die on the battlefields. Sometimes whole families were wiped out, leaving the remaining family members, mainly the women to grieve and try and keep their family out of the poorhouse.

Those who did fight in the war came from all over the town, with different backgrounds, status and experiences. From weaver to policeman and from stable hand to driver they all enlisted. A weaver from East Street who worked for Woodward and Grosvenor had all of his sons who were married in the armed services – there were five in all. As with the Harpers, occupation wise, the brothers were an eclectic family of tram drivers, painters, munition workers and one who was already in the army.

Kidderminster men everywhere!

One man who found himself in the firing line was Private Alfred Higginson who was in the Coldstream Guards. His father, ex-Colour Sergeant Roger Higginson had at one time been the local Recruiting Officer. At the time of the war there were four ways a man could join the forces. He could become a regular, full-time, professional soldier, or a part-time territorial, or special reserve, or they could join the National Reserve. But the military needed help by way of recruitment officers to swell the ranks of these regiments. These officers’ role was to man the recruitment offices and check men who presented for enlistment. They also ran local campaigns. They were paid 2s 6d for each new recruit.

On hearing that Great Britain was at war, Alfred’s father, at the grand age of 74, had wanted to train recruits and so had attempted to enlist, but this war was the turn of his sons to fight.

Alfred was Roger’s youngest son. They lived in South Street and Alfred had joined the Coldstream Guards two years prior to the war. His regiment was among the first to arrive at the front and certainly was involved in a great deal of the action from the start including the Battle of Mons.

The Battle of Mons was the first major battle involving the British Expeditionary Force. They engaged with the German forces in an attempt to protect the Mons-Condé canal against the German advance. They were outflanked by the superiority of the German Army.

As it was common for more than one family member to enlist, Alfred’s brother Corporal Robert Higginson, enlisted as part of Kitchener’s Army and was based in Worcester. Another brother Lance-Corporal George Higginson was in the 1st Worcesters and also saw action having been in the army for five years and left Egypt for the Front. One of his other brothers died before the war started when he fought in the South African War.

Alfred, too, was not to survive and was killed in action in December 1914. His family received notification via the War Office with a note of condolence from Lord Kitchener. His grave is at the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.

The local newspaper often covered news of those local men who had been injured in the war. One such man was Lieutenant Tom Lawrence, VC. He was the son of a renowned timber merchant in the Park Lane area of the town. He had been in the army for twenty years but unfortunately, while on active service, he was injured in the Battle of the Aisne.

This battle began on 12 September 1914, the day before the allied forces suspected that the enemy would attempt to prevent their retreat. The German army’s fire power at the time was far superior to the Allies and the battle ended on 28 September with neither side making much headway.

He had also fought in the South African War, after which he was commissioned to Queen Mary’s Own Hussars and he was a friend of King Edward. On visiting Tidworth, Queen Mary was told of his injuries and she liaised with the hospital to ensure he received the best care and received reports of his progress.

Lieutenant Tom Lawrence, 1914. KS

The Battle of the Marne was where another Kidderminster man was wounded. Sergeant Wilfrid Slater aged 28, married with one daughter, from Jerusalem Walk, was fighting with the 3rd Worcesters, guarding a bridge, when he was shot in the shoulder. He was one of the first waves of men entering France with the British Expeditionary Force. This force had been established by the then Minister for War after the Second Boer War to ensure that Great Britain had an army of men ready to act should war occur again. When it did, the force was in place within three days of the outbreak of war.

The First Battle of the Marne commenced on 6 September 1914. There were fears that the German army were going to reach Paris and it was imperative that they were stopped. The French Army even rushed six thousand men from Paris to the battle in taxis. It was this battle that saw the end of the Schlieffen Plan. This battle was touted as one of the most decisive of the war because it prevented the Germans from achieving their plans and therefore ensuring, despite hopes for a speedy resolution, that the war would continue.

Sergeant Wilfrid Slater. KS

His wounds saw Sgt Slater brought back to England to Devonport Hospital, Devon, but it was hoped that following his surgery he would make a good recovery. In fact, he wrote in a letter that he was feeling much better and hoped to be moved to a convalescent home nearer home if it were possible. He was keen to reassure his friends in the town that he was now able to walk a bit.

Local man Private W.E. Postings was also one of the first wave of men in the Worcester Regiment to go to war with the British Expeditionary Force in early August 1914.

Private W.E Postings. KS

His two brothers, Charles and Mark, were with the Territorial Artillery, and their cousin J. Postings also enlisted. The military was very much in their blood as their grandfather had also seen service. The local paper published a letter of his.

‘I only wish Grandfather Postings was here just to see the vast difference between the war in 1857 (the Indian Mutiny) and 1914; in fact this is not war, it is simply murder. But it does not matter; England must win in the end. I often fancy that peace will be brought about owing to the great loss of life.’

Some local men were not so lucky. Private William Millichamp who previously was an employee of Messrs. Tompkinson and Adam’s in the town, died in hospital in Hazebranch from blood poisoning caused by a wound on his foot and was due to be buried the following day in a French churchyard. Prior to the war and on marrying Elsie Bourne from Stourport he found work at Rhondda Colliery. They had one child together. Millichamp was a reservist, having been with the army for eight years, serving in Egypt and India but had not been serving for the past four years until he rejoined his regiment at the outbreak of war.

His wife did receive some letters from him, and in one of them he requested Woodbine cigarettes, assuring her that he was well and the war would be over soon allowing him to return home to her. In another letter, he told her that he thought a lot about her and their baby. Sadly he would never return.

Another local man whose bravery was to see him give the ultimate sacrifice was Alfred Bland who found his demise during the Battle of the Somme. Although his grandfather was born in Yorkshire, the family moved to Kidderminster in 1847 and his grandfather Joseph and grandmother Catherine set up a millinery and dressmaking business in Dudley Street, later moving to Coventry Street. The family were very religious and were members of the Christadelphian Movement in the town and favoured temperance.

Joseph’s son, also named Joseph, was Alfred’s father and with his wife Alice Millward had eight children, Alfred being born in March 1881. At the age of nine he won a free grammar school place at King Charles I School, Kidderminster.

Later, he was to gain a place at Christ’s Hospital, a school then situated in London and then went to Oxford. He married Violet Amy Ellis in 1905 and they had two sons moving from Croydon, Surrey to Sidcup.

When the war came Alfred joined the Inns of Court Officers’ Training Corps. This Corps’ origins can be traced back as far as 1584. Following training, in January 1915, he gained a commission in the 22nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment which originated via the union of the 63rd and 96th Regiments of Foot in 1881. The 22nd Regiment came into being in November 1914 and had working-class men within its ranks. He rose quickly to Lieutenant and then Captain in April 1915.

By August 1915, the Battalion went to Salisbury Plain for more training before moving to Folkestone and then Boulogne. He saw much action during the war and it was at the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 where he was killed by a bullet to his chest. His body was moved just outside Mametz and was buried in Dantzig Alley British Cemetery. His parents still lived in Kidderminster and a telegram was sent to them by Violet. Like many soldiers of the time, he left behind a family who had lost its main financial support as well as a treasured husband, fathers, son and brother.

Alfred was one of forty-six students of King Charles I school who lost their lives in the Great War and his name is on the memorial situated outside St Mary’s Church as well as on the memorial boards inside the school which is now the Register Office.

CHAPTER 4

Industry and Agriculture

The Backbone of Britain

Before war broke out the food supply and harvest in Great Britain had been good. Some commentators even remarked that in terms of food supply if Britain was to go to war now it was as good a time as any before. The weather and harvest had been good. There were plenty of workers in the fields and the local markets had been trading well with good quality livestock due to the good standard of their feed. Agriculture was the lifeblood of British life and would come to play a crucial role in the war effort.

Even Lord Kitchener recognised the value and importance of rural districts such as those surrounding Kidderminster and Worcestershire and was eager to engage their support:

‘I rely confidently on the rural population of all grades, to perform its share of the national duty at this crisis in our history.’

The Government recognised that farmers and landowners were the ‘backbone’ of Britain and the Empire and that they were being relied on in their nation’s hour of need. This was a tall order when it is considered that the farmers were on the wrong foot with losing their workers and they were, essentially, at the mercy of the weather and the Government. How the crops grew now, and throughout the war would be key in the war effort. Food was as important to the war effort as munitions were. There would be little from abroad to help if the harvest failed, with the fighting going on in France and Belgium and other areas – and their own farm workers engaged in the fighting – their own harvests would also be affected. Once the Germans laid their mines and engaged their U-boats, cargo was to be lost at sea.

Offmore Farm, Birmingham Road, Kidderminster. HWCL

Hodge Hill Farm, Kidderminster, 1918. HWCL

In response to Britain’s problems, Canada sent 500,000 bags of flour to help keep the country’s wheat quota up. Kidderminster received 500 of these bags and the flour was used to bake 41b loaves of bread which were distributed at the rate of 230 a week. The total loaf count was 15,000.

But farmers were in a quandary. Even when conscription came in in 1916 most farm labourers were exempt from enlistment. This could not be sustained, and as many farm labourers had already joined the armed services, this left a shortfall in skilled workers to work the farms, especially at ploughing and harvest time. The Government’s answer came in two parts. One was to ask agricultural colleges, such as the college in the neighbouring county of Shropshire, some 30 miles away, to train women to work the land. The other was to employ soldiers at home, those either training or stationed in Britain, on furlough or those injured but able to work the land. Afterwards, German prisoners of war would be involved too. It was a case of all hands on deck, particularly when the German U-boat campaign increased its intensity resulting in the loss of many merchant ships carrying food and supplies to our shores. There were around 225 such soldiers put to work on farms in the Kidderminster area.

There were strict guidelines, including that rates of pay would be the same as was current in the district, and that farmers had to find appropriate accommodation for the soldiers. It was clearly stated that the committee did not know the suitability of the soldiers for farm work but any farmer unhappy with any soldier’s conduct or work could have him discharged. There were also reassurances to those farm labourers already in employment that the soldiers would pose no threat to their positions.

Things were to get worse for farmers when some farm work was withdrawn from the exemption lists. Men born between 1895 and 1899 inclusive and in grade 1 or category A were expected to enlist but could apply for exemption if they were registered agricultural workers and essential to the running of the farm.

Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal lock gates, Mill Street, Kidderminster. HWCL

Women to the Harvest

A meeting was held of the local sub-committee of the County War Agricultural Committee where the possibility of appointing a women’s sub-committee to support canvassing efforts was discussed. They had up until now been patchy and confusing. It was noted that male labour on the farms had been greatly depleted and, unless women were canvassed and encouraged to take their place on the land, the farmers’ business would be in serious trouble.

With the canvassing that had been done, it was found that women in the district were less than enthusiastic about working on their local farms. The committee wanted to appeal to their patriotism to change this attitude. The situation in Kidderminster, however, was deemed good with many of the women canvassed already working on the local farms being unwilling to leave the district to work outside it. It was noted that women visiting the area the previous year had helped bring the harvest in, as had women from the university. There were comments made that educated and relatively well-off women would have no problem getting the necessary clothing and equipment to enable them to work the fields, but it was beyond the means of poorer women.

By September 1916 even the children were in on the act, many of them hop picking or planting and harvesting potatoes. Those children in the local children’s home, with the blessing of the Board of Guardians who had responsibility for their care, also did their bit. Instead of becoming Boy Scouts, they were receiving in gardening tuition.

In Worcestershire as a whole, the scheme to engage women to volunteer to work on farms was popular with around 2,000 women doing so in 1916. Within a few months this would rise to 4,000. It was all speed to the plough by March 1917 when they couldn’t guarantee, given the reduced staff they had and the equipment, that they would get the fields ploughed on time. An advert in the KS appealed for motorists to help by driving tractors.

There were some quarters that disliked women working on farms and in industry. Some farmers were convinced that it took two or more women to do not even half as good a job as one skilled man in the field, and that was even if they were trained. But the fact was that without the Land Girls, the farmers’ and the country’s predicament would have been a lot worse, with some commentators warning that the war may have been prolonged and the outcome very different. By August 1917 in Worcestershire, there were just over 1,000 women working full-time on the land with almost 2,000 part-timers.

Worcestershire War Agricultural Committee would take help where they could find it and in March 1917 the Government’s request was that all motorists that could should get out of their cars, petrol and oil was scarce after all, and step behind the wheel of a plough. The committee also engaged the help of 125 soldiers to plough the fields and a further 180 men who had some farming knowledge.

To help the farmers in times of a shortage of labour and horses, one local company, the Castle Motor Company, had an advert in the KS selling motor ploughs, claiming them to be ‘compact, easy to handle and cheap to run’. They would also maintain them and explain how to use them making them ‘a sound investment’.

Also, in an attempt to make the war a little easier for customers, some traders in the town reduced their prices and wouldn’t sell more than their allotted quota to those in the town who hoarded.

Grow Your Own

Of significance to farmers early on in the war was the notice that the military authorities would be looking out for large amounts of market garden and farm produce for use by the troops. Farmers were once more called upon to help the Government and the war effort by declaring how much they could offer and sell at a fair price.

When the potato crop failed in 1916, the local people were not to be beaten. Seed potatoes had been given to a local farmer by local trader W.J. Wrigglesworth but poor weather and soil prevented success. In March 1917, with the potato harvest improved, people were queuing up to buy over ten tons of potatoes from William E. Roberts in Coventry Street, early morning to sunset prompting the local police force to monitor proceedings.

Queuing for potatoes, Messrs Brooks Bros, greengrocers, Vicar Street, 1915. HWCL

Another local trader from the Horsefair area of Kidderminster used the need to increase food production to his advantage. When the enlistment came his way he declared ill-health, but still wanting to do his bit for King and Country, he offered to plant potatoes over three acres of land.

As the war progressed, farmers were to come to play a much bigger part in food production on a much larger scale than ever before. Early on in the war, there was much talk about the utilisation of allotments to help prevent distress. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries planned to encourage more allotments to help relieve any future food shortage. There were to be technical advisors from agricultural colleges to assist in the instruction of how to get the best yield from allotments and what to plant. With Harper Adams Agricultural College up the road, it was inevitable that they would play a big part in this initiative.

In fact, land at Brinton Park was given up to allotments in 1916 with a rent per year of 3d per plot. It was a popular venture and by June, twenty-six townspeople had taken a plot. The council was also keen that townspeople became involved and did what it could to help out.

Apart from working hard to increase food production, farmers were also engaged in charity work, raising money via jumble sales. By April 1916 they had raised £65,000 for Allied Farmers.

Landowners were also asked to donate land for the allotments, free of taxes and rent for a year. The local committees would give seedlings and see to it that any person with free time would assist in the maintenance and running of the allotments. In January 1916, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, in accordance with new DORA regulations, could force farmers to cultivate their land for food production in order to keep up with demands.

Save or Starve

The Food Controller stated in April 1917:

‘Every crumb should be saved, and the person who eats a slice of bread more than he needs, the servant who throws away a crust, the housewife who fails to exercise the most careful supervision over the rationing of her household is helping the enemy.’

There were concerns that Britain was producing far too much food waste and that waste was the ally of the enemy. Housewives were urged to rethink their family’s diet and eat less. Even the workhouse saw its daily ration of bread reduced to 13oz as early as 1915.

Even national companies such as Bird’s Custard were advising people on how to economise. One advert placed by the company in the KS had the banner ‘Household Economy in War Time!’ They extolled the inexpensiveness of their product and its nutritional value that was ‘body building’. They reassured customers that there was no shortage of custard and that they were ‘working hard to supply the exceptional demands of the military and the public’. Many prices were going up in the war due to the reduced supply of goods able to cross the seas, but Bird’s custard remained at the same price.

Bread was one of the staple foods and it was rationed. Bread prices increased, so high was demand, despite the government’s measures to prevent shortages. Ministers stipulated the percentage of wheat that was to be used in baking and the weight of the resulting loaves introducing the 4lb war loaf in 1917 for 9d. The local Co-operative had four thousand customers delivering 2,500 loaves a week to them. If underweight loaves were sold there were penalties. A baker based at Comberton Hill certainly felt the pressure, producing a staggering 2,250 loaves plus other products per week.

By December 1917, Save or Starve became Great Britain’s motto while a whole week was devoted to encourage people to make further sacrifices to reduce food consumption.

The Kidderminster War Savings Local Central Committee placed a notice in the KS urging people to ‘Be careful with food! And help our winning army’.

In January 1918, the Food Control Joint Advisory Committee met to look at the price of butter, milk and bread and how it would be distributed. It was decided that butter would be fixed at 2s 6d per pound. Potatoes would be used in the bread making process and the committee had bought four tons. Those producing and selling milk were finding times hard, but the committee decided to keep the going rate of 5½d per quart delivered, 5d if not delivered. Bread was to be weighed.

Even after the war ended, food and commodities remained scarce and rationing continued well into the early 1920s. Although some restrictions were lifted, including some meats, others were increased or became more expensive. Far from being in decline, rationing was going strong with the introduction of new ration books in the later months of 1919, but the Food Control Committee was disbanded in June 1920.

One interesting enterprise, the brainchild of the mayor that was to ease the burden of rationing was the plan for Kidderminster to have its own sugar beet plant. There was good support for this from the farmers who would be growing the beet, and the plant opened in 1925. Britain had learned from the German U-boats that relying on exports and imports was not a good idea, having almost been brought to its knees. Self-sufficiency was the way to go.

Although a voluntary rationing scheme had been introduced in 1917, which included sugar, meat and bread, it wasn’t until a year later that it became compulsory. To help local people one seller of sugar in the town C.W. Clarke who had two grocery stores in Coventry Street and Station Hill, placed a notice in the KS requesting customers to write to him with their intention of receiving their sugar ration from him.

B.L. Griffiths, another grocer in the town at Swan Street urged those customers of his who hadn’t received their sugar forms from the Post Office to go there and fill one in so that they could get their sugar rationing cards, which he was insistent they brought to him so he could ensure they got their share.

There was obviously some competition among grocers in the town who all wanted customers to get their sugar from them because the Kidderminster Industrial Co-operative Society Limited also put a notice in the pages of the KS regarding the National Sugar Scheme. They reminded customers where they could get the forms from and the deadlines, urging people to get their sugar from them.

Rationing inevitably was not without its problems, and some townspeople came under the scrutiny of the law for infringements. Alice Edwards from Broad Street found herself in court charged with trying to illegally procure sugar from the Co-operative Society. The legal limit was five half pounds a week and she had had six. She was claiming for a daughter who no longer lived with her having moved to Birmingham and was claiming her share there. The court decided to take a gentle line with her and fined her 10s.

Waste not, want not was the order of the day as a notice in the KS demonstrated. The residents of Kidderminster were reminded that coal was scarce and if they wasted water, for which the pumps were fuelled by coal, they were also wasting coal.

If it wasn’t for the colossal effort of farmers, the local community growing their own vegetables, the good fortune with the weather and the bringing in of rationing, the outcome of the war may have been very different.

The Carpet Factories

The carpet industry in Kidderminster had always been volatile and this was never more noticeable than in the war years. It had very much been a boom and bust industry and the war was to become its new threat. Although some businesses in the town such as the transport industry began to prosper, this was not the case for those engaged in the production of carpets.

In the first month of the war, the situation in the industry was dire. This was due to many factors, not least the fact that housebuilding had ceased and with everyone tightening their belts for victory the demand for luxury items such as carpets plummeted. Nationally, carpet manufacturers had seen their production fall by a third, and in Kidderminster the loss of orders meant the closure of factories.

Brinton’s Carpet Factory, Exchange Street, 1920. S. Cook/HWCL

There was hope in September, after the war had begun to bed in, when a few orders started to appear and the factories were opened for a three day week, but the town suffered unemployment with the associated poverty it brought. Remember that Kidderminster wasn’t exactly in a fit state from an infrastructural and environmental point of view before the war so it was inevitable that problems would not only persist but worsen.

With many of the men of the town, some of them from the carpet industry, enlisting, it left a void of skilled workers. Among those to be employed again when the factories reopened were married men who had not yet enlisted. It was hoped that by employing these men with families to support first, it would relieve the strain upon the workhouse and the council. If people were in work they could fend for themselves and keep themselves out of poverty.

Some carpet manufacturers in the town went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that those employees who enlisted, and their families, were cared for. Tomkinson and Adam, for instance, paid maintenance to their enlisting workforce and guaranteed that their jobs would be waiting for them on their return.

A relief fund was also set up by two stalwarts of the carpet manufacturing industry in the town: Stanley Baldwin and Reginald Brinton, to assist those carpet workers that had no jobs.

But the carpet industry found the war difficult, not least due to a high percentage of their workforce enlisting meaning they had no-one to work the looms. By 1918, for instance, Tomkinson and Adam had just 751 workers. But the shortage of raw materials also meant the industry’s production during the first twelve months of the war dropped by forty-five per cent

This was about to get a lot worse when, in 1916, the government decided that the carpet industry could no longer be protected as an exempted industry. This meant they would no longer be able to hold on to their workforce as many more of them would now be expected to attest and enlist. In order to counteract this, women and young people were now allowed to work up to six hours overtime a week. But there were conditions attached to this. The work must be done for the crown and for over seventy-five per cent of their export production.

Albert Perks’ offer of employment with the Carpet Manufacturing Company, Ltd, as a designer at Park Wharf when he returned from the army after the war. MCK

The Government realised that there was a fine line to tread between gathering men from industry to feed the war machine and keeping the wheels of industry turning. Lack of trade made for lack of money and poverty which was hardly conducive to morale for both those fighting abroad and their families left at home. The country, already on its knees could not be allowed to grind to a complete halt.

As a concession, to keep the industry from faltering completely, the Greatwich factory was also allowed to let the women and girls in its workforce work overnight. But it wasn’t enough and with the whisper of a strike in July 1916, the owners of the factories had a dilemma on their hands. Due to the war the price of food rose but, generally, workers’ wages did not. As a consequence the weavers demanded a wage increase of ten per cent along with a halfpenny an hour extra if they had to work without a creeler. A creeler is responsible for ensuring that the rack of yarns, called a creel, is kept topped up with yarn and was, at the time, a job often done by young people.

But the Weavers’ Association had tough rules on the engagement of children and young people in the industry, and did not take too kindly to employers’ demands that the rules were changed and that pay increases would apply only for the duration of the war and for a three or so months’ buffer zone after the end of the war. A couple of factories including Herbert & Smith in the town agreed.

The carpet industry faced many challenges during the war. One of these challenges was the reduction in the supply of jute which was used for carpet backing but increasingly for sandbags in the trenches. To give some idea of scale, the government, in 1915, requested a producer in Dundee to manufacture over forty million sandbags. The increase in this practice lead to a shortage of jute for the carpet-making process and as a consequence the price of jute rocketed.

But jute wasn’t the only raw material to be affected. Wool was required for blankets and soldiers’ uniforms. Because in time of war all efforts had to be focused on keeping the men able to fight, sacrifices in everyday life had to be made. So, in 1916, the whole wool clip in England and Wales was taken by the military. This led to concerns in the town that, without the wool, factories would close. There was some wool from the colonies to be had, but even that had been taken by the military by 1917.

The war even affected the supply of linen and synthetic dyes, which until the war had come from Germany. It wasn’t until a Government loan, taken out in 1915, that the dyes could be bought from the Swiss. Keen to prevent such a crisis, again British Dyes Ltd was set up later that year, and Kidderminster firms ensured they had a stake in the company.

Many firms across the town, and indeed the country, had had no choice but to diversify, reduce production or opening hours. The carpet manufacturers, once exemption was taken away and demand for carpets at home declined, had two choices: they could either continue manufacturing carpets for the export business, which was a risky business considering this arm of the industry had halved in just the first few weeks of the war with German U-boats patrolling the seas, or help the war by making goods for the armed services. The German U-boat offensive soon put paid to any ideas of the carpet export industry staying afloat and this choice foundered, forcing the industry to look closer to home for orders.

Brintons old factory, 2015. Author

The most obvious way for the carpet industry in Kidderminster to do this was to switch from making carpets to blankets for soldiers. This, however, did not come without its own costs. The current looms in use would have to be adapted but at least they would be kept active and bring in some revenue. This was valuable war work and classed as munition work.

But switch some of the companies, such as Naylors, did producing, nationally, over sixteen million blankets by 1918. Unfortunately, a fire in January 1915, put paid to their efforts until a new factory could be built. Other companies were soon on board making gun wads, blankets, yarns and webbing. But this wasn’t the extent of their efforts. Some engineers within the companies also produced artillery shells.

Kidderminster Carpet Industry, 1910, Brinton Jacquard Gripper Axminster loom, ¾ wide. HWCL

Thank you note from Mrs Naylor and her daughters following Joseph Naylor’s death, 1917. MCK

Most factories at the time lost staff who had been killed in action. Joseph, one of the Naylor family who owned one of the factories, was killed in 1917.

Of those companies who followed the export route, Tompkinson & Adam reported that, as expected and following national trends in 1916, business was stagnant but it had improved by 1917. In order to fulfil their orders, a lot of their workers were working overtime with half the factory working flat out for thirty-five-and-a-half hours a week. They were hindered, however, by the fact that they had no workers to open the other half of the factory. All was not lost for the carpet industry in the town. The Carpet Manufacturing Company had plans to open a new showroom and shop.

Another Act that was introduced during the war which affected the local carpet industry was the Munitions of War Act, 1915. This Act gave the Government the power to take control of any factory or business that carried out munitions work and they would come under their rules and jurisdiction. This also meant that any disagreements between the employers and employers of such establishments, such as had occurred numerous times throughout the history of the carpet industry in Kidderminster, would have to be dealt with by the War Office or their representatives. The country was also divided into zones, each under the control of their own munitions committee: Kidderminster came under Birmingham.

Congratulatory letter from the Midlands Art Club to Mr Tompkinson for having so many sons in the armed forces and for Captain Tompkinson having been mentioned in despatches. It wasn’t just the workers who were enlisting, it was the carpet manufacturers’ sons too. MCK

Being an industrial town in the centre of a rural area with farmland and agricultural workers striving around them to help feed the country, the town looked to its carpet industry to do all it could for the war effort. Despite the hardship and uncertainty the war brought to the town, the carpet industry and other industries threw themselves into war work. The three main companies involved in munition work, Baldwin’s, Castle Motor Company and Bradley and Turton’s not only encouraged their workers to enlist they engaged in war work on the Home Front.

Baldwin’s, for example, saw 674 of their workforce join the armed forces by November 1914. This had increased to 1,200 by 1917. Unfortunately, not all their workers would return. Of that 1,200, sixty-four men had been wounded, while seventy-one had been killed in action.

This must have come as a huge blow to the company, as any loss of life in such a violent way would to any company. This loss of life was repeated up and down the country. However, the setbacks and hardships people faced at home, were little compared to the horror and hardship their loved ones faced abroad, and so, the company was only too happy to assist the Ministry of Munitions by offering one of their engineering premises for free so they could make more shells.

They weren’t the only company to assist the war effort in this way. A new munitions area was built by Bradley and Turton in 1916. Their efforts were by no means small. Each shell cost an estimated 5s 6d and there were 9,438 of them made in the town by October 1916. They also repaired broken or defective shells (1,200) and nosed a further 9,588 shells (3d a piece).

It wasn’t just blankets and shells they were involved in either. There were many different items produced by the factories of Kidderminster including spares, and other objects, for other companies including the Gas Company. The Castle Motor Company had, at one point in the war, fifty-three men working for them in two shifts to produce 83,000 shells, 160,000 shell base plates, and 6,000 pistols to detonate depth charges alongside valves for aeroplanes. During this time, they also continued their original work of maintaining the town’s motor vehicles.

Munitions work, if companies were willing and able to take it up, could prove to be rewarding financially as well as patriotically. As well as the carpet and motor industries, other industries were keen to adapt their working practices and premises to accommodate work for the war effort.

One of the other areas to do this was the iron works. There was a foundry in the Park Lane area of the town under the auspices of Edwin Preston’s Brass and Iron which moulded various iron objects. But just as the carpet industry had suffered from industrial action over pay and conditions, the iron industry was also in negotiations for higher pay. Moulders could expect around 32s a week for their skills but in 1918, due to the war, wages were increased to 59s 6d a week. However, the Friendly Society of Iron Founders, a union, did push further demanding an extra 8s per week and a reduction in the working week from fifty-four hours to fifty-three.

The military didn’t just need men, textiles and munitions. They needed wood to make packing cases which is where Bateman’s Steam Saw Mills came into use. They also had to transport the munitions from the factories in Kidderminster to the depot ready for transportation to the front. Once again a Kidderminster firm was employed to do this: S.J. Collins, haulier and haulage contractor based in St George’s Terrace.

Just as some of the big businesses and industries in the town benefitted from war work, so did some individuals. One such man was Charles Wall who led a team of men as Head Gardener. He soon found that he could earn more, £5 per annum, undertaking munitions work than working as a gardener.

CHAPTER 5

Life Goes On

Despite the financial pressures the town was under, with many workers going on short time and the workforce depleted as more and more men went to war, life still had to go on. Businesses and traders still had to make money and produce goods and they certainly had to adapt and diversify, taking on female staff, for example, to survive.

The First World War on the Home Front was a time of rapid change and uncertainty. There were men, not yet eligible for call up, who were just waiting to see when their time would come as the rules and regulations regarding conscription, fitness to fight and which occupations were exempt, changed. Wives, mothers and daughters were on tenterhooks, waiting for news of their family members already serving abroad, awaiting the dreaded telegram, or watching their men still at home, wondering when it would be their turn to leave.

With that hanging over them it’s a wonder the people of Kidderminster didn’t just want to stay at home.

But the people of Kidderminster were made of much stronger stuff than that. It was their heightened sense of patriotism and their will to carry on, if not for themselves, for their loved ones fighting abroad that carried them through. They threw themselves into fundraising for the war as we will see in another chapter.

The war was all encompassing and affected every aspect of their lives. They couldn’t walk through the streets without catching sight of reminders that there was a war on; the KS had a board outside its offices, keeping people up to date with the war news, shops closed earlier, eventually there would be rationing and the lighting order to contend with. DORA was imposing all sorts of regulations on them and there was the constant threat of enemy spies infiltrating the town. People were constantly reminded to be on their guard and warned that wastefulness and careless talk were a gift to the enemy.

Form filled in by the firm Tompkinson & Adam, Duke Street, Church Fields, Kidderminster, where, among other things they were required to declare how many disabled men discharged from the armed forces they had working for them and whether they had any women working for them.

Some businesses in the town tried to help their customers by pointing out that the lighting order was in force and urging them to order blackout blinds and curtains. Nevertheless, it was all too easy for townsfolk to find themselves falling foul of the new regulations.

But life did go on despite the restrictions and gloom of war. There were numerous sporting events taking part across the town as well as religious meetings. One such meeting was advertised in the KS. A Christadelphian lecture was to be held at Kingsley Hall in Vicar Street on 8 November. The subject was, not surprisingly, to be The Great War and ‘its connection with the History and Destiny of the Human Race’. People were advised there would be no collection and the event was free. They were also invited to bring their bibles to ‘test’ their teachings.

Some sporting teams such as in football, rugby and cricket saw their numbers fall and they were forced to stop play for a season or two. The local Kidderminster cricket teams, rather than lament the lack of matches, sent a letter of appeal to the ‘cricket loving public’ via the pages of the KS and felt the great British public could use their love of the sport for good.

‘We ask all those who have watched us play, and cheerfully paid their half-crowns, shillings and sixpences … to step forward and contribute their half-crowns, shillings and sixpences to the Prince’s Fund out of gratitude for the enjoyment the cricket field had given them in the past.’

There were businesses in the area that were also keen to show their support to the war. An advert in the KS said that Miss Harrison who ran a photography shop in Station Hill ‘would be pleased to photograph any young man who is about to join the army’. There was no obligation to buy.

Due to the lack of materials owing to German U-boats, one company of furniture makers, Sassons, decreed that customers wishing to furnish their homes soon would have to visit the shop as they had bought in lots of stock prior to the issues with shipping.

Kidderminster also had a picturehouse that had a variety of entertainments on every week. Acts ranged from the Black Country comedian Ernie Garner, a cycle act Les Cycluminas to a ‘sensational film’ Great Naval Mystery. They had matinees as well as evening performances with prices around 3s 6d for adults and 1s 2d for children. This entertainment provided a little light relief from all the worry and austerity the war brought to their doorsteps and was also a source of education about the war.

There was also an Electric Theatre in Mill Street which had on its bill, among other acts, ‘The World’s Mystifiers, Pertab Sinjh and Zenia Company’ in their temple of Mystery, and the film The Black Spot, with prices between 4-6d.

Kidderminster, or rather those in the town who could afford it, really was spoiled for choice when it came to entertainment. As well as the Electric Theatre and the Picture House they had the Opera House too. On the bill there were performances of A Bid For The Throne, and the curiously titled Haunted Sentinel Tower And His Trust.

The town even attracted big travelling shows including Olympia with three shows in one including, Roman Arena which featured the sports of Roman Gladiators, a great wild west exhibition and a two-ring circus and fairground in March.

Where some areas of the country stopped their county shows due to the war, Kidderminster still held a ‘Patriotic War Show of Fruit and Vegetables’. The money raised was going to be given to the infirmary and the show included a church parade for the allotment holders and various open classes for showing. It was hoped this show would go some way to reducing the debt the hospital had accrued.

Comberton Hill, showing the Opera House to the left of the picture. David Voice

Even St Mary’s Church held social gatherings such as one held at the vicarage which included country dancing in fancy dress by St Mary’s Infant School children, Masque from the Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be performed by the high school children. There were various stalls, tennis, clock golf and dancing guaranteed to provide some light relief to the townspeople.

They held these regularly including another one in July 1918 which this time included a ‘laughable sketch’ called Between the Soup and the Savoury, and an open-air whist drive with dancing on the lawn at the vicarage in Franche Road. It cost a shilling to attend.

The churches also held prayer meetings to pray for the servicemen caught up in the vicious fighting. One particular meeting took place at the Town Hall as a united service. In its advertisement in the KS it quoted a verse from Psalm 50.

‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’

There were some quarters of the town, however, that felt it was unpatriotic to indulge in such light and, in their eyes, frivolous activities while sons of Kidderminster were fighting and dying in such dire environments. Yet others felt it was their duty to keep business thriving and many of these so labelled frivolous endeavours actually made money for the war charities.

In among the happy events occurring in the town during the war, there was also one potential tragedy involving a tram that crashed on Comberton Hill. At the time, there were many visitors in the town from the surrounding area’s munitions factories. It was a busy scene with the trams busier than usual. One of them became derailed and collided with one of Messrs. Bantock and Co’s wagons travelling down Station Road. This pushed the tram car into some houses. No one in the houses was seriously hurt but the wagon driver had been thrown under the wagon and was reported to be ‘badly shaken’.

St Mary’s Church. David Voice

Workers from the Tramway pre-war. NTM & David Voice

Empire Day, Stourport, 1909. Notice the tram that would have taken passengers to Kidderminster. NTM & David Voice

Oxford Street Terminus, Kidderminster, c1902, Godfrey Jones/David Voice

Kidderminster Station Loop, Comberton Hill, c1905, NTM & David Voice

Just as the soldiers required medical treatment when injured or unwell abroad, the townspeople also had ailments despite there being a war on. The town still needed its doctors and nurses as we will see in another chapter and the KS carried adverts such as one for Mr H. Whitmore of Queen’s Chambers, High Street. He offered free extractions during the war to servicemen with decaying teeth.

In times of great stress such as the Great War, towns like Kidderminster up and down the country would find their own way of getting through the war as best as they could. A united community pulling together to see the war out was what was needed. There was no room for selfishness. Kidderminster kept the home fires burning through its singing and dancing and its determination to show the Germans their mettle and unwillingness to be supressed by the war. In the next chapter the role of women and children will be explored and how they picked up the gauntlet to do whatever they could to help the war effort.

CHAPTER 6

A woman’s work is never done

‘She bears up as best she can, patiently and without complaint.’

The war was both a blessing and a curse for women. Many of them had jobs in service or families to care for but the war suddenly saw them being thrown under a spotlight that would change how they were viewed by society and their role within it.

Many of their menfolk had gone away to war and they had no idea when they would see them again. News from the battlefields was scant at the best of times, open to rumour and confusion, and many women felt the pressure of the risk of losing their only income and, potentially, their homes. Who would take care of their interests with the main breadwinner gone? It’s possibly why so many men were reluctant to answer the call to arms when it is seen what they had to lose.

But this also put women in a difficult position. They were expected to encourage their men to enlist and judging from several letters in the local newspapers they did this with aplomb, often attempting to shame those men still at home into enlisting. It was seen as their patriotic duty and their biggest movement, the suffrage movement, agreed, suspending their campaign for women’s rights for the duration of the war.

The Suffrage Movement

In early July, 1914 the women’s suffrage movement organised a pilgrimage from ‘the four corners of England’ to a meeting in London. There were reports of huge crowds assembling, ‘working towards the vote by all legal means available to them’. Although none of the four routes passed through Kidderminster, those suffragettes from the town and across Worcestershire who were able to would have gone to show their support as the pilgrims marched down Watling Street in Wolverhampton.

An open air meeting was held in the neighbouring county of Shropshire on August 1914, where Mrs Harley of Condover and Miss Knight, the organiser of the West Midlands Federation, gave an address on the subject of women’s suffrage. The meeting was well supported but the suffragettes, particularly as we entered into war were not admired by everyone as a letter in the local press shows.

‘May I express my regret that so many women of my old country in the form of militant suffragettes should in their demand for the vote behave in such a deplorable way… It seems to me that if these English women desire to help to make laws they would be more successful if they were more law abiding.’

Hopefully, by the end of the war, women would have more than regained the writer’s respect through their patriotic and charitable conduct during the war years.

Katherine Harley’s message to the women of the West Midlands was clear, as this excerpt from the local papers shows:

‘We cannot ask our men to recruit without offering them our help in carrying on the work they leave behind. Who among you will volunteer to take the place of a man in office, shop or factory in order to release him for military service? … I ask in the name of my brother who so sorely needs the service of the able-bodied men of our country.’

Her brother was Sir John French who was commanding the British Expeditionary Force in France. He had joined the navy in 1866 from where he transferred to the army in 1874. In his career he had served in many campaigns including the Boer War. His command of the BEF during the First World War did not last long and he was succeeded by his deputy Douglas Haig in 1915.

A meeting was advertised in the Kidderminster Shuttle, 8 November 1914 issue, for The League of Honour, discussing ‘women’s part in the war’. It was to be led by Mrs Horace Porter of London and to be held in the Town Hall.

Suffrage was very important in the town and the Suffrage Movement held their annual meeting and reported good attendance and they now had over 108 members and ninety-four friends. There was a sense of pride at the way the women in the area had immersed themselves in war work and this would go some way to improving their cause.

There were also warnings that they must be careful to operate within the many new rules and regulations that had come into force, and that all branches of the society should be ready for any emergency that might befall their areas. There had been work taken up by the society abroad helping refugees, and they were in close contact with the Red Cross should they need more volunteers. Towards the end of the war, there were rumours that a change in the law on voting was likely and a notice appeared in the KS stating there were plans to organise an enquiry bureau in Church Street for those women in the town who wanted to register their interest.

Immediately after Mr Asquith announced that Great Britain was at war with Germany, the suffrage movement wasted no time in its call to arms. A meeting was called in nearby Wellington ‘to make arrangements for organising help for those who will suffer from the effects of the war’.

Soon, women would be taking on a lot more duties as the arm of employment swept in a different direction during the war and the women took the place of the men in the fields and the factories.

The First World War was, in many ways, the catalyst that sparked a change in opinions and attitude across many sectors of British life, including the way women were perceived in the workforce and home and many social changes.

A poster in the local paper highlighted that a woman’s work was never done. The poster ends with the poignant line that shows the woman’s lot during the First World War: ‘She bears up as best she can, patiently and without complaint,’ an indication of the patriotic and ‘can-do’ attitude of women on the Home Front during the war.

Workers from the Tramway during the war – notice there are more women when compared to a similar image in Chapter 5. NTM/David Voice

Mrs. Henry Fawcett, in August 1914, made a ‘stirring’ appeal to the National Union of Women and the suffrage societies to join together in order for them to better organise the aid the country would need if it were to get through the war. The suggestion that they should lay down their arms and activities working towards their own goals, of greater women’s rights and the vote, and concentrate on the plight of the country instead to alleviate the distress the war would cause, was met with open arms.

A week later the women had made their ‘prompt’ response to Mrs Fawcett with over a thousand applications for work registered. Many of those who applied, however, were professional and seeking paid employment which was not within the remit of Mrs Fawcett’s wishes as she wanted volunteers. Those women who did want paid work were referred to the Labour Exchanges instead.

One of the leading lights in Kidderminster of the suffrage movement was Mary Anton. Her husband had been connected with the carpet industry in Scotland and they made Kidderminster their home when her husband brought his factory, Victoria Carpets to the town in 1899.

She was not only a member of the National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Societies, but a keen fundraiser too, which saw her become involved in many committees and fundraising efforts during the war period. When war broke out the movement became the Active Service League to better differentiate their war efforts from their ordinary campaign of fighting for women’s votes.

And Mary certainly did her bit. She was involved in fundraising for both the Belgian Refugee Relief Fund and the Prince of Wales’s Fund. Her influence also reached into the War Savings arena of which she was president. She also utilised her home for the war effort by holding an ‘at home’ to raise funds for wounded soldiers in hospitals in France and Serbia. It is testament to her influence and the patriotism and need the townspeople had to help the war effort that this event was attended by 100 women with some of the proceeds going to The Larches (the servicemen’s hospital) for which she also gave her assistance in organising their Pound Days where visitors could donate items, groceries, etc., to the value of a pound in money or a pound in weight.

Even though the women could not physically fight in the war, their contribution to the war effort both on the Home Front and abroad was phenomenal. They more than proved their mettle. They threw themselves into fundraising and growing and preserving their own food. They held regular flag days for various charitable concerns, one being the local Weavers’ Superannuation Fund for which they held a tea at the Corn Exchange, giving 100 straw baskets.

Her organisational and leadership skills came into the fore when she became the first woman to be on the Board of Guardians in 1916, and she also busied herself with the Food Economy Committee, playing no small part in laying the foundation for the National Kitchen in the town in 1918. The National Kitchen was opened in the Horsefair district of the town. It had been delayed as there was building work to be done and it needed some alterations internally to be fit for purpose. Miss Buckell had been trained up for the job and aided by her staff was to provide food for the town.

National Kitchens were introduced at the latter part of the war as food prices increased, rationing was increased and there was a reduction in the availability of food and resources. Their aim was to provide hot, nutritious food to workers and the poorer members of the community.

Her tenacity and determination reached far past the war years when she also became the first lady magistrate in Kidderminster when the war ended. Her efforts, and those of the many women who worked hard to support the war effort, did not go unnoticed when she was invited to Buckingham Palace.

Do your Duty

The women of Britain were now expected to put down their Votes For Women banners and engage in the war, but the question was how? Some of the suggested activities suitable for women included: helping on farms with the harvest, field work, boarding young children, distributing government stores and money to reservists’ families, Red Cross work, medical work, clerical work in offices set up for the emergency services. With Kidderminster sitting in among prime agricultural land it was inevitable that their attentions would soon be turned to working the land as we see in another chapter.

The KS ran an advertisement in October 1917, stating that five thousand women were needed for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). The Corps was formed in 1917 following a demonstration in 1915 in London by women who felt they were not being allowed to do what they could for the war effort. The country was desperate for workers due to unprecedented numbers of men enlisting and going to war, especially when conscription was introduced in 1916. This action saw more women being recruited as, among other things, bus conductors and factory workers.

The role of the WAAC was to help release men from certain roles within the Armed Forces. They formed the first women’s section of the army and their contribution to the war effort was exceptional. Their existence was not, however, welcomed by everyone. It was the insistence of Lieutenant-General H. Lawson that paved the way for women to overcome some of the prejudice and restrictions they faced in society at the time. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the commander-in-chief of the army was not entirely convinced that woman could cope with the physical pressures of the work on the front line and Lord Derby, the Director-General of Recruitment, also had his doubts. Nevertheless, the WAAC was formed.

With the number of men signing up – most of those men being the sole breadwinner of the family – it would be natural for the women left behind to have to find work to keep the family going. The government’s compensation went some way to helping but it wasn’t enough. Assurances from the Government and some of the local landowners and employers that they would keep the soldiers’ and sailors’ jobs open until their return and help ease the financial burden of the families left behind were treated with suspicion. Most people’s minds were on the threat of the workhouse if they failed to keep their heads above water. Times were hard enough as it was to make ends meet and the war was just another added pressure. It wouldn’t have taken much for most families to break.

The war was a double-edged sword for women. Not only did it offer women opportunities in the workplace that they would not have previously had, but it also caused problems with more traditional types of employment. Domestic servants were one of the occupations to suffer as the war began to bite and the gentry were forced to let some of their staff go. But there was a remedy to this problem and it came from the Government of New South Wales offering work for British domestic servants who were well thought of over there. They were offered paid passage overseas and good wages – the more experienced earning 12s 6d to £1 a week. They used the premise that Australia was part of the Empire and was a healthy and ‘attractive’ place to live. There were also adverts enticing British farmers to work on farms in Canada, aiming to eventually own their own and settle there.

But was the offer as good as it appeared? It was certainly taking away women workers from where they would soon be required in unprecedented numbers to work the land and take over from other traditionally male orientated occupations such as driving buses, working on farms and as clerks.

The efforts of women across the country, particularly in agriculture, caught the eye of the Earl of Selbourne who was so impressed that he thought a Women’s Roll of Honour should be set up to acknowledge their achievements. The idea of giving them a badge was considered. He was keen for women to be acknowledged in the same way their menfolk fighting in the war were honoured.

But there was another way in which women would probably have benefitted more and that was to be given the vote, so long denied them. This point was highlighted in local newspapers with a letter from the suffragette movement. They pointed out that both men and women had been working hard throughout the war and ‘if service in His Majesty’s forces during the present war is to be regarded as a voter’s qualification it is quite impossible to leave them [women] out.’

This could have been seen as an attempt to use the war as leverage to get women the vote, but the author was keen to point out that they did not see voting rights for women as a ‘prize’ for their war service.

Women would eventually get their wish to vote, although it was restricted to begin with. It cannot be denied that the effort that women put into keeping the home fires burning for the duration of the war played no small part in winning them the vote.

Because much of the town’s male work force had been taken to fight in the war, a shortfall in labour was experienced like never before in the history of the town. Women had to step up to fill the vacancies left by the men, but even with their help it still wasn’t enough. They were primarily tied up with the carpet industry but there were other jobs that badly needed filling and this is where the children and young people of the town came into their own.

In early 1916 those boys at Coventry Street Boys’ School over the age of 13 were given exams, which if passed, would earn them labour certificates. Later in 1917, the boys of the town would be doing their bit for King and Country again by operating house-to-house calls for scrap metal. Many people, including the children had more than one job in an attempt to keep industry and the war effort viable.

Women’s work during the war years was unprecedented and the women of Kidderminster certainly had their mettle tested in many ways. Unfortunately for them, and their counterparts all over the UK, many of their roles reverted back to their pre-wars days as soon as the war ended and the men who had survived came back but their lives and standing in society would never be the same again.

CHAPTER 7

Crime, Punishment and Tribunals

Not only did the war offer up plentiful opportunities for those who wished it for displays of patriotism and enthusiasm towards helping the war effort, and there were plenty of such examples in the town, it also gave the more criminal element of the town opportunities to engage in misdemeanours.

The local courts certainly saw their share of local miscreants including the case of five children ranging in age from 7 to 11 who found themselves in the children’s court on a charge of stealing coal from the railway yard. One of them, 11-year-old Walter McLatchy, had been in court the previous week for stealing bread and had been bound over by the court for two years.

The coal company claimed that the children had stolen around a hundredweight of coal at a value of 1s 10d. The policeman on duty that night was P.C. Moss who said he saw two children on Comberton Hill. One of the boys had a lump of coal in his hand and the girl was pushing a pram that contained more coal. The two he spoke to immediately gave the names of the other children involved too. One of the other boys was found to have had a bucket of coal in his house. Two of the boys had been before the courts before but the girl hadn’t. The children claimed that one of their mothers had told them to ‘go and pick coal but don’t get into any trouble’. Walter was placed on remand for his part in the theft and his sister Matilda was put under probation for three months with the other children being let off with a caution. It was a difficult time for many families and some of them would have had little choice but to steal food and coal to survive.

The Trouble with Tribunals

There were local courts in the town that dealt with the everyday running of the judicial system, with cases ranging from theft and assault to fraud and drunk and disorderly behaviour. But when the war broke out and, particularly with the introduction of voluntary attestation, and then conscription, special courts were set up nationally to deal with the inevitable queue of men trying to get out of going to fight, some with legitimate reasons, others not. There were accusations of men changing occupations to an exempted one in order to dodge enlistment and many men tried to make superfluous claims or exaggerate their situations in order to secure their exemption.

There were two such courts in the town, Borough and Rural. This is where, once again, the carpet industry was involved as the chair of the Borough Tribunal was Reginald Brinton with vice-chair being Alderman Tomkinson who also just so happened to chair the Rural Tribunal.

The tribunals were designed to have among their committees the managers of local businesses and local people of note who would have a vested interest in the outcomes of these tribunals as, presumably, it would be some of their workers, or those from rival companies that would be gracing their tribunals.

The local tribunals were, however, fairly representative of the town and included tradesmen such as George Law, who was a local builder, and the President of the Carpet Weavers’ Association, F. Potter. Not all cases were heard at these tribunals, especially if they were straightforward and could be discussed by local committees the tribunals appointed specifically for this purpose.

But just because these tribunals were heard by local people didn’t make them any less binding. They operated exactly as a court of law would and the tribunal’s decision was to be taken seriously. The person requesting exemption had the right to representation and there would usually be someone from the military on the side of conscription. The courts were transparent with the local press allowed admission. This was so that previous claims that there was an opportunity for corruption behind closed doors could be denounced. Those pleading for exemption were, however, entitled to a private hearing.

In the early months of the tribunals, there was confusion and contradiction abounded. Those who ran them were often given very little guidance, and were reliant on missives handed down from the War Office, which often appeared too late or appeared to contradict earlier circulars. If those opposing conscription thought forcing people to fight was bad, they often found the tribunals to be a farce and tantamount to pitching townsperson against townsperson, who often snitched on each other, or raised the questions as to why Joe from down the road had had his exemption approved, when their son, of similar age and standing, had not.

To give some idea of the scale of the tribunals: at one point the Borough Tribunal had seventy-four claims of which the Advisory Committee had recommended forty-four exemptions. This left the Borough Tribunal to discuss thirty cases in one sitting. It would only get worse as the war progressed.

One of the cases heard that day was of 30-year-old fireman Arthur Cope. Despite the argument that three other members of the fire brigade had joined up, and another member had passed away, his request was not granted. Another fireman Thomas Barth, aged 36, however had a three-month exemption granted. He was a wireman, employed in electrical work, which is what probably swung the decision in his favour.

It didn’t always help your case even if you had previously been turned away from the army. William Higgins from Stourport was a 27-year-old carpet weaver who had learned his trade with the Victoria Carpet Works after being rejected by the army. The company made the case that ninety-five per cent of their work was for goods for export, and they had already seen many of their men enlist, but it didn’t work and his exemption was denied.

However, 31-year-old Harry Dredge, a foreman at Messrs. E.A. Broome & Sons, was granted exemption for four months. His employer successfully argued that because the Government was controlling his mill and seventy-four per cent of the work was war based he needed Harry to stay where he was.

All applicants for exemption were obliged to have their fitness tested in Worcester by the Medical Board for recruitment before their application was seen in the tribunal, this was to prevent time wastage and so that there could be no quibbles about a man’s fitness to fight. It wasn’t fool-proof though, as the formation of a special medical board in London shows. This board had the right to re-assess those men who had been declared fit to fight previously but who subsequently showed a certificate from their own doctors declaring them unfit due to a chronic illness or other reason. Some men went to quite elaborate lengths in order not to fight although it is true that in the military’s desperation for men, mistakes were made and some men who shouldn’t have had their exemptions granted did and it was often a battle to have it revoked.

Exemptions ranged from temporary or conditional to absolute, and most people appeared to get temporary exemptions of between three and six months, which meant they had to go back before the tribunal and plead their case again regularly. Those who were successful in their applications carried certificates with them so they could show any suspicious parties that they were legally entitled to remain at home. Conditional discharges were usually reliant on the applicant remaining in the same occupation, or the sick or dependent relative they were responsible for remaining ill, or their own illness remaining so. The minute things changed and their exemption was up, they would be expected to go and fight.

Not every applicant was accepting of the tribunal’s decision and there was often controversy and arguments. Applicants were entitled to appeal at the Worcester Tribunal but these were often no better in their organisation and conduct than the local tribunals. However, the chair of this tribunal Mr J.W. Willis Bund made great pains to allay any fears by saying the tribunal would:

‘take the greatest possible care that there was no undue interference with the liberty of the subject, and to see that everything was done in a fair and most impartial manner.’

If the applicant still wasn’t happy, their next port of call would have to be London. As the war progressed, and more men were expected to fight due to the recruitment criteria being changed, the tribunals found themselves constantly under scrutiny and the object of displeasure and dismay from the locals as seen by the letters frequenting the pages of the KS show.

In an effort to show local townspeople that the tribunal took all applicants seriously, and carefully considered them, without prejudice or an agenda, the Kidderminster Tribunal was pleased to announce that the minute taker of the tribunal had been called up and had gone. What was good for the goose was good for the gander, despite some local people’s suspicions and accusations.

The military issued a letter in April 1917 highlighting the need for a further 500,000 men, and by June 1918, the Ministry of National Service in an attempt to wave the banner for the tribunals tried to make the rules, roles and responsibilities of the tribunals clearer.

There then appeared tribunals covering specialist areas including some more sensitive occupations such as coal and fuel, although there had been a special tribunal for munitions cases since 1915. Obviously the largest area for consideration nationally was that of agriculture and it wasn’t long before the County War Agricultural Committee was formed to look at this alongside its sister agents, the Divisional Food Commission and the Regional Director for Livestock Commission, whose roles were to reorganise operations and improve communications.

If the need for more men was urgent in the early years of the war, it suddenly became a national emergency following the Battle of the Somme. The Somme saw some of the most devastating losses of the war and as a consequence those men who had been exempted due to concerns over their fitness to fight saw themselves being enlisted.

The Battle of the Somme was a huge battle that started on 1 July 1916 and ended in November 1916. The casualty numbers for this battle go some way to show how horrific and damaging this battle was. The British Army lost around 420,000 men during this battle, a staggering 60,000 of whom were lost on the first day alone.

The classification of men according to their fitness and age was changed several times throughout the war which can be seen in the tribunals where the age of those men presenting themselves for exemption increased.

The Military Service Act, which came into force in 1916, exempted certain occupations from having to enlist. These initially included the clergy, some industrial employees, men who were deemed medically unfit, teachers and, of course, conscientious objectors. This Act was amended a couple of months later to include married men being removed from exemption. So desperate were the Armed Forces for men that by 1918, the age limit for those eligible for conscription rose from 41 to 51. By the end of the war conscription had been responsible for the enlistment of 2.5million men.

However, those men now being conscripted were not afforded the same privilege of joining up to their home regiments as those early volunteers had. Now, those being forced to go to war were placed in whichever regiment required them.

In the early years of the war the carpet industry was exempt from service. Indeed, in the local borough tribunal in November 1917, they made a resolution that the carpet manufacturers in the town wouldn’t have any more men taken. As the need for more men became more urgent, this was revoked, and the Manpower Act 1918 was enforced.

Fighting Germans, Austrians and Drink

With the bleakness of war and financial hardship it wasn’t any wonder that many people turned to drink. The courts were full of men and some women who were charged with being drunk and disorderly, an offence which often ended in violence or damage to property.

Alcohol was becoming a real problem in Britain. In 1914, there were just under 184,000 convictions for drunkenness. This fell to around 84,000 in 1916 and again to 29,000 in 1918. The Government. and military were concerned that drinking too much was adversely affecting the war effort. To counteract this they introduced liquor control regulations which reduced public house opening hours and beer production making it weaker as well.

Locally this meant a reduction in beer production of 15 per cent by 1916. In the same year, soldiers were banned from public houses between the hours of 6am and noon and all pubs in the town were closed by 9.30pm. The situation wasn’t about to improve and by 1917 many pubs had run out of beer.

Some publicans also found themselves being accused of breaking the new laws. One such publican owned the Black Horse in the town and had been accused of selling beer out of hours. In time of war, this was sacrilege but, when investigated, his staff had insisted the beer was theirs and had not been sold.

The rules did not just apply to inns and public houses, however. Prices continued to rise as supplies began to run out. The Worcester, Kidderminster and District Bottlers Association were forced to hike their prices up twice in a fortnight in April 2016. In some cases, alcohol was also watered down and the opening hours of pubs and inns was restricted.

Another tram from the period in Stourport. NTM/David Voice

Even in times of war criminals and opportunists abounded, much to the chagrin and disgust of law-abiding people in the town. But it is easy to see, with new regulations being brought into force seemingly daily, how some unsuspecting people trying their best for the war effort may have come unstuck.

It wasn’t just people who had yet to enlist who were trying to get out of military service that found themselves in court either. One man already in the army, but who had deserted, was James Pitt. He was visiting Kidderminster when he was arrested in Broad Street. He denied the charges but was nevertheless detained.

It transpired that he had been in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, but had gone missing in South Africa in 1903. When this evidence came to light, James admitted it and was remanded while he awaited military escort. Desertion was very much frowned upon and could lead to the offender being executed. Men who enlisted and later were conscripted into the armed forces were expected to fight their best for their King and Country. It was very much a case of doing one’s duty, getting on with it and fighting to the death. It was deemed the only way that the war would be won. Anyone who failed in their duty was painted as a coward.

This is all good in theory, but even the most experienced soldier who had been in battle before would have balked at the utter destruction and mayhem that the battlefields of the First World War unleashed. It is no wonder that some of the very young men and others who had volunteered to fight, with no battlefield experience or idea of what they were letting themselves in for, could not cope with the horror of war, prompting many of them to have psychological problems and disappear.

But this was a war and the armed forces could not cope with men who were not psychologically fit to fight or who had fled. To the Armed Forces at the time they were a liability. During the war 306 such men from Britain and the Commonwealth were executed for this crime.

To be discharged home through physical injury had honour and bravery attached to it but to be shot by a firing squad for deserting one’s post or being mentally unable to fight was deemed cowardly and brought shame upon the men’s family and communities. So strong was that sense of shame that the executed men’s names were omitted from war memorials.

Whether a serviceman enlisted willingly or had to be forced to fight, once they were in service they were governed by strict military law. The war was brutal, as were the rules. Those men who were terrified by the environment they found themselves in, mentally scarred by the horrors they witnessed each day, knowing it was probably just a matter of time before they met a similar fate, had little choice but to go over the top. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. If they fled the bullets of the German lines by running back to seek safety within their own lines, they would more than likely be shot by ‘friendly’ fire. Treating the ‘cowards’ in this way also sent a clear message to the rest of the troops and was a deterrent to stop other men from deserting.

Many of the men were suffering from shell shock and would, had they been fighting in a war today, have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. It was Dr Mayer from the British Psychological Society who, in 1915, wrote about this debilitating condition. The First World War was to see over 80,000 cases of this by the time of its climax.

The KS carried a story about Francis Donne from Stone who was seen in the County Petty Sessions. He had been charged with failing to attend for military service which Donne denied. He disputed the fact that he was even liable for service as he was not a resident of Great Britain, although he was born in Britain and both his parents were British. He emigrated to Canada in 1906 for business purposes, although he did make three visits to England from that time until 1917.

He was obviously not averse to military service, he had tried to get a commission in the artillery but would have had to have started at the lowest rank and work his way up to a commission. He was then called up for military service. On receiving his call up papers he applied to the Kidderminster Rural Tribunal for exemption. They decided they couldn’t hear his application due to the confusion regarding his liability for military service and referred it to the courts.

While this was being done, Mr Donne applied for a passport back to Canada, which was denied. Due to the complexities of the case, involving communications to and from the War Office Mr Donne was given a reprieve for two weeks until the legalities could be sorted out.

Meanwhile at the Borough Tribunal, presided over by Mr Brinton, it was the volunteers who came under scrutiny. Some of the men, who had been previously exempted on condition that they joined the volunteers, had worked hard which had not gone unnoticed or uncelebrated by the members of the tribunal. It was reported that they had taken it upon themselves to do their best at the courses they were taking and had been able to offer support and instruction to fellow students. However, their efforts and achievements were not admired by everyone. There were comments in the town that, if these men were capable of throwing their efforts into doing well in courses and instruction, then they should be in the army.

The chairman of the Tribunal was annoyed by these comments and said it was ‘a great shame’ that they should be ‘subject to taunts such as these’. The chair continued by pointing out that the tribunal had tried hard to decide what was best for the war effort by thinking hard about which men stayed and which men were sent to fight. It was decided that the best way forward was to ‘not to take notice of cant or gossip’.

The tribunal regularly received letters of complaint from both home and abroad and comments were to be heard around the town as well from disgruntled residents. The tribunal’s response to them was clear; it may have been said in jest but the sentiment was clear: ‘If members of the tribunal took notice of the criticism indulged in some of them, they would have been at Barnsley Hall long ago.’ Barnsley Hall was the local psychiatric hospital.

The tribunal members themselves retaliated with thinly veiled criticisms suggesting that those who complained were usually either beyond military age and therefore automatically exempted or had no-one in their family eligible for enlistment. They also threatened that if they found out that some of the complainants themselves were eligible for service they would do all in their power to get them enlisted. The general feeling was that the complainants’ behaviour was ‘beyond contempt’.

Applicants for exemption were not always lone men. Applications were often sent in by employers for part of or their entire workforce. One such firm was James Humphries & Sons Ltd of Long Meadow Mills who wanted twenty-six of its men exempted, ranging in age from 25 to 43, including the works manager, a felt-hardener, an engineer and a blanket loom turner. The tribunal was told that each of the men already had protection certificates because their jobs were considered essential to the trade. It was unusual for men, already protected, to come before the tribunals, and it was thought there was some fear that the certificates would be revoked.

As all the work undertaken by the mills was now for the war effort, and the twenty-six men requesting exemption were doing preparation for the war work, it was argued that they ought to be exempted from military service. The tribunal decided to seek further advice from the Central Tribunal. There was a feeling that the firm was ‘not playing the game’. The company had obtained the protection certificates not in the usual way, via the tribunal, and this irked some the tribunal members. The case caused much argument as to the rights and wrongs of obtaining protection certificates outside the tribunal. The decision was, however, despite the quarrelling, that the men should remain exempted while their certificates were in date and that the right of appeal would apply to all the men if the certificates should be revoked for any reason.

Another interesting case to come before the tribunal was that of the sub-postmaster and tradesman James Caswell from Cookley, near Kidderminster. He was applying for exemption because he was the sole worker in his business. The tribunal wanted him to employ a woman who could take over his job and free him up for service. Mr Caswell’s reply was that he would have to find such a woman and pay her which he could not afford to do and the post office would have to close. This did not sway the tribunal who said the post office work could be done at nearby Woverley. But Mr Caswell was unperturbed, citing his other business of a general store for another reason he could not be released for service. The tribunal was insistent that the army needed young men and, at the age of 34, being physically fit and having already had multiple exemptions Mr Caswell fitted the bill. He then said he was also working on allotments as part of the war effort. His arguments eventually won him a three month exemption but with a dire warning: he was advised to ‘get ready’ as he could not avoid military service for ever.

The war caused a great deal of financial hardship for many people and service personnel were not immune from this. A case that came before Birmingham County Court regarding the application for discharge from bankruptcy for Henry Smith, who used to live in Kidderminster. He was made bankrupt in 1907 and he had convictions under the Debtors’ Act.

The judge was reluctant to allow discharge as there no special reasons that were required in order for him to do so. Henry had fought in the African War and the Great War and was by all accounts a good officer, but there was a grey area as to what constituted special reasons. It was expected that the case would go to a higher court for a decision.

Servicemen also sometimes found themselves before the courts for less than honourable conduct. A particularly heinous case came before Croydon Quarter Sessions involving Kidderminster man Hillery Allerton. Before the war, he had worked at several mills in the town and also in the local Lion Hotel. He was a corporal in the Worcestershire Regiment and apparently well known about the town. Unfortunately, he was accused of breaking into a VAD auxiliary hospital (Wallacefield) in Croydon. This wasn’t the first time he had been charged with breaking into this hospital, previously he had been charged with stealing cheques, treasury notes and money orders.

It was alleged that at 9.30pm he had been caught in the hospital’s kitchen without his boots. He became unwell and appeared to have a seizure necessitating his removal by ambulance to the local police station. Once there he confessed, stating that he was glad they had caught him, and admitting that he’d been in there twice before and was sleeping beneath trees. He had been a previous patient there having been suffering from shellshock and did not want to go to prison, thinking he would be more use in France.

The local Detective-Sergeant Jones had known Allerton since he was a young boy and stated that he had been arrested for breaking into three local shops and a house in 1914. He received three months for each crime. He also stole a watch and was fined for that. This wasn’t the end of it: he also broke into his mother’s house and didn’t pay his bill where he was lodging.

There was more; he was also accused of being a deserter. One of the officers from his regiment claimed that Allerton came under category A3 and would be sent to France to fight. He had been there and been injured. But Allerton gave a different story. He claimed to have wanted to go to France, but his superiors refused his request and this was the reason why he had felt compelled to desert.

The Court Recorder did not understand why the accused would break into the same hospital where he had previously been treated with kindness and, although he should be given hard labour for his crimes, the fact remained that he had fought in France and done his duty as a soldier. If the Army were keen to take him back the Recorder felt he would be of more use in France than in prison. He was bound over for twelve months to appear in court when requested and the Army could have him as a deserter.

Tribunals, although much maligned and feared were there to do a job and, in time of war, the men needed to fight had to be found from somewhere. The system of tribunals was far from perfect but with the pressures of the time, it was the best they could do.

CHAPTER 8

War Charities

The advent of war caused many problems for the people of Kidderminster. Not only did they have their own poor to care for, they now had the added pressure of raising money for the war and wars don’t come cheap. What little money they had was being stretched further and further. Charity and relief of distress caused by the war came hand in hand with doing one’s duty and patriotism. Those who could not fight put every effort they could into fundraising, donating or making items for the war effort. During the war period there were around 17,899 British war charities set up.

The Prince of Wales’s National Fund

The fund was set up by the Prince of Wales to help the dependants of service men financially, while servicemen were away fighting and it was taken up enthusiastically. Many local firms were also involved in offering financial help to the families of those men on their pay rolls who did enlist and in fundraising for the war effort in general. Baldwin’s, the carpet manufacturers, for example, donated £1,000 for the Prince of Wales’s National Relief Fund and the Belgian Relief Fund.

The town held many whist drives and entertainments in order to raise money for the variety of war charities that were formed during the war: entertainments such as a concert in the Town Hall featuring Madame Carrie Sivitar, the soprano, with Margaret Sparrow on the piano. The proceeds to this concert were to go to the Belgian Refugees Fund. There were also patriotic dances and tableaux representing war and peace performed in Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Many reforms were also expedited in the face of the war, including the formation of a Ministry for Labour in 1916, and a Ministry of Health in 1919. In the years before the start of the war, nationally, there were over 300,000 applicants for relief, but by 1922 this figure rose to two million despite Government intervention and unemployment insurance.

Nationally, Princess Mary, the King’s 17-year-old daughter, decided she would like to do her bit for the war effort and make life a little more comfortable for those fighting. She sent out brass boxes to soldiers and sailors serving abroad. Each box contained her photograph, a writing set with a pencil in the shape of a bullet, cigarettes, lighter, pipe and pipe tobacco or sweets for non-smokers and a Christmas card. At Christmas 1914: 426,724 of these boxes were sent out.

The Belgian Refugees

When the Government announced plans to help the thousands of Belgian refugees who had been forced to flee their homeland by German troops, Kidderminster was only too pleased to play its part.

It was hoped that there would be many suitable volunteers to take the refugees in, particularly those who could take whole families. There were, however, concerns that the refugees might be seen as cheap labour and there were great pains to ensure this did not happen. There was also a particular concern that the women and children were placed in appropriate homes where they would be safe. All refugees were to be checked by a doctor before being placed.

Princess Mary’s Christmas Box. Malcolm Williams

The Belgian refugees arrived in the town on 16 October 1914. There were twenty-six and, keen to do its patriotic duty to the poor Belgian people who had seen their homes destroyed and lives threatened by the German forces, the town did its utmost for them and what it could to ease their suffering. They were accommodated in Church Street, in a four storey house in which the gas and fittings was provided free by the Gas Company.

The town itself organised fundraising to give the Belgian refugees a good standard of living. They formed the Kidderminster Belgian Refugees Committee which organised fundraising, accommodation and the day-to-day running of the house and helped the refugees with any problems they encountered. Donations included clothes, furniture and cooking utensils. As the war progressed they moved into another, bigger home called Spennell’s House.

The town didn’t just cater for their physical needs such as accommodation, food and clothing. They also recognised their need for more aesthetic pleasures and, as 1914 drew to an anxious and uncertain conclusion, the committee were with the refugees for the afternoon.

Christmas time was an important and difficult time for them as they were away from their homes, businesses, friends and their wider social circle with no definite idea of when it would be safe for them return. In light of this, the town tried to make the season a home from home with entertainment provided by Professor Baker and a Christmas tree being decorated and lit, with gifts underneath. In fact, a ship called the Christmas Ship Jason was used to transport gifts for the Belgian children from America.

Although the Belgians appreciated the town’s generosity with being given a weekly allowance and clothing, they didn’t want to rely on charity with many of them seeking work in the town to regain some of their hard lost independence. The town also raised money by holding regular whist drives and other entertainments including a Belgian Easter fete at the Town Hall for which they had a special visitor from Luxembourg, the Minister Count van den Steen.

War Savings Bonds

Charities were not the only organisations after money. The Government was too. In 1914, the gold reserves for Great Britain amounted to around £9 million. So worried that the war would trigger panic, inundating the banks, the Government immediately extended the Bank Holiday to three days to allow for the Currency and Bank Notes Act to be passed.

Wars are expensive and so the Government introduced a scheme where people were encouraged to buy war bonds. This was a loan to the Government that would be paid back to the purchaser in the 1920s. They were launched, with various interest rates in 1914, 1915 and 1917. Again it was billed as patriotic to buy them. The Government couldn’t finance the war without them. In fact, War Bonds continued after the war as the Government struggled to balance the books and pay for the consequences of the war. Kidderminster eventually had invested £1,560,999.

In the later years of the war, these war bonds became known as Victory Bonds when the authorities were thinking forward to the end of the war and how the need for continued finances wouldn’t cease the minute the war ended.

The town held a Tank Week in April as part of a national initiative in 1918. A tank that had been on a tour of the country was due to arrive with them in a bid to raise money for the war effort and buy war bonds. A spoof letter purporting to have been sent by the tank ‘Julian’ to a sweetheart ‘Ivy’ in the town was published in the KS. Julian urged Ivy to arrange to raise a further £100,000 when he arrived.

‘The young ladies here are making quite a fuss of me, and they have thrown money at me as they say the war must be won. I know all the Kidderminster girls are nice, but I hope to remain true to you.’

In another advert the encouraging line was

‘Do not let it be said that you have withheld your money while others are giving their lives to save England from the Germans.’

Tank displayed, 14 April, 1918, Junction of Comberton Hill and George Street, to raise money for war savings. HWCL and KS

The War Weapons Week held 22-27 July hoped to raise enough money locally to buy three 12inch guns that would be called the Kidderminster guns.

One of the ways the country and town tried to raise money after the war was by holding a Thanksgiving Gun Week in January 1919 in which the town was given a 6inch Howitzer, weighing 4-tons to celebrate its contribution to the war effort. This was followed in August by a gift of a tank weighing 28tons, a souvenir from the front from the War Savings Committee. It was paraded through the town with pride with its final resting place being Brinton’s park. But within a few years it was to be scrapped to help the war effort for World War Two.

Queen Mary herself had issued an appeal to the women of the Empire, urging them to supply 300,000 pairs of woollen socks and 300,000 knitted or woven body belts for the ‘gallant soldiers’ to see them through the winter months.

Prisoners of war were not left out of the town’s charitable concerns either. The county held a meeting, headed by Lord Coventry. There were 1,600 such prisoners from the county and the aim was to raise £80,000 for the cause following the successful appeal last year that raised over £22,000 and he was once again asking for the residents of the county’s ‘hearty co-operation.’

If it had not been for the various charities’ efforts, the war would have been a lot worse for everyone. Those fighting in the war had their morale boosted every time they received something from these charities as did those at home who sewed, donated and raised money.

CHAPTER 9

Letters Home and the Role of the Newspapers

‘The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’

Headlines

The Kidderminster Shuttle was the local paper at the time of the war, as it still is. It strove to give the people of Kidderminster, its readers, all the latest news on the war front. As well as setting the scene for how the war was playing out, it often provided good advice to the locals on what they should be doing to support the war effort. Slogans such as, ‘Keep cool: panic the enemy’, and ‘Keep Calm, whatever happens there must be no war feverishness’, were order of the day.

It was a difficult time for the town, as it was for the whole country with similar scenes playing out across the nation. It was easy to be swayed by rumour and for things to quickly get out of hand. The paper issued a stern warning against this: ‘People must be aware of rumours. Nearly every report needs many grains of sand.’

For many, the newspaper was their only form of communication and although reports were often delayed or inaccurate, in the main, the papers provided their local communities with valuable information to help them through the war years.

They also commented on the social changes the war was bringing about, and the economic struggles that were to follow, with so many men enlisting and the local businesses and factories suffering from not only a lack of workers but, in many cases, a lack of orders.

Scenes of devastation, Rue de Thorout, Ypres, postcard, Clifford Smout

L’Hotel de la Chatellenie, Ypres, 1914-15, Postcard. Clifford Smout

Baxter United Reform Church, 2015. Author

The town also had a strong religious representation from many different denominations which prompted the paper to carry occasional articles and news stories about the church, its role in society and the war. One question that was asked at Baxter Church was ‘Is war ever justifiable?’ The local pastor pointed his congregation to the Bible where it said that men should be at peace with each other where possible. But the overall feeling from most of the town was that it was a just war and that extreme force was necessary in order to protect the British and the Christian ways of life.

A Reminder of Home

Apart from receiving old newspapers, letters to and from the front and other fighting positions were the only communications the soldiers had from home and so were very important to them, as were their replies and reassurances that all was well to their loved ones waiting at home for news of their family and friends’ progress.

Postcard of the era, Clifford Smout

Some letters in the papers were from locals who were cross or confused about issues in the town regarding conscription and tribunals including a letter from A.S. Perrett, who lived in Yew Tree Road in the town. The writer was not happy with a certain fellow’s conduct:

‘protesting against Mr Field remaining a member of the tribunal and sending men to the army while he himself came out on strike with the railwaymen.’

The main way soldiers and their loved ones could keep in touch through the war was by sending letters to one another. The Post Office sent sacks of mail to wherever soldiers were serving which was no mean feat and the workers were subject to secrecy agreements lest the information they knew about the whereabouts of British troops got into the hands of German spies.

Once the sacks reached the front, the postal section of the Royal Engineers transported them to each headquarters of the relevant brigade. These were then taken by horse and cart and delivered to the men on at the front. Sailors also received their mail via the British ports.

When it is considered that during the war the post office delivered over 2 billion letters and cards, and the state of the battlefields, it’s a miracle that any post got to and from the front at all. But it did and because of this unprecedented demand the postage charge was increased from the penny post to a penny halfpenny.

Postcard of the era, poking fun at the enemy, Clifford Smout

The Shuttle also carried a regular column called In The Firing Line where they published some ‘thrilling experiences’ of some of those men from Kidderminster who had enlisted and who were now engaged in action. In one excerpt, readers were told that the equipment carried by a soldier while on active service is ‘no small matter’: 150 rounds of ammunition, haversack, trenching tools including a shovel and pick, water bottle, entrenching tool handle, bayonet and great coat, among other items.

Postcard of the era poking more fun at the enemy. Clifford Smout

One soldier from the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment described the scenes at the Battle of Mons in August 1914. He told of the process of taking up positions and how they drove the German forces away ‘for the enemy’s dislike of cold steel is well known’.

He also commented on the environment he found himself in and seemed surprised they had come to a corn field where the corn had not been blasted away. Although no fighting took place for a while he said that when the light came with the German troops only 1,000 yards away they ‘welcomed us with their big guns’.

He didn’t mince his words either. Soon censorship was bought in as a ploy to prevent valuable information getting into the hands of the enemy, but also to spare the sensibilities of those at home. The paper carried its own explanation for this by telling the story of the French in the war of 1870. The enemy had seen a telegram published in a foreign paper highlighting their opponent’s plans, including information pertaining to a new army of 120,000 men they had raised. It resulted in the enemy changing their plans and taking around 90,000 men prisoner. But this soldier fighting in the First World War managed to get the fact that one of their troop was ‘blown to smithereens’ through to the paper.

He did say one thing that would have gladdened the heart of many a townsperson: ‘It’s our opinion the German Infantry can’t hit a haystack in an entry as regards rifle fire.’

It wasn’t just service men who were at risk abroad. The paper carried a story of the White Star Liner Baltic that was returning from America with some Kidderminster people travelling aboard. They heard the news that war had been declared and soon realised the consequences of this when their lights were ordered out by 9pm each evening and blankets were used to block out their portholes to prevent enemy ships detecting them. They were vulnerable until they reached the protection of the British Navy but their anxiety could not have eased much when the liner was boarded at Cork by officials acting on behalf of the Government and its communications shut down. Each passenger was subjected to questioning and investigation also lest enemy spies had infiltrated the liner. When the Baltic docked at Liverpool the passengers were again interrogated and any ‘aliens’ were detained. The war had shown its immediate and sudden bite but overall the passengers found it to be an ‘exciting experience’.

British Expeditionary Force Christmas Card, 1915. David Phillips

As above, Inside the card. David Phillips

A message for a loved one, as above. David Phillips

A local stationer who ran his business in Vicar Street recognised a good business opportunity and a way to do his patriotic duty by selling writing kits for those fighting on the front. Mr G.T. Cheshire & Sons provided such kits which contained pencil and paper in an envelope which could be posted for 6½d.

Another local man wrote a letter to the KS. The paper warned of its graphic content. Private Edmund Tandy was with the Highland Light Infantry when he was wounded in his foot by shrapnel and was brought back to the King’s College Hospital, London. His opening comments say it all: ‘It has been like hell over here, and I shall never forget the experience as long as I live.’

He spoke of a night when his brigade had orders to liberate a village from the Germans, which they succeeded but not without losses. The next day they were caught in heavy German fire. He commented that ‘shells were coming over like cocoanuts’. He spoke of some men praying and some forgetting how to. He described the scene being like an ‘inferno’. He admitted to feeling relief when the retreat orders were given. He had a lucky escape when the house he had been sheltering under was blown away twenty minutes after he had gone.

‘Letters from The Front’ became a regular feature in the KS, including this letter from Private Walter Bow of the 1st Worcesters from the nearby town of Bewdley. His father had five sons serving with the forces and had received a congratulatory letter from the King. In this particular letter, Walter was concerned about parcels.

‘Am sorry to say that I have not received your parcel of mittens and fags, but am delighted to say I am in the best of health.’

He described a successful surprise attack on the enemy after which he was exhausted.

‘They were taken completely by surprise. They started shouting and appealing for mercy. Needless to say our mercy was the bayonet…I walked the last twenty yards under heavy fire. I found it impossible to run, and when I got back to safety could scarcely move for a quarter of an hour after I got back in the trench. I couldn’t answer my name at the roll call, and the section sergeant thought I was missing. It was a daring thing to do for the Germans outnumbered us twelve to one.’

As well as receiving and publishing letters from Kidderminster men in the trenches, the papers also published notices from local businessmen who were enlisting. One such notice was posted by W.M. Etheridge, a local cab and car proprietor based at the Black Bull in Swan Street. As his wife would be carrying the business on in his absence, he made this appeal: ‘I respectfully appeal for a share of public support to enable her to carry on the same until my return from the war.’

Not all the soldiers knew who they were writing to, however. Children were encouraged to write to soldiers on the front in an attempt to increase morale. It was recognised early on in the war that keeping the soldiers’ and sailors’ morale high was as important as munitions. The post became an effective weapon during the war as trench life could be monotonous and letters from home helped to break the time up.

A postcard of the era conveying the emotion of the time of loved ones far away. Clifford Smout

It only took a couple of days for letters to reach the front so news from families was fairly current. The military authorities, however, took great pains to censor letters because they were concerned that if the letters contained sensitive information it might fall into enemy hands. Some of the censorship was often rudimentary, however, the offending words or information being crossed, blanked or torn out of the letters. The authorities were also keen to ensure that news of the terrible conditions and events unfolding didn’t reach families and the general population because they didn’t want to jeopardise support for the war. But invariably, snippets did get through.

As the war progressed, the local newspapers carried blow by blow accounts of the various battles as they occurred, including details of wounded and dead soldiers and sailors, although these were not always accurate. One of their other functions, albeit not intentionally, perhaps, was to publish propaganda items that told of the ‘barbaric’ actions of the Germans and the bravery, courage and good progress of the British forces and the Allies. Local people would have been encouraged and felt some relief that the war seemed to be going in the Allies favour.

It seemed there was no area of British life that the war, either directly or indirectly, did not touch. But the paper was eager to reassure readers that they could still be trusted to provide the news. The local newspapers were a lifeline to local people and this reassurance would have gone someway to ease their burden.

The KS also helped with fundraising for the various war charities. One of its favourites was known as the Shuttle Fund. Its aim was to raise money to buy every serving soldier a Christmas pudding. The similar scheme run by the Daily News and the Daily Telegraph the previous year had been very well received but as there were a lot more men in the forces now it was to be a considerably bigger undertaking. The Voluntary War Workers’ Association had taken up the challenge in Kidderminster alongside other societies. The KS invited donations which they would pass on to the appropriate quarters. They also published the names of those donating and how much they had given. Among those donating were a Boy Scout who donated 2s 6d, Milton Hall Sunday school with 10s and Mr F. Millington with 5s. The Shuttle Office had collection cards.

Because the local newspapers only came out weekly on a Saturday, news about the war was often sketchy, contradictory and misleading or incorrect. The Shuttle had a board outside of their offices where news was also posted which drew in large crowds, clamouring for much desired information about how the war was progressing and how their loved ones were faring. Each telegram was read intently as soon as they were pinned up. The papers relied on the Press Bureau for their information and letters from soldiers on the front line and other areas of conflict for other information. But when censorship came in in 1916, this information could not be relied on.

Keep Calm and Carry On

The newspapers, which were the lifeline for rural communities when it came to information about the war, even got in on the act imploring their readers to enlist. But it wasn’t just the newspapers where the war was recorded. Some local people wrote diaries, giving a valuable insight of the town at the time. William Whitcombe, who was born in the town in 1866, was a son of a carpet weaver and himself worked in a carpet factory. He eventually became a trade union official and president of the Carpet Weavers’ Association before turning his hand to the coal trade.

On 5 August, William reported: ‘Locally we are like a garrison town.’ He was referring to all the comings and goings of various regiments and he observed that there had been a run on the shops. He also commented on the local relief fund that had run to around £4,000 in the first weeks of the war. He also weighed up the prospects of young workers in the town, coming to the conclusion that it was a good thing that many of the young carpet workers had enlisted. He thought going to war with soldiers’ pay was preferable to staying in work on short time.

William captured the feeling of the town at the time of the start of the war when he described the recruits of the 7th Reserve Battalion of the Worcester Regiment who were billeted in the town. He described their mustering as ‘exciting’.

The local paper also carried letters from its readers offering advice on subjects ranging from how to economise to how to grow vegetables. One such letter suggested that those men involved in the building trade could make use of those wishing to provide for their families at time of war and reduced hours and take them on. The author of the letter thought that this would ‘preserve their dignity without recourse to “funds” and charities’. The writer even went as far to say that ‘The person who thoughtlessly puts off any work that can be done, at a moment like this, unwittingly becomes an enemy to King and Country.’

We Regret to Inform You

More and more names were added to the Roll of Honour through the pages of the KS and letters often appeared from grieving relatives of those who had fallen which had been received telling them of the awful news. The papers were the mainstay of local people’s lives, giving them important and much needed information about the war and local life, including the reporting of storms and the threat of German Zeppelin attack.

The local newspapers then, as today, even in a world of the internet where information is just the click of a button away, kept their readers up to date with the national events that would impact on them. In the war years, it was clear to see that they took this role seriously and for many in Kidderminster the war would have been a lot more difficult to cope with without their weekly perusal of the paper.

CHAPTER 10

The Infirmary and the Role of the VAD

Kidderminster had its own infirmary which prior to the war had catered for the town’s sick. Its efforts and philosophy were noble, although it did suffer from lack of funding and rumours of impropriety in its history. As soon as the war started, it was envisaged that the infirmary would have a role to play in the treatment of wounded soldiers. But no-one could have predicted the scale of the casualty list and the local hospital, as with hospitals up and down the country, would soon find itself overwhelmed and completely unprepared and unable to cater for the numbers that were coming home.

Local surgeon John Weston Stretton, a doctor like his father Lionel Stretton before him, became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1913 and joined St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. When war broke out he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

His father, despite being against the war, preferring to save life rather than see it destroyed, saw the war as a blessing in disguise for his hospital because the war highlighted the need for such hospital facilities and demanded more attention to be paid to hospitals and the work they were doing. As Chairman of the Worcestershire Medical Council he was responsible, along with his committee, for making decisions on which doctors were sent to war.

This was not an easy decision to make as the hospitals could not afford to lose the staff they had and certainly couldn’t replace them. Just as the tribunals had to take a tough line, so did he, as this quote shows:

‘If a man had an invalid wife or was in such a financial position that his going away would ruin him, it would not have the slightest effect upon the committee’s decision. The one and only point we had to consider was which man could best be spared, so as to afford the least possibility of depriving the general public of the effective medical service they had a right to expect.’

Kidderminster Infirmary, 1900s. David Voice

It was an incredibly difficult balance to strike. On the one hand, the infirmary needed its staff to run the hospital in a safe and efficient manner but, on the other, men were being severely wounded abroad and those men required medical help in the field if they had any hope of even making it back to hospitals in the UK to receive further treatment and recuperate.

Almost immediately, the hospital experienced staffing difficulties. One of its most experienced and respected members of staff, Dr Bertram Addenbrooke, volunteered to fight as he was a major in the Territorial Force. This meant they no longer had a house surgeon at the infirmary and could not find a replacement. Yet, despite the loss of staff and the uncertainty of war, the hospital’s workload did not avoid forcing matron, Anne McFarlane’s workload to expand and the recruitment of a junior sister to assist her. Her efforts were well recognised by the infirmary’s committee.

Initially in 1914, the Government had promised help to hospitals such as Kidderminster by way of War Office grants designed to help fund the treatment of wounded soldiers but by February 1915, at the hospital’s annual meeting, the grants had not been forthcoming. This was hitting the hospital’s finances hard and it ran further into deficit as it had treated many more wounded men than at first envisaged. It needed that grant and it needed it now. Thankfully, the grants did start to appear later that year but the hospital needed more, and it was decided at a committee meeting to request more.

There were reports at the time of townspeople being able to see the wounded soldiers being wheeled out into the grounds and on balconies for fresh air, presumably as part of their treatment and recuperation. Subscribers could buy notes entitling them, or someone nominated by them to receive treatment at the infirmary over a limited period of time, but a note purchased after the war began was worth a lot less than before due to the increase in prices the war had brought. With this in mind it was the intention of the Finance Committee in January 1915 to halve this time limit from fourteen days to seven. The management, however, decided to increase the price of the notes to £2 2s.

In order to raise money during the war, among other enterprises, the management launched a shilling fund in the pages of the KS where it acknowledged the hospital had a debt of £2,000 to try and clear. Anyone who could afford to was invited to donate a shilling. With the expected influx of injured and disabled soldiers there were real concerns that it would not be able to cope.

‘Can we refuse treatment to the heroes who have fought for us? CERTAINLY NOT!’

This was the motto and it was used to urge the people of Kidderminster to help clear the debt so the hospital could cater for the soldiers.

Voluntary Aid Detachment

It was clear that the hospital could not cope with the influx of wounded soldiers. The infirmary was a hospital of great expertise and had operated on many wounded soldiers. The management couldn’t afford to have soldiers recuperating there, blocking a bed that was so urgently required by more acutely wounded soldiers awaiting transfer back to Britain for treatment.

It was decided that a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospital for recuperating soldiers was needed in the town. This came in the form of The Larches in Stourport Road. It was to have fifty beds and a Miss Tomkinson asked that the Red Cross Detachment should have nurse training, which was welcomed by the Infirmary.

All of the VADs had basic first aid training with some of them receiving more in-depth nurse training. Apart from their nursing duties, they also made items for the hospitals including: swabs, clothing, bandages and splints. There were central workrooms in various towns up and down the country, usually set up by local prominent and influential townswomen who would also donate money to buy materials, etc., for the volunteer garment makers to use.

The Red Cross and Order of St John organised a Silver Day in the town in honour of the silver wedding anniversary of the King and Queen on 6 July 1918 at the Town Hall. People were invited to bring any silver.

Local firms also helped to raise money for the local auxiliary hospital at The Larches. The Co-operative Society treated the sixty recuperating soldiers and nursing staff to a tea at their Co-operative Hall. The president of the society, Mr W.G. Shutt, stated that when the soldiers’ wounds had healed and they were home that they would remember this day. Alongside the tea, the entertainment included a music concert and the soldiers took part by performing a couple of sketches including one called The Haunted House.

The War Office needed hospitals to house and care for their convalescing soldiers and sailors and it was local manor houses and stately homes that were the obvious choice. Many owners of such houses were only too glad to turn part of their homes into auxiliary hospitals and do their bit for the war effort.

The infirmary did its upmost to support The Larches with Lionel Stretton and Matron Anne MacFarlane becoming honorary consultants. Their organisational skills, expertise and monitoring of The Larches were a must if the venture was to succeed. With the infirmary taking charge of the more severely wounded it was envisaged that The Larches would have only around thirty patients at any one time. It was still the general opinion that the war would not last long and that the military would pay towards equipment and the soldiers’ upkeep. In reality The Larches treated over 500 soldiers during its period of operation.

The valuable contribution the owners of such houses made to the war effort cannot be underestimated. Without them, the military hospitals and local hospitals would have been inundated and soon overwhelmed. It’s possible that many more men would have died had the Red Cross and Order of St John not been so organised.

Field Dentist in France, 1915, Wellcome Trust

By the end of the war 90,000 Red Cross and Order of St John volunteers had helped tend to wounded servicemen.

The Red Cross were fundamental in helping the war effort in many ways and were certainly very active in Kidderminster and the surrounding area. The Larches closed as a VAD hospital after a grand concert including a dance and whist drive at the end of April 1919.

It’s Not Over Yet

The infirmary had contingency plans as far back as 1909 as the country was concerned about war even then. The First Southern General Hospital in Birmingham could access the infirmary in time of war.

Keeping staff was proving ever more problematic as the war progressed, particularly in the X-ray department. There seemed little point in having equipment and facilities if there was no-one to operate it. And when conscription was enforced the hospital worked hard to get some of its staff exempted. Because they had more soldiers coming through their doors and trouble maintaining and recruiting staff there was talk of stopping the admittance of private patients unless they were A&E cases. This was how desperate the situation had become. But keen to keep serving the people of Kidderminster they decided to leave things as they were.

Then came one of the biggest bloody battles of the war: The Somme. The casualty lists from this battle alone were immense and unprecedented. It was at this point in the war that the First Southern Military Hospital in Birmingham called upon Kidderminster Infirmary to make good their 1909 agreement. They asked for twenty beds to be reserved for wounded soldiers and would pay the hospital 3s per man per day for doing so. There was a shortfall of 1s 6d that the hospital had to carry, placing a further burden on their finances.

By 1917 the cost of treating soldiers at the infirmary had risen and payment per soldier per day was increased to 4s.

The infirmary, although playing a gallant role in tending to wounded soldiers, was to see its expertise treat a very different ailment than that imposed upon the soldiers and sailors by bullets, shells and shrapnel. There was another illness that was afflicting them and the military and Government feared their ability to fight it.

This wasn’t a new illness though, having come to light in the Crimean war and which was addressed by two Acts coming into force in 1864 and 1886. The illness was venereal disease that not only had consequences for the men, but had been the cause of many stillbirths.

In the First World War it became a huge problem again. So much so that, in June 1917, the National Council for Combatting Venereal Disease had its annual meeting and wanted to set up schemes to help stop the increase. It was fighting its own battle against disease while men were fighting in the trenches. At this meeting it was discovered that 102 out of the 145 health authorities in Britain had started such schemes.

Another Act in 1917 stipulated that only those doctors qualified to treat VD could do so and they would receive financial aid to set up special clinics. Lionel Stretton was more than ready to assist. There was one problem: men and women were often too embarrassed to attend such clinics or didn’t realise what their symptoms were. So the Government made it clear that complete confidentiality would be respected. It was the patriotic duty of every man and women who suspected they had VD to present themselves for examination, diagnosis and treatment.

Lionel Stretton opened such a clinic and treated both in and out patients and it continued after the war ended. In 1919, extra evening clinics were added under a request from Worcester County Council, so prolific was the spread of VD and the need for treatment centres.

The treatment of wounded soldiers through the infirmary and recuperation in The Larches, the fundraising and entertainment afforded the soldiers via the efforts of the townspeople were phenomenal, particularly when these efforts are viewed against a backdrop of poverty, hardship and unrest. Kidderminster’s huge contribution to the war effort was recognised in 1920 by the Army Council, however the certificate they received to honour their work, which was signed by Churchill, was lost. There may be no record of their prize but their efforts are not forgotten.

CHAPTER 11

The End of the War

‘Let unity do for peace what unity has done for the war.’

The end of the war couldn’t come quickly enough for the people of Kidderminster. It was marked by the unmistakable sound of Brinton’s Bull along with the joyous peal of St Mary’s bells. But the relief and joy was tinged with a great sense of loss as many of their lives had been changed irrevocably.

Even before the Armistice was signed, thoughts were turning to what would happen to the soldiers and sailors returning from the war. It was acknowledged that the country had suffered a severe loss of life, creating a shortfall in labour. Not all the servicemen would stay in service. Part of the plan was to engage them in farming to help in the increased production of homegrown food.

Changes that had happened at a national level would have a big impact on Kidderminster in the years following the war. Millions of people, worldwide, had been affected by the war and a war of such ferocity and magnitude was bound to leave a legacy. There were still the poor, the sick and the disabled to care for. There were also thousands of women and children left without a husband, son or father since many families did not just suffer the loss of one of their family members. Often, two or more sons were lost, leaving estates with no heirs to run them. There were also many servicemen still out on the battlefields, yet to be demobilised.

In order to provide some assistance to ex-servicemen and their families, in February 1919, the King announced a £80,000 fund but this was found to be insufficient with an estimate of £3 million needed. The need for the townspeople of Kidderminster to support the war effort was still going strong. Just because the war had effectively ended, the Government still needed finance for its after effects.

With this in mind, the Mayor was keen to elicit donations from local people to support a scheme that would help disabled ex-servicemen to find employment. He had the support of thirty-six employers in the town. Once again the carpet industry stepped forward with two per cent of Tomkinson and Adam’s workforce being disabled ex-servicemen. But the war had taken its toll on many traders in the town and the consequences were far reaching for long after the war ended. One casualty of this scheme was Brinton’s which, although it had been supportive of the scheme from the start, found it was unable to honour its good intentions as it had already promised to keep jobs open for those employees who had enlisted, and now they were returning home.

Victory Coin. NHS

It wasn’t just the practicalities and logistics involved that were causing concerns. In 1917, seventy per cent of the British Gross National Product was spent on the war. The total cost of the war from start to finish was estimated at $208 billion. It was going to take some time for the economy to recover and debts to be paid.

Although there was relief that no more lives would be lost on the battlefields because conscription and tribunals were no more, there were many men who had been wounded. They would live out the rest of their lives physically and mentally scarred. For some men, the battle, in many ways, had just begun.

The Monday and Tuesday immediately after the war ended were declared public holidays and the people of Kidderminster took to the streets to celebrate with a series of parades and firework displays. There was much merriment including dancing and singing. On the Wednesday the Town Hall played host to a service of thanksgiving but it wasn’t until December that a grand ball in honour of those who died was held. All the names of the men who died for their King and Country were read out at a service in St Mary’s Church.

It didn’t just affect the men. Women who had bravely and willingly taken on many of the jobs the men had left when they went to fight, now found themselves having to take a backseat as the men returned to their posts.

Disabled servicemen who had been medically discharged from the forces found themselves back home, without the ability to go back to their old jobs, and being unable to secure new jobs because of their disability. They found themselves far from being the war heroes they were and more of a burden on their local communities and Government. What would the powers that be, who so urgently and robustly campaigned to get the men to enlist and get fighting, do to help those men who survived but who could no longer care for their family or themselves financially or practically?

Sports fixtures soon went back to normal and a sports day was organised at Franche Hall on 30 August 1919. MCK

To honour their war dead and mark the end of the war the town held a ‘Great Victory Ball’ in the Town Hall on 6 December 1918 with the Sid Griffiths’ Bijou Orchestra at a cost of 5s per person.

The end of the war was a paradox of emotions and situations. On the one hand, it was good that the war had ended but on the other, for all the problems the war solved, its ending created more. The world was in an economic crisis, unemployment was high, and resources were scarce which meant prices escalated. There were some hard winters during the duration of the war with wet springs and summers which affected the harvest. Life was not to get any easier for a few years yet.

Fighting A New Enemy

Just as the world had sighed relief, an outbreak of the Spanish Influenza was unleashed claiming many lives. The estimated number of dead in the UK from this epidemic was 228,000. It was a global catastrophe with a worldwide estimated death toll of some 30-40 million. It actually killed more people than the war did.

It was thought that men returning from the trenches of France who had been suffering from symptoms of La Grippe brought the virus back from the crowded and insanitary living conditions. It spread very quickly and was highly contagious. Someone fit and well in the morning, displaying no symptoms, could be dead by the evening, so fast was its progress. Spanish Flu was most potent in those aged 20-40 so those young soldiers who survived the war but were injured did not stand a chance.

Unfortunately, Kidderminster did not escape this latest assault which saw its schools close for a month in October and November 1918. In town, people were advised not to congregate in public places for fear of spreading this disease and local cinemas were cleaned. Even though precautionary measures were taken, there were hundreds of people who came down with influenza and there were 128 deaths in the town between October and December 1918.

Children across the country could be heard singing a new nursery rhyme:

‘I had a little bird

Its name was Enza

I opened the window

And in-flu-Enza’

The already depleted national resources and finances couldn’t cope with this epidemic. War, lack of good quality food, rationing, poor health care and a lack of advancement in medicine meant that people’s immune systems weren’t as robust and they succumbed more easily to this dreadful illness.

In an attempt to inhibit the spread of influenza many public buildings were closed for months including churches, halls and picturehouses. People were given advice on how to try and prevent themselves from getting it, such as daily washing of the nasal passages, avoidance of wearing mufflers, making themselves sneeze several times a day and walking home from work in the fresh air.

Positive Thinking

But it wasn’t all negative. The war had given rise to new innovations, new ideas from the Government and policy makers that would have a longstanding effect on the country for the better. New pension laws, for instance, were introduced to help those servicemen who were injured in the war, those who retired and their families, to ease their financial difficulties. New farming and agricultural methods and research developed during the war stayed with the country and developed exponentially.

Packing of goods to be despatched from Kidderminster to Holland after the war. MCK

Medical advances in the treatment of wounds and servicemen in the trenches had a lasting effect on the health of the nation, following the war years. This was especially so in the innovations in artificial limbs for amputees and plastic surgery for the many men who returned with facial disfigurements.

Sanctions

Politically, the Government were already working with the Allies to impose sanctions on the enemy with treaties being signed in an attempt to ensure peace remained and that this war would be the war to end all wars. The world had taken a battering and no-one was keen to see it happen again. Britain was certainly at breaking point and peace was all important for her recovery.

Life Goes On

Life following the war was not easy. Mothers who had lost sons, wives who had lost husbands, children who had lost fathers and sisters who had lost brothers would see other ex-servicemen walking the streets of Kidderminster, wondering why they survived and their family members didn’t. It cannot have been easy for the ex-servicemen either as they tried to come to terms with the loss of their friends and work colleagues and settle back down to civilian life.

The process of coming home didn’t happen overnight either. There were thousands of troops out not only at the Front, but other areas of the world too, who were required to remain where they were for the time being to guard key areas and it would take time to organise and transport those destined for home, not to speak of the thousands of wounded and ill servicemen who still needed repatriating.

As they had been fighting in Northern Italy the 1/7th Worcesters were ordered to keep an eye on British interests in the South but they did begin to demobilise in March 1919. As would be expected, the Town gave them a heroes’ welcome when they finally arrived home on 2 April 1919 when they paraded through the streets to The Shrubbery. By 5pm the soldiers had been dismissed and for many of them, their time in the armed forces was over. For others the army life suited them and they remained enlisted. It would take a few more years for other men to return home, some as late as 1922.

Sir Herbert Smith was an influential Kidderminster carpet manufacturer, known as Piggy, who gained his baronetcy for services during the war. He was chairman of the Carpet Trade Rationing Committee and a member of the Board of Control of the Wool and Textile Industries. MCK

In honour of his baronetcy he held a sports fixture, outing and lunch for the townspeople in Tewkesbury on 5 August 1920 where he was also presented with a military medal. MCK

Kidderminster Carnival, 1920. Tomkinson’s factory float, Comberton Hill, notice the person sitting in the front dressed as Charlie Chaplin with cane! E.M. Young & HWCL

Many servicemen received certificates of thanks and special awards for their service in the Great War. Frederick Youngjohns, whom we met in Chapter 2, was a spinning mill manager and, having secured exemption from military service at one time, had been in the Worcestershire Regiment for five years. He was exempted from service until 30 September 1918 and was then to continue in the volunteers. In 1926, he became a special constable and received a commendation from Downing Street.

However, in 1930, his health was failing and he received a letter from the mills, thanking him for his ‘long connection’ with them and presenting him with a clock. They wished him ‘success, contentment and comfort’ and that he had a speedy recovery.

The suffering on the home front was far from over and although the economy and trade in Kidderminster showed some signs of recovery, nationally depression was looming and there would be shortages for years.

Letter from the Mills to Frederick Henry Youngjohns. MCK

Frederick Youngjohns’ certificate of service, dated 26 May 1926. MCK

Frederick Henry Youngjohns’ certificate showing him to have become a special constable in the police force, 1926. MCK

CHAPTER 12

War Memorials – A Legacy

‘We Will Remember Them’

Remembrance

After the war ended, thoughts turned even more to those brave men who did not return. Questions about how the world should commemorate and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice were asked. Across the entire Western Front and other sites of battle there grew a chain of memorials and military cemeteries.

Back home, the families of the war dead were given circular plaques, that were known as death or war pennies, to commemorate the huge sacrifice their loved ones had made during the war. Four hundred or so families received such pennies in the Kidderminster area. They also received certificates signed by Lord Kitchener.

First World War next of kin memorial plaque. These were made of bronze and nicknamed the dead man penny because of their resemblance to the much smaller penny. Around 1,355,000 such plaques were issued. Stanley Williams

One of the ways Britain remembers its war dead is in Westminster Abbey. Here there lies the body of the Unknown Soldier. In 1920 four soldiers’ bodies were removed, one each from the battlefields of the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres. One was chosen and buried in the Abbey on 11 November 1920.

The suffering and grief of the millions of families whose loved ones were killed abroad was magnified by the knowledge that not only would they would never see them again, they would probably never get to see their graves. In many cases, there was no body or grave to mourn. The setting up of thousands of war memorials across the country gave those who had suffered such horrendous losses a focus, somewhere where they could go to grieve and remember, although some names are missing from these memorials because the families at the time did not want to accept that their loved ones were gone. It was their responsibility to register their deceased loved one’s name which is why some are different to official military records as they were known locally by another name.

Such memorials were placed in churches, church yards, on main roads, in the middle of village greens and other such prominent places and the local area of Kidderminster and the surrounding area have their share of memorials.

Some cemeteries such as in Kidderminster have military graves from both the First and the Second World Wars. Some of the churchyards also have such graves.

In November 1918, the town formed a War Memorial Committee with the mayor as chairman. They had a number of potential types of memorial that they thought would be suitable to honour their war dead. A three-part plan was envisaged. One involved the extension of the infirmary. It had, after all, done a sterling job in treating the war wounded, but there were concerns regarding private patients using the facilities and so this was shelved. Another option was a Comrades of the Great War Club. Because the cost of the plan was expected to cost in the region of £41,500, they built a memorial next to St Mary’s Church instead. This, however, was not without problems as the estimated cost of the statue had increased by January 1921.

War memorial outside St Marys Church, Kidderminster. Author

War graves plaque. Author

Plaque on the war memorial outside St Marys Church, Kidderminster. Author

Plaque naming the sculptor of the war memorial, Alfred Drury. Author

Just as the war had crippled the country financially, it also affected fundraising once it was over. There was only so much more people could give with the lack of materials to build and, by October 1919, the Memorial Committee had only managed to raise around £1,000.

This memorial depicting the Figure of Peace was designed and sculpted by Alfred Drury, R.A. and would have the capacity for 450 names to be added. However, due to the recession and inability to raise funds, by January 1921 they had raised just under £2,500. The memorial was still built with the help of a shilling fund that helped to raise the shortfall and in 1922 the following words, from a poem written by John Oxenham, were inscribed into the monument. John, also known as William Arthur Dunkerley, was born in Manchester but moved to London and was at one time Mayor of Worthing in Sussex. He was a journalist, writing poems and hymns.

‘These died the noblest death a man may die. Fighting for God and Right and Liberty, And such death is immortality.’

They added a further inscription, one from The Pilgrim’s Progress by the writer and Baptist preachers John Bunyan where the pilgrim Valiant meets his end,

‘So they passed over and all the trumpets sounded for them on the other side.’

Central plaque on the war memorial, St Mary’s Church. Author

But even this courted controversy, nationally. There were some areas of society that refuted the placement of memorials in the grounds of churches, preferring a more neutral venue instead.

On 22 October 1922 the memorial was unveiled by the Earl of Coventry. Alongside the mayor, and other important Kidderminster faces, were all the families of those who had died in the war. They were each allowed to lay their own wreaths and other tributes on the memorial. The memorial had been expanded to allow more names (800) to be inscribed which were displayed on stands. This wasn’t the only memorial in the town. In all, there were eight in total at the different churches in the town with a total of 742 names.

Part of the memorial on the opposite side of the statue, St Mary’s Church. Author

There is another memorial inside the church on the north wall designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect who had worked on, among other projects, Liverpool Cathedral and workhouses. It depicts Victory with her sword and wreath of laurel, with Joan of Arc and St George above. Underneath the monument there is the Roll of Honour with the colours of the 7th Worcesters next to it.

The memorial inside St Mary’s Church, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Author

The grille that protects the Roll of Honour. Author

The Government announced peace celebrations would be held nationwide in June 1919 and Kidderminster certainly joined in. The Town Hall honoured their war veterans with a dinner but even this was prone to disagreement. The war had placed a heavy burden on many people and some still felt the war was unwarranted and a huge waste of life. So strong were the sentiments of The Free Church League in the town and their displeasure of the peace agreements that they discouraged their members from going to the dinner.

‘The peace terms fail most lamentably to show the spirit which Christians are enjoined to show their enemies, and we know that peace on such terms can be no peace.’

Despite this protest the dinner went ahead and they managed to raise £1,651 16s 11d.

Brinton Park was also the venue for Peace Day celebrations on 19 July where following a dinner, there were sports in the park with fireworks and a bonfire in the evening. Some thought the conduct of some of the men attending left a lot to be desired once the beer began to flow and the weather at times had a good try at dampening proceedings.

In Flanders Fields

One of the most striking ways that we remember those killed is with poppies. The idea was first used in the USA and soon swept across the UK. The Royal British Legion took the image forward and artificial poppies are to be seen adorning the chests of many people around the period of Remembrance Day in each year in November. The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Day still raises much needed funds for war veterans. In fact wreaths of the flower are laid at war memorials all over the Commonwealth.

The choice of flower came from the poem In Flanders Fields written by a Canadian physicist Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on 3 May 1915. In this famous poem he makes references to the red poppies that sprouted up over the graves of the fallen soldiers at Flanders.

In 2014 the artist Paul Cummins created an installation of 888,246 poppies as open air art called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War – one poppy for each soldier from Britain or the colonies who perished. Money raised from the poppies when they went on sale helped six different UK based war charities. In 2014, 45 million poppies were made and the 2013 Royal British Poppy Appeal raised £39 million.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we also hold what was first known as League of Nations Day, Remembrance Day each year. An Armed Forces Day is also held and many of the town’s local organisations and dignitaries attend, much like they have done across the 100 years since the start of the First World War.

Poppy wreath laid at Armed Forces Day. Author

Today, many of the memorials, if a little worn and battered about the edges, survive and still form a very important and poignant gathering point of remembrance where local people continue to pay their respects to the war dead. Of course, more names have been added from the Second World War and other conflicts since The War To End All Wars.

The First World War was a long and bloody battle resulting in hundreds of war dead from Kidderminster and millions across the world. But the war would have possibly been a lot longer, and more arduous, had the people left behind not had been so courageous and determined to help the war effort in any way they could. Kidderminster can be proud to say that its ancestors kept the home fires burning and their continuation of the ceremonies and remembrance events show that the impact of this treacherous war still lies deep within them.