Your Towns and Cities in the Great War

Norfolk Coast in the Great War

This book is dedicated to my sister, Juliet Browning.

Your Towns and Cities in the Great War

Norfolk Coast in the Great War

Stephen Browning

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Ltd

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Copyright © Stephen Browning, 2017

ISBN 978 1 47384 877 1

eISBN 978 1 47384 878 8

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47384 879 5

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Acknowledgements

It has been a great pleasure to have a special reason for travelling around the magnificent Norfolk Coast and to be able to speak with many extraordinarily interesting local researchers, all of whom have been happy to share stories about the Great War with me. I thank local history groups and individual scholars all over Norfolk, including Keith Leesmith of the Wells Local History Group, for permission to use some of the fascinating information that their dedicated studies have unearthed.

Many people have also worked on war memorials, investigating the lives and deaths of those recorded on them. In particular, the site www.roll-of-honour.com has been fascinating. I have referred to parts of it in the text. The memorials that have proved especially of interest and the researchers concerned are as follows: Kings Lynn – Chris Harley and Rev Damon Rogers; Brancaster, Castle Rising, Sandringham, Snettisham, Holkham and Blakeney – Carolynn Langley and Lynda Smith; Burnham Deepdale and Staithe, and Upper Sheringham – Martin Edwards and Mike Smith; Wells-next-the-Sea – Chris Comber and Ernie Rusdale; Cromer – Lynda Smith and Martin Edwards; Mundesley – David Rudram and Lynda Smith; Great Yarmouth – Martin Edwards and Chris Comber; and Great Walsingham – Chris McColl.

The newspapers, magazines and periodicals of the period have been preserved in various ways by dedicated teams, and I am grateful to all concerned for thus enabling events to ‘come to life’ in a way more vivid to people living 100 years later than is possible by any other means. I am grateful to library and archive teams all over Norfolk, especially those in Norwich, for unfailing and courteous help.

Appendix 1:

‘The Norfolk Coast Path - A Walk along the North Norfolk Coast from Hunstanton to Cromer’ is based on material in the book Peddars Way and the Norfolk Coast Path by the author and Daniel Tink (Halsgrove, 2013).

Photo credits:

Photographs of the period come from many sources, books and archives. I am grateful to Daniel Tink for permission to publish some photographs from his wonderful website www.scenicnorfolk.co.uk and these are acknowledged in the text. All other present-day photographs are by the author.

At Pen and Sword I thank my commissioning editor, Roni Wilkinson for all his excellent advice and for personally helping search out some fine archive photographs, particularly of Sheringham; Jodie Butterwood for her attention to detail in the copy editing process; and Matt Jones for overseeing production.

www.stephenbrowningbooks.co.uk has details of the companion volume Norwich in the Great War, also published by Pen and Sword (2015) as well as more material relating to this study.

Introduction

This study, the first of its type, aims to take the reader on a ‘sweep’ of the Norfolk coastline during the Great War. This area, from Kings Lynn, around to Hunstanton, on to Weybourne and Cromer, and down to Harwich and beyond, was seen as vulnerable to invasion, especially during the first half of the conflict. It was to the coastal settlements and fishing fleet that the first orders of the war were issued.

There was much to do from a military standpoint, including organising recruitment of both men and volunteers, digging trenches and strengthening coastal defences, making sure every settlement had clear instructions on what to do in the case of invasion and keeping a wary eye on any strange developments. Soon enough the warships and Zeppelins arrived, threatening life and limb and making a terrible noise.

Meanwhile, everyday life had to go on and the following pages aim to give a snapshot of home life on the coast during the conflict: jobs, homes, conversations, entertainments, joys and sorrows, crime and punishment, and how the press reported events whilst the greatest war in history raged as a too-familiar backdrop. This has been put together using archive and original material of the period, which has not been published before in book form or, in some cases, at all.

There are some wonderful tales to tell: Chaim Weizmann, future President of Israel, and his heroic attempts to produce cordite in Kings Lynn and elsewhere; the long-time secret story of Bayntun Hippisley and his Hut in Hunstanton, some people regarding this as crucial in winning the war; the bravery of the greatest of the life-boatmen, Henry Blogg of Cromer, and his crew; the essential work of women who took to factories and cornfields when the local young men were suddenly absent; and the barely-believable tales of heroism out at sea by the likes of Captain Charles Fryatt and Tom Crisp VC. These and many other stories are told here.

It is, therefore, not primarily a military history – there are some excellent sites and sources to explore in this respect and details of these are given in both the text and an appendix – but, of course, a great many of the coast’s young men died, and thus each section of the book covering a specific part of the coast gives details of a small number of these soldiers and sailors who never came home. Not always, it has to be said, because of enemy action but sometimes through the most mundane (cleaning a gun) or terrible (British submarines crashing into each other on peaceful manoeuvre) of accidents. Some men gained great distinction, some did not and far too many have no known grave. It is intended, by giving particulars of the few, to honour the many.

There are upwards of 180 pictures and photographs throughout. Some are rare archive photographs and in a dozen cases of locations it has been possible to take a photograph on the exact same spot today. Top Norfolk photographer Daniel Tink has taken some classic scenes, highlighting better than any description the often vast open spaces and vulnerable nature of the coastline.

A separate appendix gives a plan for a 46-mile walk – in seven sections or all at once – along the magnificent Norfolk Coast Path between Hunstanton and Cromer. This, more than anything, will illustrate why so much concern was given over to this ‘critical coastline’. In great stretches of the walk, the vista has not changed at all in 100 years.

CHAPTER 1

Norwich on the Eve of Conflict

‘The faces contained an innocence not seen today. It was the innocence of the young countryman of the late nineteenth century – a different race.’

Ronald Blythe, talking of servicemen’s pictures in houses after the Great War.

The Impact of Norwich

It is not realistically possible to talk of the Great War along the Norfolk coast unless we also acknowledge the impact of the county’s main city, Norwich. It was to Norfolk what London was to the country as a whole – a leader and command centre. ‘The Fine City’ or ‘No Mean City’ – both slogans were used at this time, although the former has now been exclusively adopted – was an exemplar of Edwardian commercial innovation. Key firms destined to play a vital role in the war included Boulton and Paul, already producing virtually anything in metal from wire netting to a complete lighthouse in Brazil; Colman’s, who were to see 921 men join up, including four of the seven directors; Howlett and White, among many other shoe producers, who together made hundreds of thousands of pairs of what was universally agreed to be a marching boot of unequalled quality for the British and allied armies; and Caley’s who produced Christmas crackers, mineral water and chocolate bars, the latter being sent in their millions to troops on the Front Line. ‘Caley’s Marching Chocolate’ was especially popular and can still be bought in the city today.

Mr Jeremiah Colman, founder of the famous firm that bears his name.

Mrs Jeremiah Colman who played a key role in setting up health, education, housing and canteen facilities for Colman’s workers.

Caley’s was a famous city firm, operating from the present site of Chapelfield Shopping Centre, which made Caley’s Marching Chocolate sent to men on the Front Line.

One design on the doors of Norwich Town Hall, each of which depicts a trade: this one depicts aircraft production.

Another design on the doors of Norwich Town Hall: this one celebrates industry and, in particular, wire netting production, which was invaluable in the war effort.

Riverside today, site of Boulton and Paul, who made more of the Sopwith Camel aircraft than anyone else. (Daniel Tink)

Drink could be a problem

At this time, Norwich had at least seven large breweries, such as Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs, and Bullard’s, along with dozens of malt houses. There were also over 500 public houses, many of which were unlicensed. City magistrates continually ordered that such establishments, which found it easy to buy a barrel of ale from an accommodating brewery literally ‘up the road’ and sell it in an attempt to eke out a living, be closed down only for another to open up, often next door or nearby.

There was a crusade to offer help against the ill-health caused by excessive drinking, which was a significant problem and was one factor in the often poor physical condition of those offering themselves for recruitment to the army. Active temperance societies included The Independent Order of Rechabites, and The United Kingdom Provident Institution, which claimed to be ‘The Best Office for Abstainers’. Drunkenness was a continual theme in the local courts of Norwich which, as a look at any of the local records shows, the war did little to change.

Fighting the demon drink in Norwich and Norfolk were many temperance societies and temperance hotels.

The press often contained tales of intoxication such as the following in the Eastern Daily Press of 4 July 1914. The headline was ‘DRUNKEN SAILOR’ and the reporter wrote: ‘At Police Court on Friday, William Vickers, sailor, of Lynn was charged with drunkenness on Thursday night. Police Constable Kirby said the defendant was very drunk in Broad Street. He found him fast asleep and had to rouse him and lock him up. Defendant said he was very sorry and this was the first time he had been in trouble. He was fined 2s 6d.’ It was not at all unusual for drunks to be minors.

This was an interesting time in the study of criminality and, at the beginning of July, the local press carried articles discussing whether or not crime was a disease. One report was headed ‘MENTALLY WEAK JUVENILES’ and reported:

‘Some remarkable facts have come to light during the session of the Association for the Study of the Feebleminded at Columbus, Ohio, New York. Dr W.J. Hickson, the superintendent of the psychopathic laboratory, who is an acknowledged authority on the subject, said: “It daily grows more and more evident that crime is a disease, and must be so regarded. Of 245 boys examined only 18 were found to be normal mentally. In the light of these disclosures it became quite easy to accept the idea that a diseased brain is at the bottom of diseased behaviour, and it is high time that we are dropping, in these cases, the idea of criminality.’

The mighty Norwich Union and banking

The city was a national centre for insurance and banking. The famous Norwich Union Mutual Insurance Company, now renamed AVIVA, had its exquisite headquarters in Surrey Street, built by George Skipper from imported Italian marble in 1903/4 (which he reportedly acquired cheaply as it was originally destined for another building project which could not proceed). Total funds in 1908 amounted to £8,823,303. Gurney’s Bank was then part of Barclays and operated in part from the Magdalen Street area of the city, which was far grander than it is now. It created the phrase common at the time ‘as rich as the Gurneys’. Farrows Bank Ltd was another that operated from the Market Place: advertisements in the local press read ‘It Caters for All Classes, It Offers Sound Security.’

The Guildhall, c.1910.

Looking up Guildhall Hill today. The original Town Hall, built in the early fifteenth century, can be seen and, towering above it, James’ and Pierce’s ‘new’ Town Hall, work on which stopped in 1939 (the rear is incomplete as you can see if you nip around for a look). The whole block, beginning with the white building on the right, was Chamberlins, which supplied huge quantities of clothing to the troops.

George Skipper’s Royal Arcade today.

Fine stores

Norwich was home to several fine department stores. One, still very much thriving today, was Jarrold and Sons which, apart from selling all manner of goods from marmalade to books to bedsteads, boasted ‘Jarrolds Select Library – Free Use to an Entire Family of a well-appointed Reading Room; subscriptions from 10/6 per Annum.’ Jarrolds was to play a key role in the war, especially as it operated a printing and publishing works which was famous at this time for being the original publisher of the children’s classic Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, who was born in Great Yarmouth and subsequently spent much of her life in the Old Catton area of the city. The book has now sold over 50 million copies. Not only did Jarrold’s produce a series of wildly successful patriotic books such as Shell Shocked but the firm also printed booklets and leaflets in their hundreds of thousands for the allied and fledgling RAF forces.

A hot summer

The summer of 1914 was hot: on 2 July the Eastern Daily Press reported the death by heatstroke of Mr Richard Yallop, aged forty-two, of Glebe Road. The same day, Sainsburys encouraged shoppers to forego cooking for a while:

DON’T BE TROUBLED WITH FIRES IN THE HOUSE! THE MOST APPETISING AND DELICIOUS FARE. NO COOKING! READY FOR THE TABLE AND AT VERY REASONABLE PRICES CALL AND INSPECT THE LIST OF DAINTIES 6, HAYMARKET, NORWICH

The correspondence columns of the local press in July and early August 1914 had a lively exchange about the problems of being a shop worker in such conditions. One letter began, ‘Sirs, Permit me to bring before the public notice the long hours some shop assistants are compelled to work this very trying weather...’ Another wrote, ‘Sirs, I have read with some interest the letter from ‘H’ and must say that nothing but good can come of the thoughtfulness of one of the firms of the city which has decided to keep the emporium open to enable the fair sex to make the purchases in the cool of the evening.’ Not everyone was sympathetic: ‘Sirs, As for persons behind the counter, whoever would dream of considering if they would like to enjoy the balmy breezes with their more fortunate sisters? Are they not paid for their job, and is it not their means to livelihood? Their employers provide them with shelter from the burning rays of the sun during the heat of the day and naturally expect to be compensated by their services during the evening – but the dissatisfaction of some people is proverbial.’

London Street, 1914.

Thorpe Railway Station, 1914.

The Norwich Mercury reported a very sad case: NORFOLK WOMAN OF 106 DIES FROM BURNS: ‘Ann Smith, an old lady stated to be 106 years old, died last week from burns as a result of smoking a pipe in bed.’

Religion was, understandably, often in the news. On 10 July the Eastern Daily Press featured a discussion about the purpose of religion, one correspondent making an impassioned plea to ‘bring the Gospel to every corner of the Empire or what’, he asked, ‘is the point?’ The same edition could not resist a story from Yorkshire, ‘VICAR’S PLIGHT IN A BELFRY’. A vicar became imprisoned for three hours in the belfry after a rung snapped on his ladder. He tolled the bell thinking that, as it was a weekday, someone would notice it was amiss. This did not work, so he broke off a bar from the window and attached a white handkerchief to it, waving as heartily as he could from the window. Eventually a farm servant noticed the distress signal and brought the village carpenter. The vicar’s descent was perilous and he almost fell to the floor.

Motoring and cycling

Shopping in general was as varied and up-to-the-minute as anywhere. Almost any make of car could be obtained to tour the county’s fascinating road network. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one man who loved motoring in the county and based The Hound of the Baskervilles, published to gushing reviews in 1902, on a story told him, some believe, by the Cavell family in Cromer. Several other tales in the Sherlock Holmes canon are also the direct result of his travels around Norfolk.

The Eastern Daily Press advertised motor cars from about £85 upwards. Mann Egerton, a firm that was to put its weight and workforce behind production of aeroplanes within a year of the outbreak of the Great War, was also a major supplier of motor cars and, according to the Eastern Daily Press, had the following to offer in August 1914: 12hp 1913 Talbot Coupé, £400; 25hp 1909 De Dion Coupé, £190; 10hp 1912 Austin, £200; 6hp 1907 Rover, £30; 28hp Lanchester, £275; 15.9hp Arrol-Johnston, £160; 25hp 1912 Daimler limousine, £550; 20hp Rolls Royce Landaulette, £250; and 28hp Delauney Belleville Shooting Brake, £100.

British-built Talbot Tourer c.1911.

Bicycles were also popular and, in July 1914, the paper was advertising ‘The Raleigh All Steel Bicycle, guaranteed for ever (agents all over Norfolk)’. It could be delivered to your door for £3 19 9d. On 5 August, the paper led a campaign to repair the Dereham Road, which it considered unsafe for cyclists.

Looking good

In terms of fashion and generally looking good, the city did not regard itself as lagging behind London. There were several drapers and clothing manufacturers and one, Chamberlins, occupied the whole of the ‘block’ opposite Jarrolds and was to play a leading role in equipping troops.

Plain false teeth could be obtained from a dentist in Castle Meadow for one guinea, and those made from gold and Vulcanite were offered for three times that figure. Hair pomade and all manner of vitamin supplements and cordials, some of which made highly dubious claims such as warding off consumption and lung disease, were easily available. H.A. King of 38 Exchange Street was promising, in the 1 May 1914 edition of the Norfolk Chronicle, to provide ‘Artificial Eyes Carefully Fitted’.

Should your hair be turning grey, the Diss Express of August 1914 recommended keeping HOME MADE-UP COMBINGS and said ‘A good method of disguising grey hair is to have the combings made up in the form of a toupee or a switch to wear over the part which is turning grey. Remember, though, to keep the combings in a well-closed box … or they will lose their colour.’

One local paper made the following announcement under the headline ‘TO THE LADIES OF EAST ANGLIA’: ‘Many Corset Manufacturers (particularly those with no designers of their own) were caught unawares by this year’s great change of fashion and now see that THEY MISREAD THE SIGNAL FROM PARIS with the result that they now find themselves loaded with heavy stocks of unsaleable corsets. This sort of thing cannot be too strongly deprecated; and to offset it we have devoted the sum of £17,854 for REDUCING the prices of ten of the favourite models of Royal Worcester Kidfitting Corset, all of which hold the SILVER SEAL CERTIFICATE of the London Institute of Hygiene. Agents in Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Kings Lynn, Norwich etc.’ Corsets, and all manner of clothes, could be fitted in the home and travelling sales representatives, often struggling along a residential street with their bulging cases of products, were a common sight.

A customer being fitted with a Spirella corset in their home: Spirella came to the UK from America in 1910.

Heavy building work – part of a thriving Norwich Edwardian economy.

Advertising picture showing the considerable extent of Chamberlins’ Norwich business.

Bullard’s Brewery is now residential accommodation.

The Edwardians had pills for a huge range of conditions.

For the bath, John Dodson, 28 London Road, offered Honeycomb sponges, ‘Toilet 6d to 3s and Bath 4s to 7/6d’. As regards soap, one big seller was Sunlight. Adverts of the time portray the Navy unloading crates of it and add: ‘CHEERFULNESS AS OPPOSED TO FRIGHTFULNESS. THE NATION TAKES ITS CUE FROM THE NAVY. FRIGHTFULNESS IS A MILLSTONE … SUNLIGHT USERS ARE ALWAYS CHEERFUL.’ Sunlight was one of many manufacturers who hit on the idea of shipping supplies of their product out to Norfolk soldiers, which was both a patriotic act and a fact that could be integrated into their advertising.

Norwich did not see itself as lagging behind anywhere in the country as regards to the arts or stage shows. The local press reported: ‘THEATRE ROYAL “The Man in the Moon” is a delightfully artistic conception with poetry in its movement and happy harmony of scenery and dresses...’

The Minster Church of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth. The clock was added in 1919 to celebrate victory.

Jobs, wages and housing

Should you need a job, there was no shortage – in shoe production, iron design and manufacturing, and the insurance and banking industries. This was also the heyday of the servant and domestic worker, with the local papers packed with adverts for every category of work in private homes and hotels on the coast. Wages were from about £30 to £90 per annum depending on experience – this contrasted with the average farm wage which was around £75. Some advertisements were seeking or offering a slightly more genteel position. The Eastern Daily Press carried these three on 2 July 1914:

• Companion wanted to elderly lady; to do housework; comfortable home; age about 40. Apply personally 5-8 pm York Street, Norwich

• Clergyman’s daughter seeks daily engagement, Norwich; good needlewoman, musical; can teach little children; good references

• Nurse (superior) wanted for three children, eight and a half, seven and four years; eldest two have morning governess. Apply...

The Empire also required servants. The Norwich Mercury of 31 October 1914 stated that domestic servants were in great demand in New Zealand and that the steamer fare was £2 16s. Boys who wanted to try farmwork in the colonies, especially Australia, could report in an office at the bottom of Prince of Wales Road near Riverside.

The Norfolk coast was experiencing a booking boom as the summer approached. This would cause trouble later in the courts, as hoteliers faced ruin as the war forced trippers to cancel bookings or, in many cases, simply to not turn up at all. However, as June came and went, the coastal trade added to the general air of prosperity as well as to the number of low-skilled jobs on offer.

Workhouses were still very much flourishing and provided an alternative to work in domestic service. On 1 July the Eastern Daily Press reported on the fortnightly meeting of the Aylsham Board of Guardians and Rural District Council – Aylsham is just over 9 miles north of Norwich – being held at the workhouse: ‘Mr C. John Littlewood reported that no answer had been received to their advertisement for a laundress, and they recommend that they again advertise and make the salary £26 rising to £30.’

Most working people at this time rented their housing, either privately or through their employer – Colmans led the way in this respect with a purpose-built village for employees in Trowse, just outside the city centre. The cost of a modest property would likely be several shillings a week – the Norfolk Chronicle in August 1914 offered a small cottage in Baconsthorpe with one quarter of an acre garden for 3/6. In the same edition, for the budding small businessperson, a ‘small poultry farm (1 acre)’ could be rented for £30 a month. For those with deeper pockets, a house and estate in Oulton were offered for sale at £1,200. Many of the opportunities for more adventurous entrepreneurs centred on the Empire: for example, 700 acres in Nova Scotia, Canada, could be bought for ‘£3,000 (half cash)’.

Love of sports

Sport in general and cricket in particular was highlighted in the local press as summer arrived. 4 July saw the opening of Norwich Cricket week. Norfolk scored 203 against Hertfordshire but the Eastern Daily Press considered this disappointing on a good wicket. All progressed well, however, as Hertforshire were bowled out for 104, N.J. Cox taking 7 for 35. On 10 July the local press reported a match between Norwich Post Office and that at Yarmouth Southtown, a thrilling victory being secured when the former reached 151 due to a last wicket stand. Although it was considered inappropriate that cricket watched by the general public should continue during the war – in any event, many members of cricket teams throughout the county were to join up in ‘pals’ units and even the great W.G. Grace wrote to the press to stop it – the game did carry on in hospitals and amongst the armed forces as it was very good for morale.

International Bowls was popular and subsequently a favourite activity for the Specials and recuperating troops. The papers reported a summer golf match between Royal Norwich Club and Sheringham. Norwich Lawn Tennis Tournament promised ‘a feast of matches’. For a tennis racquet, people were encouraged to go to Johnston, Burston and Theobald of London and Castle Streets, Norwich: ‘New Tennis Racquets from 5/6; the Heagon 15s’. The same shop also offered lawn bowls from 9/6 a pair.

Trams and inventions

Norwich citizens were proud to have a fine tram network, which was operational from 1901. When the war came and blackouts were enforced, lighting both the outside, so that people could see it coming, and the inside, so that people could actually take a seat, was to prove difficult and even comical. At one point, a single candle was permitted inside but this was quickly upgraded to a single light. Another achievement that was to cause difficulty with regard to making the city invisible to passing Zeppelins was the project, headed by city electrical engineer F.M. Long, which installed 1,750 electric lights in the streets between 1911 and 1913.

Two Kings come to the city

On 25 October 1909, King Edward VII became the first monarch to visit Norwich since Charles II, 238 years before. However, from 1910 the Mayor became a Lord Mayor, a rare honour. George V was to visit the city on 28 June 1911, a mere six days after his coronation. Here then was an important city of the kingdom with growing influence and self-confidence.

Politically, this was a transformative time for women’s rights. Suffragettes were often seen parading along Prince of Wales Road, and just after the war Norwich became the first city in the country to have a female Lord Mayor – Ethel Colman, second daughter of Jeremiah James Colman. Her lady mayoress was her younger sister, Helen Caroline.

Breath by Paul de Monchaux, commissioned by Norwich City Council in 2010; ‘The Living Honour the Dead. Only a Breath Divides Them.’

Market Place, Norwich, before the war.

The sculpture in Norwich, by George E. Wade, of Peace sheathing her sword at the end of the Boer War. Most hoped that this would be the last great world conflict.

The Rt Hon Ernest E. Blyth LLD, first Lord Mayor of Norwich.

Thus, as war approached, Norwich was a bustling centre with a fine sense of its growing importance. All was certainly not perfect – witness the extreme poverty, poor health and habitual drunkenness of some parts of the city – but it was very much the obvious place for other parts of the county, including the vulnerable north Norfolk coast, to look to for guidance as to what to do in the forthcoming catastrophe, the greatest war the world had ever seen.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity

Norwich has two cathedrals, both very beautiful and very different. The Cathedral of St John the Baptist was completed in 1910 and the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity about 800 years earlier, although building continued in one way or another for several hundred years and in 2009 the Hostry was added. It is fair to say that it is in the latter that those interested in the Great War will find particular plaques, memorials and features of interest. Memorials to soldiers and schools, especially associated with the conflict, in wood, glass and copper can be seen as, of course, can the magnificent Chapel of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. Outside, in an area known as Life’s Green, is the grave of Edith Cavell, restored in May 2015.

Memorial window in Norwich Anglican Cathedral to the Norwich and Norfolk soldiers who fought in the Great War.

Grave of Edith Cavell, Anglican Cathedral.

Memorial to Edith Cavell, London.

The beautiful Chapel of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Norwich Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

CHAPTER 2

War Arrives ‘Like a Thief in the Night’

‘Have many gone

From here?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Many lost?’ ‘Yes, a good few.

Only two teams work on the farm this year.

One of my mates is dead. The second day

In France they killed him…..Now if

He had stayed here we should have moved the tree.’

Edward Thomas, killed 9 April 1917 during the Battle of Arras

‘The greatest of all wars in history stole upon the world like a thief in the night. Not in war anticipations but in the complacencies of peace were the English people indulging in the early spring of 1914. A great wave of industrial prosperity was passing over the country, and Norfolk, especially its capital, was more or less directly feeling its stimulus.’

Herbert Leeds, Peace Souvenir, Norwich War Record, Jarrold and Sons Ltd 1919

The fateful day

On Sunday, 28 June 1914 a gunman, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, as they were driving away from the town hall following a reception.

Will it be war?

Many people did not believe that a war was coming in the hot summer of 1914 and were much more concerned with their holidays. Bookings were very healthy in the hotels and guest houses of Norfolk’s coastal resorts as people flocked to the seaside. At worst, the overwhelming feeling was that the conflict would be contained.

The height of Edwardian children’s fashion on the beach.

Hotel poster, Great Yarmouth, 1914.

That the situation changed dramatically and with great speed is illustrated by the following entries in the Eastern Daily Press. It was not at all agreed that Great Britain should become involved in the war.

29 JULY 1914

WAR DECLARED BY AUSTRIA. CAN THE CONFLICT BE RESTRICTED? POSITION NOT ENTIRELY HOPELESS.

GLOOMY FEELING IN BERLIN

FRANCE GETTING READY

AUSTRIANS IN ENGLAND APPEAL TO RETURN HOME FOR MILITARY SERVICE. An interesting feature of the appeal is that all men who have deserted from the Austrian Army will receive a pardon if proceeding immediately and voluntarily to report.

30 JULY 1914

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR: We do not subscribe readily, nor indeed at all, to the belief of those people who declare that unless the war in the Near East of Europe is localized, it is inevitable that this country must be drawn into a great European conflict. What is the condition that makes the engagement of the British Empire in armed conflict with any nation or nations possible or necessary? To us it appears that the essential condition is that a war in which British subjects are engaged must be a war for the protection and preservation of definite British rights. No one will argue that the fate of Serbia affects this country ... no interest in this country is involved which would justify the shedding of a single drop of British blood in the quarrel.

30 JULY 1914

BUSINESS AND THE WAR – AN ANXIOUS TIME SEVEN FAILURES ON LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

4 AUGUST 1914

THE ULTIMATUM TO BELGIUM: INDIGNANT REJECTION

Never was there a day in our history which called more clearly for sober restraint, for cool thought, rather than excited sensationalism.

There is not the slightest reason why there should be any rush by the public to withdraw money from the banks. The extension of the bank holiday over today and tomorrow – Tuesday 4 and Wed 5 Aug – will do something to check ... these manifestations of public unwisdom which showed signs of manifesting itself at the end of last week.

Nor is there the least reason why the public should be stampeded into excitement about food. There is absolutely nothing in the present position...which makes it necessary for households to lay in stores of food beyond the ordinary requirements of the day. That sort of panicky action is foolish and useless.

The paper also asked for understanding that certain information could not be given:

Readers will please note that there is certain information for which they will look in vain in our columns ... the movement of British troops or the disposition of naval force ... Here in Norfolk with its long coastline and its great seaboard areas all sorts of communications reach us from our correspondents ...

NOTICE: We regret that owing to our own constant requirements of our telephones, and the pressure upon our staff at the present time, we are unable to answer queries over the telephone as to war news.

The Eastern Daily Press also posed the question: ‘What is England to do?’ and carried a piece by Baron Kuhlmann of the German Embassy in London entitled: ‘Why Britain should be neutral’.

It is War!

It was on the hot night of Tuesday, 4 August 1914, that people read the following in the Eastern Evening News:

‘Owing to the summary rejection by the German Government of the request made by His Majesty’s Government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium will be respected, His Majesty’s Ambassador in Berlin has received his passports, and His Majesty’s Government have declared to the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from eleven p.m. on August 4th.’

The war memorial opposite the Town Hall commemorating the dead of both world wars. The striped tops of the market stalls can be seen in the ‘dip’, and at the top right of the picture is Norwich Castle.

This is the Eastern Daily Press on 5 August 1914

‘Events have moved during the last few days with such rapidity that the British nation has been taken almost entirely by surprise. The public, we are sure, is in a condition of bewilderment at the development of a condition in Europe that has all the qualities of a nightmare.’

The situation was rapidly hardening and the majority view was undoubtedly that war should not be avoided or the enemy appeased. It would be short, even fun – very soon posters were to appear on Norwich streets calling on men to ‘Come and Join Our Happy Band’ – and a chance to give the Kaiser a bloody nose. On 5 August almost 300 men attached to the Norwich Division of the National Reserves paraded at the Agricultural Hall.

Kaiser Wilhelm II.

First Orders

It was to the Norfolk Coast that the first orders had been directed on the Sunday morning, 2 August. All classes of naval reserves were immediately called up. Instructions were issued to the fishing fleet. In Kings Lynn forty-eight out of the sixty Naval Reservists had presented themselves at the Customs House by one o’clock the following day and they left by train for Chatham, cheered by enthusiastic crowds, the same afternoon.

Building ships on the Norfolk coast, 1900s.

Norwich takes the lead

Nothing like this had ever happened before and so what were the authorities in Norwich to do? Obviously, waiting for national directives was part of the answer but, meanwhile, it was decided that Local Emergency Committees should be formed under the direction of the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Leicester. A Central Organising Committee for Norfolk was formed, of which the representatives for Norwich were the Lord Mayor, Mr J.A. Porter, and the Town Clerk, Mr Arnold J. Miller. Local Emergency Committees were set up throughout the county to report on the best ways to obstruct a possible invasion and, at the same time, to organise a retreat should the worst happen. Local scouts set to work mapping out alternative escape routes out of the major towns.

This was the dawn of the motor car and motor cycle and it was required that all such be registered along with garages and the extent of their stocks of spare parts and petrol. A list was also drawn up of people who were prepared to drive: 200 cars and 300 drivers were registered as being available to the authorities in an emergency. Some people did not volunteer either their vehicles or themselves as drivers and as a consequence 100 mechanics capable of disabling motor cars and cycles in the event of an invasion were signed up.

Troops march along London Street, 1914, past the once well-known Garlands department store.

Another order established the Civilians’ Emergency Corps, originally of 1,200 people, the purpose of which was to remove or destroy horses, to save the animals falling into enemy hands.

The British Medical Association sent an organising committee to Norwich with advice on what to do in the case of casualties: schools, including the brand new Lakenheath School that had been built but not yet opened, and other buildings, were turned into hospitals. Doctors were assigned to a specific medical station in the event of attack by troops, aircraft, naval bombardment or airship.

In case of the enemy landing, a telegraph was erected on top of Norwich Castle, which was visible from one on Strumpshaw Hill, which in turn linked to another at Yarmouth.

It was ordered that cocoa be stockpiled and people were told to consider retreating inland, and not in any event to the coast, if the enemy gained the upper hand.

Fortunately, none of the above arrangements were activated but there was real fear that Norfolk’s was the critical coast upon which an assault was highly likely.

Observers

A secret list of observers was set up in counties considered at risk of invasion: the people concerned were selected as being upstanding and reliable members of the community but those who would not, for one reason or another, be called up. Vicars were considered ideal. For Norfolk, people were recruited from a range of places and these included North Walsham, Cromer, Southrepps, Mundesley, Palling, Happisburgh, Trunch, Knapton and East Ruston.

The appeal for Specials

A mass appeal for Specials was launched. Specials were people who, although exempted from military service, nevertheless had the skills to allow the release of a regular soldier back into the forces. Within three weeks 170 had registered but an appeal was launched for at least 400 – it was pointed out that the more that came forward, the shorter would be the turn of duty for each one. The men were organised into four units by the Chief Constable, Mr E.F. Winch.

In the early days there was some discontent as they had nothing to do. Also part of the problem was that they did not ‘look the part’ as cloth for uniforms was scarce. They had to wait until January 1916 for their caps and until August that year for a blue uniform. Overcoats did not materialise until February 1917.

Initially each ‘Special’ was placed on duty with a regular policeman. Part of their duty was to guard sensitive spots such as bridges and the Gas and Electricity Works. To keep the men fit, route marches were arranged on Sundays.

From 1916 the Specials volunteered to take over many duties normally undertaken by regular troops. This was especially appreciated on 25 December as this enabled large numbers of serving men to spend Christmas with their families.

Probably the most valuable task was air raid duty in all weathers. Often a Special would be on air raid duty having already spent a normal day at work. Many kept awake by drinking copious quantities of coffee.

Some of them formed a corps of motor-car and motor-cycle men, trained to carry dispatches and for specific duties in the event of invasion. There were ten such motor-cars, fifteen motor-cycles and twenty-five cycles. Each man had to supply his own machine. There was also an ambulance corps.

Specifically on the coast

It was on the Norfolk coast that defensive measures were first introduced. Settlements such as Happisburgh and Weybourne were considered prime sites for a hostile landing as the sea here was deep enough to allow ships to closely approach the shoreline and land men and machines. Immediate action was taken to defend them. In Happisburgh, for example, a division of what were known as ‘Rough Riders’ – cavalry hastily drafted in from all over the county – were billeted in private houses. Trenches were dug along the cliff tops and the beaches shut to the public between sunset and sunrise: at all other times special permission needed to be obtained from the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of defences.

Fishing craft, Great Yarmouth. On a Sunday, fishing came to a halt.

Many local women of coastal settlements were also formed into groups to make clothing and bandages for troops.

On 8 August the herring fleet was ordered back to port and all fishing was temporarily stopped. The Norwich Mercury reported: ‘The great fleets of Europe and millions of armed men are making feverish preparations for a conflict which dwarfs into absolute significance any previous struggle in the history of the world.’ It added: ‘… who will be the victor in this Titanic struggle, no man can foresee ...’ On the same day came reports of the capture of the first German prisoners, as well as the seizure of the steamer Belgia at Newport with seventy-eight German reservists and a large quantity of food.

British ships did not escape for long. The Diss Express of Friday, 11 September 1914 reported:

‘SUNK BY MINE. Six fishermen drowned. The Lowestoft steam drifter Eyrie has been blown up in the North Sea by a sunken mine. Of eleven crew, six were drowned and five saved. After striking the mine the drifter sank in less than three minutes.’

This did not, however, deter the fishermen, the catch continuing to reach record levels. The Eastern Daily Press of Monday, 25 October 1915 recorded: ‘THE HERRING FISHING CATCH OF THE SEASON AT YARMOUTH. Drifters came in thick and fast all day until every inch of quay space was occupied.’

The fishing fleet coming back to base, north Norfolk.

On 15 August, Sandringham Grounds and Gardens were closed to visitors. On the same day, German spies were reported to be using racing pigeons to carry messages to Germany. On 28 August German floating mines were reported off The Wash.

The Cripples Brigade

From November 1914 the Eastern Daily Press began to advertise for older men – open to those over thirty-eight years of age – to form a Volunteer Training Corps, which was officially formed on 4 December under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Leathes Prior. They held their first parade on 15 December and a year later there were twenty-eight squads drilling in various public buildings three times a week. They consisted of people from all professions and classes, from labourers to bank managers and members of the leisured classes. A major problem was that the authorities seemed ambivalent, even unsupportive, at first, and the public found them funny. Some derided them as ‘England’s Last Hope’ and ‘The Cripples Brigade’. Parades sometimes had a comic and chaotic aspect.

As the war progressed, the quality of Volunteers went down further. One, the 49th Provisional Battalion, was dubbed the ‘Grocers’ and consisted of soldiers who had returned wounded from the Front Line and men considerably over-age, some quite infirm. These men were usually sent to the coast to guard against invasion.

Across the county, volunteer groups, informal at first but later government-backed, were formed. The authorities were naturally nervous of unregulated bands of men roaming around. The local paper declared that in war time there were two types of people who were a great nuisance – those who did nothing and those who did everything: of the two the latter was by far the worse.

Fears of invasion

In 1914 there was a school of thought that saw invasion as highly likely. There were literally dozens of graphic full-length novels published in the early 1900s, giving no-holds-barred and horrifying accounts of life under a foreign conqueror. A best seller was William Le Quex’s The Invasion of 1910, which sold over a million copies. In this book, the Germans landed at Lowestoft. In another, Swoop of the Vulture, Lowestoft and Yarmouth were invaded helped by previously unknown German sympathisers. In another, the Japanese landed at Liverpool. Erskine Childers, a future war hero, even got into the act with his famous novel The Riddle of the Sands.

There was also what is known as the Blue Water School of thought, which believed that as long as Britain commanded the seas there was no possibility of invasion. According to this theory, championed by the Admiralty, if Britain surrendered command of the seas, the army would be ineffective anyway in the case of a multiple assault. The enemy would land on the Norfolk coast, or maybe south of Lowestoft, and sweep into London. The sinking within ninety minutes of the Hogue, Aboukir and Cressy by a single German U-boat, U-9, dealt the Navy a huge psychological blow, at least temporarily, and did little to reassure the concerns of people living on the coast.

Protection of the Norfolk coast relied not just on the British Navy, but also on North Sea fishermen, many of whom were enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section. They were to use their own vessels in a variety of war work – patrolling, minesweeping and anti-submarine operations. Some smacks, commanded by skippers such as Thomas Crisp and Charles Fryatt, whose heroic exploits are featured later, played an active part as combatants and created instant legends which greatly helped morale. The Germans were under no illusions as to fishermen’s value and sank twenty-six boats within the first four weeks of hostilities. Over 500 herring drifters from Yarmouth and Lowestoft were hired by the Royal Navy during the course of the war. In addition, in 1914, four of the largest Yarmouth steam drifters were used to install heavy steel anti-submarine mesh in what was called the Swin anchorage off Maplin Sands. This proved a vital anchorage for battleships of the 3rd Battle Squadron.

At the beginning of the war, any German ships that happened to be in British ports were captured. The Fiducia was taken at Great Yarmouth and several at other major ports, such as Kings Lynn and Ipswich.

First shots of the war and Battle of the Heligoland Bight

Grand Fleet, 18 July 1914.

The first shot of the naval war is attributed to HMS Lance, which led to the scuttling by the crew of the Konigin Luise. This auxiliary minelayer of 2,163 tons had left the base of Wilhelmshaven in early August – there is an accusation that she set out before war was declared so we are not entirely sure of the exact date – and by 4th was laying mines just off Bawdsey, a direct route to Harwich. It so happened that the skipper of a Lowestoft smack had seen her in the act and passed the message on to Commodore Tyrwhitt, in charge of defences at Harwich, who set out with several ships. It fell to Lance to fire the fatal shot but the accompanying Amphion managed to pick up fifty-six crew from the minelayer. In a degree of tragic poetic justice, not missed by the press at home, the Amphion struck one of the mines previously laid by the Konigin Luise on the way back to Harwich, killing most of the Germans who had been picked up. The Amphion herself was damaged, many of the crew suffering severe burns as the ship’s oil tanks exploded. The nearby Lark rescued many of the crew, including Captain Fox who famously left the stricken ship last. Shortly afterwards, the Amphion struck another mine and vanished under the waves.

Commodore Tyrwhitt took command of a light cruiser, the Arethusa, capable of 29 knots, and led a sweeping operation against German patrols in the Heligoland area. On encountering German destroyers and cruisers, on 28 August 1914, a chaotic battle took place – often in thick fog and by all accounts with the British communications system in a farcical state – known as the Battle of the Bight. However, the British press was able to trumpet the sinking of 3 German cruisers and a destroyer with the loss of 781 men and the taking of 381 prisoners at a cost of 35 British lives and some battle scars to the Arethusa. This was great for morale at the time.

SS Konigin Luise.

Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy sunk in less than ninety minutes

Disaster came soon enough. On 22 September, the three elderly cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy, were on patrol off the Dutch coast when a storm separated them from their destroyer escort. Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddigen, of the U-boat U.9, was able to sink all three in less than ninety minutes. Great heroism was shown by the skippers of two smacks, Tom Phillips and George Jacobs, both of whom were awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal for rescuing 156 men. Other ships picked up 681 more, but the loss of life totalled 1,459. This acted as a great shock to the confidence of the British but, in Germany, Kapitanleutnant Weddigen became a national hero. Just over a year later however, on 15 October 1915, he died with all the crew when his submarine was rammed by the battleship, Dreadnought.

In 1954, the British Government sold the salvage rights to the wrecks and salvage is ongoing. An interesting footnote is that, in 2015, the local press reported a dive by Carol Wood of the Ipswich branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club and she laid a wreath on the remains of HMS Cressy. Also, William Dolman, a direct descendant of one of the crew, George Dolman, was able to research into his Great Uncle who, he says, sat on the deck of the ship as it sank, smoking his pipe before being thrust into the icy sea for eight hours. He was picked up and recovered fully, living to the age of eighty-four.

HMS Aboukir.

Captain Fox’s revenge

Captain Fox, mentioned already as the captain of the ill-fated Amphion, was quickly given command of a new L-class boat, the Undaunted. In October 1914, this fine modern ship led four destroyers in a battle off the Dutch coast against four German destroyers, sinking them all. Subsequently, the German hospital ship, Ophelia, was taken as a prize by the British as they did not believe that she was pursuing solely medical objectives. This produced protests from Germany and led, as so often in this naval war, to tit for tat, as British hospital ships were seen as legitimate targets for U-boat attack even when they were flying the flag of the Red Cross.

Gorleston attacked

Norwich was fortunate to be inland as the coastal communities battled against Zeppelins and German naval attacks. The first confused but spectacular appearance by the enemy was off the coast of Gorleston on 3 November 1914. Crowds lined the cliffs to watch the guns of three battle cruisers and three light cruisers as they attempted to pummel the shore. Both sides contributed to the farcical nature of the assault: the coastal forces air support was unavailable as any air machines were undergoing repair and a submarine, which launched from Yarmouth, tragically ran into a mine and was lost. There was only one enemy shell which landed, however, and that proved a dud.

Lights out

Before the conflict, the county was well lit up – the lights of Norwich, for example, could be clearly seen between Yarmouth and Sea Palling and from the coast at Horsey. Norwich was to take drastic action, turning it into what some saw as a ‘city of dreadful night’. However, opinion was divided, with towns such as Kings Lynn and Ipswich regarding such reaction as excessive. In the first Zeppelin attack on 19 January 1915, Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth suffered but Norwich did not, a measure of poetic justice said some. Further orders were to follow at Norwich, trams, for example, only being permitted to have one light inside – having, for a time, none at all – provided the blinds were completely drawn, and the striking of matches in the street was forbidden during blackout periods: from 20 September 1915, these lasted from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. One unplanned result of this, according to the local press, was that citizens took to staying at home longer which led, in turn, to an increase in the reading of the classics and ‘greater literature’. The mischievous final sentence of one such report said that the Scots (unlike the people of Norwich, presumably) had always liked fine literature.

The coast caught up a short while later. On 15 December 1915 the Norfolk Chronicle published the following order:

LIGHTS ON THE NORFOLK COAST

Sirs, In accordance with the Defence of the Realm Act, I hereby give notice that all lights on the coast of Norfolk showing to seaward from all buildings are to be screened from sunset to sunrise. Every person infringing this regulation will be liable to arrest. Also that any unauthorised person showing a light on the seashore (or on the cliffs adjoining thereto) will be liable to arrest. Any person signalling with any lamp or otherwise will be liable to be shot without further warning. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant. A.A .Ellison, Captain in Charge, Lowestoft and Yarmouth.

Anti-German feeling and spies

Germans in Britain were subject to suspicion, although the press in Norfolk said that relations between the county’s citizens and those of German nationality were more friendly than elsewhere. Some, however, believed that all Germans should not merely be registered but sent to an (unspecified) colony, and a letter in the local paper suggested that anything reminding the good people of the county of anything Germanic, should be banned, including sausage dogs.

Extreme British propaganda poster.

Many hotel and guest house owners found that those people who had registered for a holiday failed to show up. One high profile case involved a German guest house owner in Sheringham, Jacob Lichter, who brought a case against some guests who had failed to appear after war broke out. Judge Mulligan of North Walsham Crown County Court threw the case out, adding some remarks about the absurdity of allowing Germans to own guest houses on the vulnerable coast.

Spies were everywhere, some believed. One such was the MP for Kings Lynn, Holcombe Ingleby, who believed that Zeppelins were being assisted by car owners who were using their headlights to signal from coastal roads. One man was even arrested for sketching on Sheringham sea front. So febrile was the atmosphere that there were those who believed any light showing in a house on the coast meant that the owners had an ulterior motive. Major Egbert Napier, Chief Constable of the Norfolk County Constabulary, spent much of his time hunting spies on the Norfolk coastline. He subsequently signed up for the Royal Garrison Artillery and was killed in October 1917.

The Diss Express for Friday, 11 September 1914 carried this item, one of many showing the nervousness of some folk:

ENEMIES IN OUR MIDST

A large number of German and Austrian subjects liable to military service have been handed over to the military authorities ... A few days ago there appeared in the press a circumstantial report of a midnight attack by two men on a signalman. On enquiry it was found that the signalman was suffering from nervous breakdown, and there was no truth in the story. There have been reports of attacks on police constables by armed motor-cyclists, but in no case was the report substantiated. Reports of the discovery of secret arsenals are untrue.

In early 1915, the Norfolk and Suffolk Journal reported a successful prosecution:

FLASHES TOWARDS THE SEA

Sentence of six months hard labour was passed at Spilsby, Lincs on Monday on Bertie Whydale, cycle repairer, for having, Feb 14 1915, contrary to the regulations made under the Defence of the Realm Act, displayed a light ‘in such a manner as could serve as a signal, guide or landmark’ ... At 11.20 on the night of 14th ‘he was seen flashing an acetylene lamp from a hill, 250 feet above sea level towards the sea.’

Press, propaganda and the Lusitania

Much propaganda disguised real events and still does today, of course. To read the press was to see the Germans as universally merciless barbarians and, in enemy reports, the British were nasty, pitiless creatures. It was easy to put a ‘spin’ on a real event by either side: one was when a Grimsby trawler skipper refused to pick up the crew of a downed Zeppelin as he was afraid that they would outnumber his smaller crew; the German press howled at the barbarity of this in much the same way as their British counterparts reported the bombing by Zeppelins of what they saw as ‘soft’ civilian targets in Yarmouth. The British had a field day with the sinking of the Lusitania, of the Cunard Line, on 7 May 1915. Whether or not this was a justified act of war remains a subject of debate right up to this day, but at the time 300,000 boxed medals were made and sold at a shilling each by the British with a message inside pointing out the enormity of the crime that had been committed. There were many other opportunities for events to be made the cornerstone of patriotic tubthumping, the greatest in 1915 being the execution by firing squad of the British Nurse, Edith Cavell. It is believed that this act was responsible for tens of thousands of extra men signing up, especially in her birthplace of Norfolk. Similarly, the trial and execution of Charles Fryatt, whose heroics are detailed later, could only have been organised by the merciless Hun, according to English sentiment. The mortal remains of both Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt were brought back to England after the war on the same train.

The Lusitania arriving at New York, September 1907.

Casualties and some survivors from the Lusitania : a painting by William Lionel Wyllie.

Warning by Germany about travelling on the Lusitania.

Propaganda poster, which includes Edith Cavell’s grave, published in 1919.

‘Take up the Sword of Justice’: an English poster with the Lusitania in the background.

Edith Cavell is brought home and buried in the Cathedral Close, May 1919.

Less selfish?

As the war progressed, the Bishop of Norwich saw an uplift in people’s ethics. He is reported in the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 December 1915 as saying in an address entitled ‘VICTORY AND REACTION’:

I can foresee that the very time of victory itself will be a time of excitement and danger. There will then be the risk that our men may fall into easy paths. How dreadful once more to drop down into that flat, unimaginative, unentertaining life, petty, small, self-pleasing, self-seeking from which, through the war, we are now being raised to something better.

The first Christmas

The first Christmas was an uncertain time for many reasons, one being that the war that was meant to be ‘over by Christmas’ obviously wasn’t. On the Front Line, in some places the troops famously stopped fighting and exchanged gifts including chocolate and cigarettes. This may well have included chocolate from Caley’s as the Norwich Mercury of 12 December 1914 reported:

CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR THE NORFOLKS

Messrs A.J. Caley and Sons Ltd have dispatched to the front one thousand half pound cakes of chocolate as a Christmas gift for the 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment.

Famously, football was played and the British soldiers wrote home, some of them saying how tired and fed up the German troops were, and surely the war would be over soon. It is said that, as midnight approached on Christmas Day – other reports suggest that in some places the truce lasted longer – the British received a message from the enemy saying that they would, unfortunately, have to begin firing again shortly and would the British keep their heads down to avoid casualties.

At home in Norfolk, everything was done to have a cheerful time, given the circumstances. For gifts, Cassells brought out a Children’s Account of the Great War at 7d weekly. The War Illustrated was 2d weekly and included reports of ‘OUR TROOPS – THEIR GLORIOUS DEEDS IN FRANCE MARKED’.

Sunlight soap was one of many products that looked to patriotism to help sales. This poster is from 1915.

Curl Brothers, now Debenhams, began their celebrations on 9 December, by announcing in the Norwich Mercury:

CURL BROS beg to announce that their GREAT TOY FAIR IS NOW ON. The main decoration of our huge store is of special interest at the present time on account of the idea leading itself in every respect to the brave little country of Belgium, who is playing such a noble part in the world’s history at this time.

Some manufacturers promoted their goods by linking themselves to the war effort: ‘NOW IS THE TIME TO SUPPORT BRITISH INDUSTRY. You can do this by purchasing your FURNITURE from us. Trevor Page and Co Norwich.’ We have already remarked on Sunlight Soap doing something similar: Hovis Bread was another.

The troops were very much on people’s minds. A letter, one of many like it, appeared in the Eastern Daily Press:

NORFOLK YEOMANRY: From HQ Norwich, Dear Sir, We ask for help from everybody who is interested in the Norfolk Yeomanry, now on active service, to send to each man a Christmas present of socks (not less than 10ins, in any dull washing colour) or khaki handkerchiefs, which will be gratefully received.

Signing up was possibly the greatest Christmas gift for men of the county, the Norwich Mercury of 5 December being one of many local papers to carry this message:

A SOLDIER OF THE KING

After the War every man who has served will command his Country’s gratitude. He will be looked up to and respected because he answered his country’s call. The Regiments at the Front are covering themselves with glory... ENLIST TODAY. At any Post Office you can obtain the address of the nearest Recruiting Office. GOD SAVE THE KING

Some newspapers, such as the Diss Express and the Norfolk and Suffolk Journal, carried a message of even greater fervour:

GET UP YOUNG ENGLAND! Get up! Get up, Young England! Will you always watch the Day come and not get up to meet it? ...Is it right that you, healthy and strong, should only sit watching when you might be up and doing? Get up! Put your armour on, though it be only a stone heart and a khaki coat. What can withstand them?

St Andrews Hall, Norwich, scene of mass-enlistment, 1914.

Harry Daniels VC leaves the Guildhall after attending a ceremony in his honour.

Army recruitment – problematic and patchy

Army recruitment at the time of the war was still very much a throwback to Napoleonic times. Firstly, the army had traditionally been seen as a last resort for employment, maybe for the sons of large impoverished families, illegitimate children and those in trouble with the law. Unless a man wished to remain in the army all his life, it was thought by many that to enlist was the worst of all possible worlds as the chances of gaining a job when he came out were not good.

Secondly, recruitment was badly organised and at times farcical. Recruiting offices were opened in Norfolk two weeks after the outbreak of war. Often these were in private houses as the Territorial Force, in charge of the call-up, could not cope. There was little consistency: there are many tales of men walking huge distances in the hope of finding a recruiting office open, only to be disappointed and having to walk all the way home again. The best plan, if you were in rural Norfolk, was to head for the coastal villages, such as Mundesley, Overstrand or Happisburgh, where action was taken at the outset to protect the country from invasion: you might find a recruitment office open here.

Men march enthusiastically up Guildhall Hill, 1914.

Training camp in East Anglia with men taking showers to the left.

Thirdly, at the beginning of hostilities, men were needed for the harvest. However, recruitment surged in September 1914 when the harvesting work declined. In large towns like Dereham and Fakenham, men signed up in their hundreds. In Norwich, 3,000 marched to sign on in one week alone. Sometimes this was in ‘pals’ units where groups of men, used to working together, chose to go to war with their fellows. At first, the Pals units comprised agricultural and factory workers: later they came from businessmen and sports teams, Norwich Football Club losing several stars from their first team in one such unit. In fact, Norwich Football Club, like many other sporting organisations, was to suffer bankruptcy in 1919 as a result of the war.

Recruitment poster by E.J. Kealey, 1915.

Fourthly, there was, initially at least, a lack of everything from uniforms to tents. Not that recruits often minded. It was just so much fun – like going on an adventurous holiday and sleeping in tents with the added bonus of glory – and most were patriotic and excited. Rations on the whole, though, were much better for soldiers than everyday citizens. It has been estimated that the calorie intake of a serving man was over 4,000 per day, much more than if he had stayed at home. Some became fat quite quickly and many became constipated or were subject to boils, and so the amount of meat consumed had to be reduced.

The war memorials were later to bear witness to the fact that many recruits were only sixteen, or slightly older, and had to lie about their age. There are many tales of recruitment offices encouraging such behaviour: for example, if a boy was obviously under-age he might receive a variation of the instruction: ‘Now I am going to ask you your age again and you may like to take your time responding to my question!’

‘Blood vote’: anti-conscription poster. This is Australian in origin but became famous throughout the Empire.

Initially, training methods hardly suited the needs of the times. The methods used dated largely from the previous century when criminals and men of no fixed abode needed to be made into unquestioning soldiers in no time at all. Severe punishments and discipline were used to ensure obedience and much of the time was spent pounding the drill ground. Class still dominated: officers did the thinking and soldiers carried out any orders given without thinking. Thus, if an officer was wiped out, the unit could lose all direction. Fortunately, training methods improved dramatically as the war progressed.

A poster for the 48th (South Midland) Division Cyclist Company.

Conscription came in from 1916 as recruitment dried up. Many asked the question: ‘why sign up when we are winning the war anyway?’ This was difficult to counter as the press saw it as their duty to report overwhelmingly positive news, even when this was far from the case. In addition, the ‘conscientious objector’ movement was gaining increasing sympathy from the courts and public, taking its lead from London and some senior politicians.

Many also failed medicals. Sometimes this was for a legitimate reason as the health of recruits had caused concern in general terms. Bad teeth were a feature of many, although not usually enough to prevent enlistment. There was also a thriving ‘industry’ in ways to fool the doctor – one method tried, on the whole unsuccessfully, was to eat soap to cause heart palpitations.

Sport

On 5 December 1915 the Norwich Mercury ran the headline

FOOTBALLERS AND THE WAR:

PROPOSAL TO CURTAIL CUP COMPETITION

The Diss Express wrote:

FOOTBALL: A committee meeting at the Wymondham Town Football Club decided owing to the number of men serving and about to serve with the Imperial Forces, to cancel all matches arranged for this season.

There had been talk for some time about the ethics of allowing sport to continue. Even the great W.G. Grace wrote that cricket should be stopped. The Chairman of the Football Association agreed. In any event, many of the region’s teams signed up as Pals’ Battalions, including many players from Norwich City, at that time playing in a ground near Thorpe Station. As it turned out, some sport remained and was encouraged as the Volunteers and troops, both active and recuperating in hospitals, liked it – particularly cricket and bowls.

Press secrecy

The press became increasingly secretive. People were asked to stop telephoning for news. However, not all local papers were convinced such secrecy was necessary. On Friday, 23 April 1915 the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette wrote: ‘Last week we urged the Government to take the country a little more in its confidence – to give much-needed information from the front…’

Unsurprisingly, secrecy won the day. It is hard to imagine now, but Norfolk had to do without weather forecasts, and there were obviously much more pressing subjects which would become the indispensable subjects of conversation. The Eastern Evening News of Tuesday, 4 May 1915 said that:

There will be no more forecasts or observations issued by the Meteorological Office during the period of the war. The information issued was subject to restriction some time ago; and it was due to that restriction that the two Zeppelins which were wrecked a month or two since came to grief through a heavy change in the weather in their journey over the North Sea against which they were not warned by weather information from this side.

Planes, boats, mines and submarines

Mr B.C. Hucks flies his monoplane Firefly, the first ever flight in Norfolk, on 3 August 1912.

The first flight by a plane in Norfolk had only taken place in 1912 and flying was a minority, risky but glamorous and exciting pursuit. One Norwich shop in Rampant Horse Street did a roaring trade in ‘aviation cakes in nine delicious flavours’, which were ‘very light and easily digestible’. If you had the means, you were expected to be a ‘gentleman flyer’, which meant paying for your own training and aviation gear. Thus, the aviation industry was hardly even in its infancy as the war broke out and the need to master the design of these new-age machines was urgent.

The British continually sought better plane designs. At the outset the flying forces used machines based on the pre-war BE 2s. The manufacture of aircraft was also governed by inflexible rules, which relied almost exclusively on the Royal Aircraft Factory. In time, however, dedicated firms like Boulton and Paul and Mann Egerton of Norwich, and Frederick Sage and Savages of Kings Lynn, came through with designs such as the Sopwith Camel, the Bobolink, and Mann Egerton’s H1 and H2 fighters designed for ships. Boulton and Paul, in particular, made Norwich into a manufacturing and testing base for new machines, the latter being carried out on Mousehold Heath, an extensive area to the north of the city that still remains today.

Sopwith Camel aircraft. Boulton and Paul of Norwich produced more of these aircraft than anyone else.

Manfred von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, scourge of British flyers. Said to admire Albert Ball, he remarked that he lost his appetite for hunting for about fifteen minutes after shooting down an Englishman. He was to be killed following a fight with a Sopwith Camel.

The potential for seaplanes in warfare was seen at the very outset of war when three cross-channel steamers – the Empress, Engadine and Riviera – were requisitioned for conversion to seaplane carriers and sent, following conversion, to Harwich. The first time they were utilised, for an attack on an enemy naval base at Nordholz, was on Christmas Day 1914. Nine planes were involved, but the operation was not a success as two of the planes suffered engine failure and could not take to the skies; two of the others became lost in the fog and several crew members were rescued from the ocean. It was a pioneering attack, however, and the principle of utilising a combination of ships and seaplanes was to be very successfully developed in the future.

HMA R-23 Airship with Sopwith Camel.

An aerial reconnaissance camera operated by the pilot on a B.E.2, c.1916.

There was no submarine campaign in 1914 – it is estimated that the Germans had less than thirty U-boats at this time. However, this changed markedly as the New Year unfolded – in April 1915 alone, nine fishing boats were sunk by U-boats, rising in May to almost sixty. About seventy trawling smacks, relying on sail power, still went out regularly from the east coast ports. In spite of terrible losses, they continued to set sail, their calmness in the face of attack quite remarkable and an inspiration to everyone at home.

U-boats were not submarines as we think of them today – rather they were ships that could submerge for a limited time dependent on the state of their batteries. At the same time as the Curtiss H-12 flying boats began long-range reconnaissance, a new search structure was introduced called ‘the Spider’s Web’. This was a methodical and thorough search of the ocean by segments and greatly reduced the ability of the U-boats to travel secretly. This was now also a time of rudimentary wireless transmissions, as well as pioneering work on listening to them by Hippisley Hut in Hunstanton and elsewhere. Add to this the patrols by the Blimps, based at Pulham St Mary, and the danger of the U-boats was very largely eliminated: even if the U-boat commanders could not be certain that they had been seen by the Blimps, as was often in fact the case, they could never be absolutely sure and were tempted to withdraw from English waters at the sight of one.

Little was reported during the war of the appalling cramped, noisy and almost airless interiors of the submarines on both sides. Much the same could be said of another crucial invention – tested and made in Norfolk – the new-fangled tank. In both devices you could die in several excruciating ways that had nothing to do with being hit by a shell or torpedo: of suffocation, of foul air, of being trapped or of the whole thing blowing up.

Mining was pioneered as an act of war during the first years of war, principally by the Germans. As mentioned, it is suspected that the German ship Konigin Luise may have begun mine laying off the Suffolk coast even before hostilities were declared. The mines were anchored to the bottom and a length of wire kept them at the required depth below the surface. They were round with ‘spikes’ made of lead which, when hit, would send an electrical charge to a detonator. The principle was 50 years old, originating in Germany. Sinkings off the Norfolk coast were frequent, one being the Selby, carrying coal, which hit a mine out to sea off Winterton on 30 September 1914. Initially, at least, the British were not so concerned with laying mines as attempting to ‘tease’ out the German fleet for battle. British mines, such as they were, were inferior to those operated by the Kaiser’s men. They tended to go off unexpectedly and also tended to drift off from their moorings, sometimes resulting in damage to British ships – one example is the sinking, off the Yarmouth coast, of the D.5 in 1914. Drifters from Lowestoft and Yarmouth were also instrumental in the 1917 plan, developed by Admiral Bacon, to lay the vast number of 39,000 mines and nets between Folkestone and the French coast. By now the British were using the vastly superior H2 and H4 mines and the Germans, finding the barrier impassable, launched all-out attacks on the ships guarding it. Great losses were sustained but, under the command of Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, the barrier was maintained and, by late 1918, it was virtually impassable.

CHAPTER 3

Kings Lynn, Castle Rising, Sandringham, Dersingham, Snettisham, Heacham

And when the war is done and youth stone dead

I’d toddle safely home and die – in bed

Siegfried Sassoon, 1886-1967

Germany develops Zeppelins: threat or passing fad?

The Zeppelin is named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It was a type of rigid airship that the count developed in early retirement from about 1890. He was aware of a lecture in 1874 by Heinrich von Stephan on future air travel and took this as his starting point. He went on to found the world’s first airline, The German Airship Travel Corporation, known as DELAG, in 1909 which by 1914 had successfully made over 1,500 flights.

The German High Command had great hopes for these new monster machines, which could be fast and carried far more bombs than the developing aircraft of the period. Their time rapidly passed, however. In 1916 the Allies developed incendiary ammunition and the Germans responded with new, sleeker, larger designs that could operate at much higher altitudes – as high as 20,000 feet. This, of course, made precision bombing impossible and they were subject to higher wind speeds at this altitude. Consequently, navigation became much more of a lottery than it already was. Finally, at the Treaty of Versailles in 1918, the Allies demanded the surrender and immediate abandonment of all plans to build German air weaponry. The Zeppelin, as a serious threat in wartime, was finished and the concept rapidly became obsolete as aircraft design developed in leaps and bounds.

Men sorting beer barrels in front of the Custom House, Kings Lynn, early 1900s.

The Custom House, Kings Lynn, today.

Initially, however, Great Britain considered the threat very great indeed and carried out a series of raids on airship bases, including one on Dusseldorf on 8 October 1914 when Zeppelin LZ25 was destroyed by Flt Lt Reginald Marix and the Cuxhaven Raid on Christmas Day 1914, which was additionally notable as one of the first raids where planes were launched from ships.

The first Zeppelin air raids

Kings Lynn, along with Sheringham, Cromer, Runton, Hunstanton, Sandringham and Dersingham, witnessed the first Zeppelins on 19 January 1915. The target of Zeppelins L3 and L4 was actually Humberside, but they were diverted by strong winds and dropped their bombs on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, Kings Lynn and surrounding areas. Four were killed and sixteen injured, whilst property and general damage was estimated at £7,740.

Zeppelin L4 hovering above the ocean utilising multiple stabilisers.

We can trace the activities of the Zeppelins pretty closely as there were detailed reports in the local press the morning after the attack. The airships were first seen along the coast at Great Yarmouth before following the shoreline around Norfolk in the direction of the Wash. The first bombs and the extent of the damage on Great Yarmouth is discussed in Chapter 8.

Following this, an alert was first given at about 8.45 pm in Sheringham, and locals flocked out to see a Zeppelin just visible high over the church. A bomb was dropped, which hit the roof of a house in Wyndham Street before dropping straight through to the ground floor – it did not explode and, on inspection afterwards, it was found to have no fuse, which must have parted company with the bomb during descent. Another bomb dropped harmlessly on to waste ground and shrapnel from another pierced the roof of a dwelling house, narrowly missing the occupants.

Meanwhile, in Beeston, Norwich, another bomb was dropped, and this also failed to detonate.

Following the raid on Sheringham, it seemed that almost the entire population of the coastal villages nearby left their beds to witness the remarkable scene. In nearby Runton, the locals clearly saw and heard a Zeppelin as it crossed the village and proceeded along the coast towards Cromer where it headed out to sea.

About 10.00 pm a Zeppelin was reported over Hunstanton, which then appeared to follow the railway track towards the village of Heacham where a bomb opened up a large pit not far from some houses, but there were no casualties. It then veered towards Snettisham, then Sandringham, heading for Kings Lynn. A bomb was dropped between Sandringham and Dersingham producing an explosion loud enough to be heard in Kings Lynn, which was reached at about 10.50 pm.

The enemy must have circled over Kings Lynn as there was a period of ominous silence before bombs were dropped to deadly effect and with enormous explosions. One hit a house in the centre of town, killing Percy Groate, seventeen, who was sleeping. His mother, father and their baby were badly injured but extricated from the house. Windows and doors in several surrounding streets were blown out. A young man named Waldon managed to escape serious injury in one of these. An engine house on the docks was destroyed. Another hit the house of Mrs Gazeley, the widow of a serviceman, and her body was found the next morning.

Unexploded bomb dropped on Kings Lynn.

Inspecting Zeppelin damage.

Bomb damage, Kings Lynn, 1915.

Poster issued in 1915.

All in all, it appears that seven bombs were dropped and around two dozen families had to be evacuated from their homes.

There was a further period of dread as the Zeppelin once more hovered over the town for about fifteen minutes, before flying along the Wash and then out towards the Dutch coast.

The Norfolk Chronicle of Friday, 22 January 1915 ran this story:

ZEPPELINS IN NORFOLK. LOSS OF LIFE AT YARMOUTH. BOY KILLED AND CHILDREN INJURED AT LYNN. TWO BOMBS AT SHERINGHAM. FAMILY’S NARROW ESCAPE. So, the Zeppelins have come to the East Coast. We did not expect them at this time of the year but the weather was favourable...and the enterprising German airmen took advantage of it. Bombs were dropped at Sheringham, Yarmouth, Ipswich, Kings Lynn and Sandringham.

The Zeppelins were named ‘baby killers’ by the press. The Eastern Daily Press was to describe subsequent attacks as ‘the promiscuous dropping of deadly missiles on a sleeping town of non-combatants, without any pretence at serving a military purpose or achieving anything upon the forwarding of the war’. Again, in another edition, it said such activity ‘is at once savage and useless from a military point of view’. There was more where that came from as reporters from the local press vied with each other in describing the ‘Barbarous Hun’. Another report stated, ‘Is there anyone in this country who does not yet realise that the enemy we are fighting is the avatism of the old abysmal brute, the re-appearance in a nation of the lust for cruelty and rapine of the Stone Age man, with all the equipment of modern knowledge for use in the service of that lust?’

Not that the locals were behaving wisely. It has already been said that people flocked out to the cliffs or any vantage point to watch a naval or Zeppelin attack. The Eastern Daily Press was not amused:

The renewed warning issued a day or two ago by the London police authorities as to getting under cover in the event of an air raid is one which needs to be repeated to the public in every district which is within the Zeppelin range. There is an incurable curiosity in the British public; if anything is happening, they must go out to see it, regardless of possible dangers.

There is no doubt whatsoever that had bombs been dropped more accurately upon the massed crowds in Sheringham, or along the coast at Runton, for example, the result would have been carnage.

There was much satire as the war progressed, which was aimed at the German crews of these huge machines, and Zeppelins were seen to be almost totally ineffective from a military viewpoint. A story in a local paper presented the German Zeppelin crew awash with Iron Crosses and clinking flagons of German beer as they flew across Norfolk, portraying them as buffoons, not knowing where they were but kidding themselves as to the immense damage they must be inflicting. The German press did not help, several times claiming the destruction of targets such as the Norwich Union building in Surrey Street, Norwich, and the Happisburgh and Hunstanton lighthouses and other prominent buildings.

Throughout the war Germany launched fifty-two Zeppelin raids, although by 1917 there were only six and even less in 1918. Casualties, from a military point of view, were tiny and costs colossal. It is estimated that the Germans lost about thirty airships in total.

Anti-Zeppelin measures

Poor communications in 1914 resulted in lack of success in tackling the Zeppelins. For instance, RNAS Great Yarmouth was not informed of the L.3 attack until after the event, so to speak, as the ship was way over the North Sea by the time it mobilised. Also, aircraft were unable to track the Zeppelins after dark. Even if spotted, either during the day or night, all the airships had to do was to climb further into the skies for comparative safety.

Weapons, too, were undeveloped and/or untested. The fiery grapnel, which was designed to be towed behind an attacking aircraft in the hope of attaching itself to a Zeppelin, was in its testing stages. There was the Hales anti-Zeppelin grenade, but very few had been tested and none were stored in Yarmouth. Pilots would actually carry a gun and shoot at the airship from the cockpit and, if this did not work – which it didn’t – they were told that another option was to ram the airship which, understandably, no-one ever did.

E class submarines

Another anti-Zeppelin idea, pioneered at Harwich early in 1916, was to use a submarine/plane combination. At that time the E.22 submarine was fitted with ramps to carry two Sopwith Schneider seaplanes. When spotting a Zeppelin, the planes would be launched to attack: this was achieved by the submarine submerging so that the planes floated on the surface and then took off. In subsequent trails, the planes managed to become airborne when the weather was calm, but rough seas or a storm made this virtually impossible. Once launched successfully, the planes needed to return to their landing stations on the East Coast. The project was quickly dropped, with the pioneer boat, the E.22, being sunk off Great Yarmouth on 25 April by U-Boat 18.

Sopwith Schneider.

The E class submarine was a modification of the D class and the basic model, costing in excess of £100,000 each, was the backbone of the British submarine fleet throughout the war. It was replaced by 1922 with the L class.

Life at home: crime and punishment

The law courts of Kings Lynn continued to be busy during the war with a variety of offences being considered. The Eastern Daily Press of 1 February 1916, for example, reports the following at the Police Court:

Leonard Lowe (16), clerk, was charged with setting fire to certain papers at the County Hall. Further remanded to enable prosecutor to assemble case.

George Cozens, confectioner, Norfolk Street, was fined 10s and costs for failing to shade windows.

Lieutenant Cambridge was fined 10s for riding a bicycle on the Walks footway.

The Appeal Tribunal also sat in the town throughout the conflict. Such tribunals were by no means always unsympathetic. The Eastern Daily Press reported the following on Thursday, 20 July 1916, the Earl of Kimberley presiding.

- The proprietor of a grocers entered an appeal for his manager of a shop in East Rudham. The man was 36 with four children. He was the only man left in shop. The proprietor could not get any more men or even women who found they could earn more in a munitions factory.

Trinity Guildhall, Kings Lynn, 1900.

Lord Kimberley: ‘If you paid them as much you would keep them. Can you not get another man?’

Appellant: ‘I have tried. I got a man over from Lynn on Monday, and he was drunk on Wednesday.’ Case to be reconsidered in 3 months in hope of appellant getting another man.

- An agent for motor spirit was claiming exemption. Lieutenant Costello: ‘You are a member of the Lynn Town Council?’

‘Yes, but I don’t brag about it.’

Lieutenant Costello: ‘It is nothing to be ashamed of.’

A Member of the Tribunal: ‘I am not so sure about that.’ The appeal was allowed.

- A Lynn auctioneer and general merchant appealed for more time to sell his business effects.

Lord Kimberley: ‘I suppose you are a kind of Lynn Whiteley?’*

Appellant: ‘Yes.’

‘You supply anything from a flea to a rhinoceros?’

‘Yes.’

The auctioneer said that he had received a ‘thief in the night’ offer for his stock.

Lord Kimberley: ‘That comes from being a universal provider.

They think you are rich. How long do you want?’

‘Three months.’

‘All right you have got them.’

* Whiteleys was a famous department store in Bayswater, London, which claimed to be able to source any goods desired by the customer.

Electric Theatre

Films continued to be popular in Lynn and major centres. Often, a feature was combined with something patriotic. One, which is interesting as it casts further light on the mixing of trade and patriotism, was being shown in the Electric Theatre in the town on Friday, 15 June 1917. The Norfolk Chronicle advertised: ‘A NEW FILM, “Rhymes of the Times”. Up-to-date to be seen this week.’ The newspaper added, ‘The closing rhyme will bear repetition:

“If you want to be a patriot you mustn’t eat much meat; You mustn’t waste potatoes or make your tea too sweet; And if you’re thrifty, you’ll make your meal instead, Twice as nice and twice as nourishing by eating Hovis Bread.”

Another advertisement, under a picture of a fabulously healthy-looking girl, said: ‘A cup of Rowntree’s Elect Cocoa makes a biscuit into a meal ...puts new life and strength into me...’

Readers of the Eastern Daily Press were reminded: ‘Increased efficiency is demanded of everyone nowadays...Beecham’s Pills ... will greatly assist you to be your best...’

A fundraising day for the lifeboat in Kings Lynn – ‘Lifeboat Saturday’, the idea of which spread to the whole of the country.

Kings Lynn, cordite and conkers

Kings Lynn was to play a key role in the fascinating story of cordite production during the war. Cordite had been used by the British Army as a propellant for shells and bullets since 1889 – previously, black gunpowder had been used. A vital ingredient of this was acetone, along with nitroglycerine and gun cotton. Pre-war production involved huge quantities of birch, beech and maple, which through a process of dry distillation known as pyrolysis produced the cordite. As demands increased manifold at the beginning of the war, Britain was forced to seek imports from America, a state of affairs clearly unsustainable given the success of the U-boat campaign. By 1915 there occurred a ‘shell crisis’ when British guns were limited to firing only a few times each day.

It was at this time that the Ministry of Munitions was set up under the future Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, who asked renowned Manchester University chemist Chaim Weizmann to look for alternative ways to produce acetone. He set to work and came up with a new anaerobic fermentation process that used a bacterium, which came to be called ‘Weizmann organism’, to produce large amounts of acetone from various foodstuffs including grain, maize and rice. Two new factories were built to build upon this success, one at Holton Heath in Dorset and the other at Kings Lynn. They were very successful, producing between them enough gallons of acetone – about 90,000 a year – for the British armed forces.

Problems occurred in 1917 as grain and potatoes became scarce because of German U-boat operations. Weizmann was asked to perform yet another miracle, and he began experimenting with the common conker. As this looked very promising, the government launched a nationwide scheme to encourage youngsters and adults alike to gather as many tons as possible. Kept keen by the payments of 7s 6d (37.5p) for every hundredweight, 3,000 tons were collected for the Kings Lynn factory. It is part of folklore that even the queen joined in at her Sandringham gardens. Sadly, much was left to rot as school children proved too adept at this task.

Production began in April 1918, but there were many teething problems and not as much acetone was produced as hoped for. Production ended after about three months, but by then the war was clearly being won.

Vera and Chaim Weizmann, Herbert Samuel, Lloyd George and Philip Snowden, 1918.

First President of Israel

Chaim Weizmann’s contribution to the world continued after the war: he became the first President of the state of Israel, which was established in 1948. He died in 1952.

Four brothers

Four Kings Lynn brothers Percy, Bert, Len and Wilf Crake, lived with their parents who kept The Ship Inn, Bridge Street, Kings Lynn. They all joined the Norfolks at the beginning of the war. Percy, Bert and Len first saw action at Gallipoli, whilst Wilf began the war in Egypt.

German troops, 1914.

Percy was 16 years old and enlisted in the Norfolk Yeomanry; Bert, 19 years old, was a painter, joining the B Company 1/5th Battalion; Len was working as a coal porter when he enlisted in the Army Service Corps; Wilf worked alongside Bert as a painter and initially joined the Norfolk Regiment before transferring to the Royal Engineers.

Bert died on 12 August 1915 during the advance on Anafarta Plain. The other three returned home, although Wilf suffered permanent disablement to his legs. After the Second World War, memorial bungalows in Parkway, Kings Lynn, were built by the Norfolk Regiment, one of which, the Jamieson VC bungalow, was given to Wilf.

Pals’ Battalions

Many men from Norfolk signed up in what were named ‘Pals’ Battalions’. If you worked with a group of men, it was natural to want to stay together and fight alongside one another. The battalions came from every walk of life – men who worked in the fields, grocers, Norwich Union and Colman’s employees, solicitors and sometimes men from village football, cricket or bowls’ teams. A remarkable example of the last is Attleborough, where both the cricket and football teams signed up: within days of the outbreak of war 35 had enlisted and by the end of hostilities this had risen to 550 – all out of a total village population of 2,500. The captain of the famous Norwich football team, Jock MacKenzie, became a lance corporal in the Royal Garrison Artillery, having a distinguished military career and surviving the war – he died in 1940, aged fifty-five. He was joined by many other players and the dearth of talent remaining contributed to the bankruptcy of the club in 1919.

The mystery of the most famous Pals’ Battalion – the Sandringham Company

Perhaps the most famous of the Pals’ Battalions was the Sandringham Company, part of the 1/5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment.

They were formed at the request of King Edward VII in 1908 and comprised staff of the Royal Estate at Sandringham. The king asked Frank Beck, his land agent, to gather as many men as he could into what was then the 5th Territorial Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. In the end they numbered over 100. Although famously called the ‘Sandringham Company’, consisting primarily of workers from the estate, this is actually a misnomer as men did, in fact, also sign up from other areas of Norfolk.

Rank was according to class and so the gentry became the officers, including, of course, Frank Beck and his two nephews; the NCOs consisted of senior men in service such as butlers and head gamekeepers; and the labourers and servants became the rank and file. Frank Beck was fifty-four at this time and under no pressure to lead the men, but he insisted, saying that he had promised their families he would look after them.

Men of the Royal Estate, Sandringham, c.1914: it is said that none of these men returned.

Their contribution to the war, as far as it can be pieced together, was short, incredibly hard and ended in tragic and mysterious circumstances.

The 5th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment set sail from Liverpool on 30 July 1915 on board the Aquitania, which was in service as a luxury liner prior to the war. They landed at Suvla Bay on 10 August and immediately went into battle. The weather was unrelentingly hot in the day and freezing at night, water was on short ration and many men began to suffer from dysentery. On 12 August they were ordered to attack, but the objectives were unclear: were they to clear the way for the main British attack or was the objective to capture and hold the nearby village of Anafarta Saga? Maps were no help as they were obsolete.

Colonel Sir Horace Proctor-Beauchamp was at the head of the Norfolks, while Frank Beck led the Sandringham Company. In late afternoon, with Colonel Beauchamp shouting ‘On the Norfolks, on,’ Turkish artillery and snipers began to take their toll on the men. Frank Beck was last seen, either resting or dead, sitting at the base of a shot-blasted tree. The colonel, with 16 officers and 250 men, advanced through a wood towards the main Turkish force: he was seen for the final time on the other side of the wood, urging his men to hold their positions. None of the Sandringham Company, save 14-year-old Private George Carr who, exhausted, was carried off on a stretcher, was ever seen again.

What had happened is still a source of some mystery. The War Graves Commission subsequently identified 13,000 bodies of the 36,000 lost in this disastrous campaign. Amongst these was a Norfolk regimental cap badge. Queen Alexandra sent the Reverend Charles Pierre-Point Edwards – nearby on a separate mission – to investigate and he found the remains of 180 bodies, 122 of them identifiable by items of uniform as men of the 5th Norfolks. Tellingly, they were at the rear of the main Turkish position. Had they been shot? Perhaps they were either captured or surrendered, although it was well documented that the Turks had no truck with the idea of prisoners of war. A BBC investigation in 1991 claimed that one vital piece of evidence had been overlooked, and this was that Pierre-Point Edwards had found that all soldiers had been shot in the head.

A more fantastical idea came to light during the fiftieth anniversary of the Gallipoli landings in 1965. Sapper Frederick Reichardt, from the New Zealand forces, fighting with the 5th, claimed to have seen several loaf-shaped clouds descending onto the advancing Norfolks, including the Sandinghams. All soldiers were presumably whisked up into these objects, because when they flew off all the men had vanished.

So the facts remain. To this day, the King’s Sandringham Company is referred to as the ‘Vanished Battalion’.

A footnote: in 2014 it was reported in the local press that a silver cup, presented to Frank Beck as the estate manager at Sandringham, had been sold at auction.

Local schools contribute

Much has been written on the huge contribution schools in Norfolk, such as Bracondale in Norwich or Greshams in Holt, made to the war. Kings Lynn was proud, too, as this extract from a report on Speech Day at the Kings Lynn Grammar School (King Edward VII) on 21 December 1915 makes plain. The school had always awarded a gold medal to the top pupil, which, in the early days, was given by King Edward VII himself during an audience at Sandringham:

Mr Hamon Lestrange expressed the hope that in another year books would again be presented [note: due to the war only certificates were given as prizes this year]. The winner of the gold medal awarded by the King was won by T.M. Edmunds of Lynn, and cheers were raised for His Majesty. The Headmaster referred with justifiable pride to the fact that three old boys had been awarded the Military Cross for exceptional acts of bravery and another who distinguished himself greatly had been awarded the Military Medal. In the Cambridge local examinations Reverend Boyce mentioned that H.E. Howard was first in Latin in all England. Dr Giles in his speech said the reason why the lads had done so well in the field was that they were already half trained in the school.

The author professes an interest here as he attended King Edward VII – or ‘KES’ as we called it amongst ourselves – for his secondary education.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Kings Lynn

Kings Lynn War Memorial is in the Tower Gardens, St James Street. It was designed by Oswald Partridge Milne, is made of Portland stone and was unveiled by HRH Princess Mary on 26 February 1921. There is also a memorial in nearby Gaywood, designed by Mr J.L. Carnell and unveiled by Admiral Sir Reginald Constance on 6 March 1921. It cost £700.

Ernest William Adams, Private, 10th Battalion, Essex Regiment, died of wounds in Belgium at the age of twenty-two on 13 August 1917. He enlisted in Norwich and had previously worked at Cooper Roller Bearings in Kings Lynn. He is buried in Lijssentheok Military Cemetery.

Thomas Martin Allen, Seaman, Royal Naval Reserve, died on HMS Aboukir on 22 September 1914. Aged thirty-one, he lived in Checker Street, Kings Lynn, and he was married with three children.

Robert John Bardell, Private, 23rd Royal Fusiliers, died in action in France on 29 July 1916. He was a partner in the Lynn Building Company, a sidesman at All Saints and a member of Kings Lynn Lawn Tennis Club. His name is on two memorials – that of All Saints and also the King Edward VII War Memorial.

William Bates, Second Lieutenant, 101st Labour Company, died of shell wounds and gas poisoning on 13 May 1918. He was a server at All Saints Church, won a scholarship to King Edward’s school and became a theological student. He was in hospital in March 1918 with tonsillitis. He died shortly afterwards while laying communication lines near Foncquevilliers. Like Robert John Bardell, above, his name is on the two memorials listed.

Edwin Marriott, Private 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment, was the son of Edwin and Mary Marriott of Tower Street, Peterborough. He gained a scholarship to King Edward VII Grammar School and enlisted in East Dereham. He served as a Lewis gunner but was killed by accident when a fellow soldier shot him when cleaning his gun.

Ernest Marsters, Able Seaman HMS Racoon, was the son on Mr H. and Mrs L. Marsters of South Clough Lane, Kings Lynn, and died on 9 January 1918, aged twenty-one. His ship was en route from Liverpool to Lough Swilly to take up anti-submarine duties when, in a severe snow blizzard, it struck rocks at the Garvan Isles, sinking with all hands, ninety-one in total.

Sandringham

There is a brass plaque inside the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate. It reads:

‘TO THE MEMORY OF

CAPTAIN Frank Reginald Beck M.V.O.

5th Norfolk Regiment

and in

GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF 25 YEARS

FAITHFUL SERVICE AS LAND AGENT of the

SANDRINGHAM ESTATES

TO KING EDWARD VII, QUEEN ALEXANDRA

AND KING GEORGE V.

KILLED IN ACTION GALLIPOLI DURING

THE GREAT WAR

ON AUGUST 12TH 1915

AGED 54 YEARS’

There is also a cross in Sandingham Park:

‘THIS CROSS WAS ERECTED BY KING GEORGE V

AND QUEEN MARY

TO HONOUR

THE MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF

THE SANDRINGHAM COMPANY

5TH BATTALION, NORFOLK REGIMENT, AND

THOSE ON THE ESTATE

WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR’

Phillip Allen, Private, 1st/4th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, died on 6 November 1917 from wounds received in the Battle of Gaza. He was 20 years old, born in Dersingham and had enlisted in Norwich. He was a gardener at Sandringham. He is buried in Egypt.

Robert Frederick Batterbee, Private, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action in France on 16 August 1917. He was the son of John and Caroline Batterbee of the Lodge, Hill House, Dersingham, and enlisted in Kings Lynn. He worked on the Sandringham Estate and was 20 years old when he died. He has no known grave.

Arthur Evelyn Beck, M.C., Captain 1st/5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action on 19 April 1917, aged thirty-one. He was married to Jenny Winifred Beck and lived in Hunstanton. He is buried in Gaza War Cemetery, Israel.

Frank Reginald Beck, M.V.O., Captain, 5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was in command of his company during the attack on Anafarta on 12 August 1915. He had been instrumental in forming the Sandringham Company at the request of the king and he was land agent at Sandringham. He was among the ‘disappeared’ as discussed above in this account.

Ernest Edward Steel, Private, 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, was the son of Robert and Charlotte Steel of Appleton, Kings Lynn. He enlisted on 12 June 1915 at Norwich. He was an underkeeper on the Sandringham Estate. He was twenty-one when he died and has no known grave.

Snettisham

This memorial is a stone Celtic Cross situated in the middle of the village, containing forty-four names for the First World War and fifteen for the Second World War.

Clifford Cousins DCM, Private, 1st/23rd Battalion, London Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on 9 December 1917, aged eighteen. He was the son of Robert and Emily Cousins of Imnere Farm, Snettisham. His Distinguished Conduct Medal citation in the London Gazette reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during a raid. Hearing that some of the enemy in a dug-out were giving trouble he ran there. One of them threw a bomb, wounding him in the face, neck and shoulders, but he rushed at them with his rifle, bayoneted the first man and shot another, when the rest gave themselves up. He afterwards brought back a machine gun.

He has no known grave.

Herbert Williams, DCM, Corporal, 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, died in Flanders on 10 October 1918. He is buried in Somme, France. His DCM citation reads:

In an attack near Hermies on the night of the 11-12 September 1918, he led his platoon forward with conspicuous gallantry and skill under heavy machine gun fire, rushing three of these guns and killing the crews. Later he took command of the remnant of two companies and organized a defensive position under great difficulties.

Peyton Sheldon Hadley, MC, Captain, 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, died, aged twenty-three, on 25 October 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross. His father was William Sheldon Hadley, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and they had a house in Heacham. He is buried in the Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Heacham.

CHAPTER 4

Hunstanton, Holme, Brancaster, The Burnhams, Holkham

Move him into the sun...

If anything might rouse him now

The kind old sun will know

Wilfred Owen, 1893 -1918

Why not? Reached from everywhere by rail from Kings Lynn! Golf galore and first class on the ladies championship course of 1914; and a nine hole course on the cliffs that youngsters may learn the rudiments and long handicaps may be made short! Why not? Lawn tennis and croquet with ‘open’ tournaments on 13 good courts at the recreation ground; cricket for residents and visitors on the best ground in West Norfolk; bowls on two fine greens; and tennis again on the Esplanade Gardens. Grand cliffs and glorious sands, the safest bathing on the East Coast, esplanades, shelters, cliff rambles, promenade pier, and sea fishing, concert rooms, and theatre. Why not?

Eastern Daily Press, writing about Hunstanton, 4 July 1914

Hippisley Hut

Hippisley Hut is in Hunstanton, still surviving as a private home, but pivotal to the success of the war as the centre and birthplace of wireless interception. In 2014 it was offered for sale as an extended five-bedroomed home, for £575,000.

Railway Hotel, Hunstanton, just prior to the Great War.

Hunstanton sign showing St Edmund, the first Patron Saint of England.

Crabbing in the pools below Hunstanton cliffs.

Hunstanton lighthouse, c.1900s.

Bayntun Hippisley.

Working on message interception on top of Hunstanton cliffs.

It is named after Richard John Bayntun Hippisley CBE (1865-1956), known in his life as Bayntun. Science was very much in the family genes, his grandfather being a Fellow of the Royal Society and another relative, Richard Lionel Hippisley (1853-1936), having a very distinguished career, first as Director of Telegraphs in South Africa during the Boer War, and later as Chief Engineer of the Royal Engineers in Scotland.

Bayntun joined the West Sussex Yeomanry in 1908, soon developing an interest in wireless, and he successfully applied to the Post Office for a licence to start his own wireless station at the Lizard in Cornwall, where he reputedly picked up messages from the doomed Titanic in 1912.

When war broke out in 1914 the Admiralty was very keen to utilise the experience of amateurs like Bayntun due to their wealth of experience and, frankly, lack of costs. Thus, it was that Bayntun and a friend of his, Edward Russell Clarke, were recruited as ‘volunteer interceptors’, and together they began an effective monitoring of German wireless stations. They proved to be successful, operating at a lower frequency than the ‘official’ Marconi stations. In late 1914 both of these men were sent to Hunstanton, to a bare wooden building that became known as ‘Hippisley Hut’. Hunstanton was the highest point in close proximity to the German coast.

Baying wolf sculpture and old lighthouse, Hunstanton, by Daniel Tink.

One of the men who won the war?

The work of Bayntun and Clarke was top secret, but it is the opinion of some experts on the period that they may well have had a crucial impact on the outcome of the conflict. They rapidly converted the basically wooden hut into a listening station that could tune into the signals of German shipping and airships. Sometimes they would venture out onto the surrounding clifftops and operate from tents. Fourteen more similar stations were set up along the coast and two at crucial overseas locations, Malta and Italy.

The listening stations were critical on several occasions, in particular during the Zeppelin menace of 1916 and during the Battle of Jutland.

Hippisley Hut, signal interceptors and the Battle of Jutland

This battle in 1916 was the most important naval clash of the war. The plan of the Germans was to lure the Royal Navy into a trap by offering battle with a small number of fast ships, before attacking with the full might of the Dreadnoughts and U-boats waiting over the horizon. However, the Allies were aware of the location of the High Seas Fleet through the work of the listening stations, including that in Hunstanton. Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, commanding the British ships, was able to turn back from his pursuit before disaster may have struck, although he still lost two cruisers. Thereafter, there were skirmishes during which HMS Indefatigable, HMS Invincible and 11 other cruisers and destroyers were lost, along with 6,000 men. Germany lost about 3,000.

It was the only meeting between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet and, although it was claimed to be a German victory – and indeed the Royal Navy lost fourteen craft in total to the eleven of Germany – it nonetheless ended any aspiration by the kaiser to dominate the seas.

A rare photograph shows the crippled SMS Seydlitz during the Battle of Jutland. She is still afloat after being hit by probably twenty-five shells and a torpedo. Ninety-eight men were killed.

Vice Admiral David Beatty who famously said, after two ships blew up at the Battle of Jutland, ‘There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.’

HMS Warspite and HMS Malaya during the Battle of Jutland.

HMS Indefatigable just before sinking.

HMS Indefatigable exploding and sinking having been hit by shells from Von der Tann.

By 1917 Bayntun had further developed his systems and was able to advise as to the locations of German shipping and U-boats, which led to the clearing of the seas, enabling essential supplies to reach the British people.

After the war Bayntun was awarded an OBE and returned to Somerset where he became involved in local politics. In 1937, he was honoured with a CBE. He died in 1956.

Hunstanton lifeboat, the Licensed Victualler (1900-31), being moved using horses.

Lovat Scouts

These legendary companies, famed for their stalking, spotting and marksmanship in the Boer War, and originating in the main from gamekeepers and their assistants in Scotland, were briefly stationed at Hunstanton during the war.

They were formed as contingents in 1899 by the 16th Lord Lovat and 22nd chief of the clan Fraser. By January 1900 the Lovat Scouts, as they were then called, comprised over 1,500 volunteers. They were sent to South Africa where their skills increasingly frustrated the Boers. In August 1914, faced with a new dire situation, the Lovat Scouts were once again formed and on 15 April they arrived in Hunstanton, Houghton, Harplay and Great Massingham. They stayed until 21 August when, once again, they found themselves in the thick of the action at Gallipoli where their marksmanship took a heavy toll on the Turks. They continued to fight with great distinction in various theatres during the remainder of the war, losing 481 men. They introduced the famous Gillie suit to the Army.

Hunstanton cliffs showing the wreck of the trawler Sheraton, which, over the years, has taken on the appearance of concrete. Sheraton was built in 1907 and served in both world wars before being wrecked in a storm in 1947. (Daniel Tink)

Jack, the Airedale Terrier, Arthur Coke and Holkham

In 2014, Holkham, in conjunction with Norwich University of the Arts, put on an exhibition that highlighted the moving tale of Arthur Coke, grandfather of the present Earl of Leicester, and his experiences in the Great War accompanied by his faithful canine companion, Jack. The story was recently told in the Eastern Daily Press.

Arthur first saw action in Flanders during the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. At the end of this year, wanting to see more action, he transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Armoured Cars. Whilst on duty on the Greek island of Lemnos, he volunteered to help man the troopship SS River Clyde, which subsequently landed troops on the Gallipoli peninsula despite heavy losses. Arthur, in charge of five machine guns in the bows, fought for thirteen hours and is reported as describing the action as ‘the greatest day of my life’. He died in the later engagement at Krithia on 2 May 1915 against the Turks. During his service he had been accompanied by his dog, Jack, who, now left alone in the world, was taken back to Holkham by Arthur’s fellow officers and ended his days there, being buried in the grounds in 1918.

Arthur’s two brothers, Tom and Roger also served in the war.

A stretcher-bearer from Holkham and Wells: John Emerson’s story

Details of her grandfather, John Emerson, have kindly been supplied by Maureen Dye who is a member of the Wells Local History Group committee.

In 1916 in Wells, John Emerson married Florence Fuller and in 1917 their son Alfred was born, followed by Herbert in 1919. John’s family had lived and worked on the Holkham Estate for many years. He was born there in 1881 but after his marriage he lived in Wells. In 1914 because of his age (thirty-three) and the need for labour on the Estate, he did not enlist for war. However, by 1916 there was a manpower crisis in the army and conscription was introduced. Men were allocated into a class which was connected with the year of their birth, and notified that they would be called up by class. Class 1 was for those born in 1897 and thus 19 years old. John, being thirty-five, was not called up until early 1917. Conscripts had no choice of regiment. They went into a training reserve pool and from there were allocated to any regiment that needed men. John was detailed to join the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Labour Corps.

British wounded, Bernafay Wood, 19 July 1916.

A bus converted into a pigeon loft at the Front.

Thus, John Emerson became a stretcher bearer on the Western Front. Battalions were responsible for clearing their own casualties from the battlefield and taking them to the Regimental Aid Post. Here, only superficial care could be provided. Located near the Front Line, often in support or reserve trenches, they were manned by the Battalion Medical Officer, orderlies, and stretcher bearers. Facilities were crude and often just sufficed to carry out first aid and give the casualty a drink. Then he was passed down the chain of the Royal Army Medical Corps. When an attack was on, rear areas were heavily shelled to prevent re-supply and reinforcement. These were the same areas the stretcher bearers had to navigate to get the wounded to the Regimental Aid Post. So, John Emerson fetched and carried wounded and dying soldiers. In the trenches he lined up behind the soldiers going over the top in action and then calmly followed to pick up the pieces. He learned to judge instantly who was dead and who was still alive. He had to turn away from the desperate dying to concentrate on those with a better chance of survival. Such men were unsung heroes. They contributed massively in the aid of soldiers and yet are not often mentioned. Many were killed but not commemorated.

The Burnhams

The seven settlements of Burnham had a very busy last two years of the war, as from the summer of 1917 thousands of German prisoners captured by the British on the Western Front were sent there, primarily to Burnham Norton.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Hunstanton

The Hunstanton Cenotaph Memorial is on the seafront. There are other memorials also, including in the Church of St Mary and in the Le Strange Memorial Hall.

Charles Cyril Andrews, Private, 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed in action with the British Expeditionary Force on 30 June 1916. He and his parents lived in Hunstanton.

Daryl Leslie Harris, Pioneer, Fourth Army Signal Co, Royal Engineers, died in France and Flanders on 3 November 1917, aged twenty-six. His parents, Alfred and Evangeline, lived in Westgate, Hunstanton, and he is buried in Zuydcoote Military cemetery, Nord, France.

Herbert Edmund Nichol, Sapper, 208th Field Co, Royal Engineers, died of wounds in France on 26 June 1916. He was thirty-six and the husband of Agnes Mary who lived in Charlebury Terrace, Hunstanton. He is buried in Albert Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.

Leonard Archibald Reynolds, Corporal, 3rd Squadron, Traffic Control, Mounted Police Corps, died in France and Flanders on 14 March 1919, aged twenty-nine. He was born in Dersingham, lived in East Dereham and enlisted in Norwich.

Reginald Roythorne, Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 2nd Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), died while with the Expeditionary Force in Mespotamia on 20 September 1916. He was born in Heacham and is buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq.

Brancaster

The War Memorial is in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin Church at the junction of Brad Lane and the A149.

Walter William Fiddaman, Private, 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, died on 27 July 1916, aged twenty. He was born in Brancaster and enlisted in Norwich.

Bede Guthrie, Lance Corporal, 1st/5th Battalion, was killed in action on Thursday, 16 August 1917. He was twenty-one and had been born in Kings Lynn and enlisted in North Walsham. His parents, William and Ellen, lived in Brancaster Staithe.

Brancaster Staithe by Daniel Tink.

Herbert William Harrell, Petty Officer Stoker, died on Tuesday, 22 September 1914. He was one of the crew of HMS Cressy which, with the Hogue and Aboukir, was sunk in ninety minutes by a U-boat under the command of Otto Weddigen. He was thirty-six and married to Anna Maria, and they lived in London Street, Brancaster. He is commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial.

John William Nudds, Private, East Surrey Regiment, was killed in action on Sunday, 6 May 1917. He was born in Burnham, enlisted in Norwich and lived in Kings Lynn. He is commemorated on Arras Memorial, France.

Samuel Proudfoot, Private, 1st/5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action on Thursday, 19 April 1917, aged twenty-five. He enlisted in Kings Lynn. His parents, Robert and Jane, lived in Brancaster.

Charles Simms-Reeve, Captain, 2nd Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, was killed in action on 14 February 1915. He was born in Brancaster Staithe and is commemorated on Ypres Memorial.

Burnham Deepdale and Staithe

Herbert Hubbard, Private, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action in France on 13 April 1917. He was born in Burnham Overy, enlisted in Kings Lynn and lived in Burnham Deepdale. He is commemorated on Arras Memorial, France.

Henry Mitchell, Private, 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on 27 December 1917, aged thirty-five. He was born and lived in Burnham Deepdale as did his parents, John and Alice. He is buried in Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

Russell Sutherland, Private, 120th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was killed in action on 5 May 1917, aged twenty-one. He was born and raised in Brancaster Staithe and enlisted at Kings Lynn. He is buried in Fifteen Ravine British Cemetery, Nord, France.

Robert Winterborne, Chief Stoker, HMS Vanguard, Royal Navy, died on 9 July 1917, aged thirty-nine. His parents were resident in Brancaster Staithe. The ship blew up at Scapa Flow, killing 804.

Holkham

The Memorial is to be found on the left before the gatehouse to Holkham House.

Alfred Charles Groom, Rifleman, 2nd Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, was killed in action in France on 4 November 1918, aged twenty-four. He was born in Holkham and lived there, as did his parents, Alfred and Anne. He is commemorated at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Richard William Sizeland, Corporal, 2nd/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, was killed in action on 30 September 1918, aged twenty-three. He had enlisted at Fakenham and his parents, Robert and Lucy, lived in New Holkham.

Arthur George Coke, The Hon, Lieutenant, Armoured Car Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, died at Sedel Bahr, Gallipoli, on Friday, 21 May 1915. He is commemorated on Helles Memorial, Turkey.

George William Dunthorne, Private, 5th Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, was killed in action at Loos, France, on 25 September 1915, aged twenty-two. He was born in North Creek, Norfolk, and lived in Holkham, the son of John and Mary of Holkham. He is commemorated at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.

CHAPTER 5

Wells-next-the-Sea, Stiffkey, Blakeney, Cley next the Sea, Salthouse, Holt, Weybourne

The way the earth looked, falling; swallowing to stop deafness at altitude; the scream of wires; stars between wings; grass blown down when engines were run up; the smell – of dope, and castor oil, and varnish in new cockpits; moonlight shining on struts; the gasps before the dive; machine guns

Cecil Lewis on flying in the Great War. He went on to become a squadron leader and served in the Second World War, also. He was one of the founders of the British Broadcasting Company.

Contemporary opinions on Wells

One of the principal assets of Wells is its bracing and invigorating air, which is practically unrivalled in any district in England. Excellent bathing may be obtained from its fine beach. The salt marshes cannot fail to attract attention, these being home of innumerable wildfowl, many of which nest here in the spring and in the winter months attract large numbers of sportsmen. There are many places of extreme interest in the immediate vicinity of Wells.

Eastern Daily Press, 1914

The wide open sands of Wells-next-the-Sea, a contemporary view by Daniel Tink.

It is customary to regard Wells as a dull place; but many have found the secret of its charm, and caught the glamour of its ancient houses and its wide creek, the sun effects on the marshes and the peace of the long stretch of beautiful sands…

Cromer and District Illustrated Guide Book, Ward Lock and Co, 1918

HMS Hogue and Percy Green of Wells*

As already detailed, the sinking of the Aboukir, Cressy, and Hogue, which were heavy cruisers built at the turn of the century and widely considered to be almost obsolete in 1914, was a nasty shock to the British public. Such was their vulnerability that they have gone down in history as ‘The Live Bait Squadron’. They were manned by Naval Reservists of two types; men past normal retirement age, and lads and young men, who were used to the sea (fishermen and merchantmen), but who generally had no experience of naval operations. One of the crew of HMS Hogue was Percy Ernest Green, aged twenty, who had until recently lived with his parents, Florence and Ernest, at Sandpiper Cottage in Standard Road (the name later changed to Watchman’s Cottage). Percy was a fisherman working on the boat LN132 Rose W until called up to join HMS Hogue at Chatham on 2 August 1914 (two days before war was declared).

On 22 September 1914 the three cruisers were found by the German submarine, U-9, commanded by Otto Weddigen, and each was torpedoed and sunk in a total time of little over an hour.

Back home in Wells, Percy Green’s parents received the usual telegram informing them that their son was regrettably ‘missing in action’. This was actually untrue as he had been picked up by one of the Dutch ships, SS Flora.

The Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraph reported, on 23 September 1914, the saving of 258 sailors and 27 officers by Captain Voorham and his crew. The report goes on to say that, among the seamen that were rescued, there are two British physicians who tried to help the victims as much as possible. Nonetheless, one of the men died on board the ship, although they tried artificial respiration for at least an hour. The identity of the dead man was not known until it was announced that the funeral would take place of a British soldier named P. Green who had died aboard SS Flora. The subsequent funeral did the young man proud and was attended by the British clergyman Reverend Chambers from Amsterdam. Members of the Royal Dutch Navy attended, as did the Vice Consul for Great Britain, Mr Reigersborg.

The beginning of the Women’s Institute at Wells

We know of women’s work in many spheres during the Great War, from taking over jobs previously undertaken by their fathers, brothers and sons, to locally-based groups who met to accomplish a set task. One of the most famous in Norfolk was the group at Colman’s factory, in Norwich, who made thousands of sandbags and other items invaluable to civil defence. Women worked in the fields, in factories and in many areas previously associated with men.

This was the era of the suffragette who did not consider the war a sufficient reason to stop campaigning for the vote and rights in all areas of life. The local press was, at times, shocked by the disruptions and damage caused in their campaign.

Wells did not lag behind the regional capital. In the winter of 1916-1917 local women formed the Wells Women’s War and Red Cross Working Party. During that winter alone, between them they made 624 garments such as socks, underwear, gloves, as well as items like feather pillows and kit bags. These were dispatched to various local centres, including the HQ of the Norfolk Regiment in Norwich, the Mission to Seamen and the hospital temporarily set up at Houghton Hall. The women met regularly at the Church Room on a Wednesday afternoon and evening and appear to have enjoyed the social get-together as much as the work of assisting the ‘war effort’. In 1919, with the war over and their work for the Red Cross no longer required, they decided to form a local branch of the Women’s Institute.

Women committing to land work.

Page in the magazine The War Budget showing women working in English munitions factories, January 1915.

Poster as part of a fund-raising drive for amenities for women workers.

A joyful postcard celebrating the fun of women working on the land.

The loss of all three sons

According to the 1911 Census, in Dogger Lane, Wells, there lived the family of George and Priscilla Lack. George was a bricklayer and chimney-sweep and Priscilla was a housewife. They had been married for twenty-five years, and had three sons and three daughters. All three sons perished in the war. The middle son, Robert John, was serving on the destroyer HMS Ghurka and died when it was torpedoed in the Channel on 8 February 1917. The oldest boy, who had followed his father into bricklaying before the war, served in the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and died of fever there on 2 November 1917. The youngest son, Alfred Walter, was missing presumed dead in July 1917 at the age of just nineteen.

Coastal defences: How they developed during the war

When the war began, the coast had no defences to speak of – except for warnings from the coastguard and boy scouts, and the latter were quickly and enthusiastically organised to make patrols. Kings Lynn boasted a small battery and, right around the coast, Southwold had some old canons. Harwich, of course, being the major naval centre for the region, had fortifications including searchlights and a minefield as well as some new 9.2-inch guns.

It was widely believed that, if the Germans invaded, the fleet would cut them off and the enemy would soon surrender in inhospitable territory with no supplies. Thus, in 1914, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk had each only one Infantry Brigade, one mounted Yeomanry Brigade, a brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and two battalions of cyclists. Harwich had six battalions of infantry.

There was fevered discussion as to where the enemy was likely to land. The salt marshes at Weybourne were seen as unsuitable and the wide expanses of beaches between Cley and Sheringham, and possibly Lowestoft, were considered quite likely.

Home Defence, trenches and additional guns

Initially, much reporting was of an optimistic nature. The Norwich Mercury of 9 December 1914 reported, ‘A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. The latest war news from the Western Front appears to show that the Germans have abandoned the attempt to force their way to the coast.’ In the same edition it reports on Home Defence:

the new volunteer movement which has sprung out of the possibilities of an attempt at an invasion of our shores grows in force day by day...Today there are upwards of a million men, aged from about 35 upwards...In our own area, Yarmouth has done well, with over 500 men already enrolled. Lowestoft has followed suit with 250 and Norwich has begun its task with over 400 men in the first few days of the appeal...

The authorities were not keen to dig up beaches in 1914 so as not to alarm the public, but they eventually began to do so, including on Sheringham Golf Links. Also, by 1915 there were six 4.7-inch guns moving on travelling carriages at Weybourne and two more at Cromer.

Harwich was made into a strong fortress in 1914. In 1915 two 9.2-inch Mk X guns were brought from Ireland, the most powerful pieces ever to be put on the East Coast. They could fire a shell of 280 pounds up to 17,000 yards and reach any ship threatening the base and town.

In 1915 an armoured train was brought to Norfolk: it looked very impressive but was militarily useless as it was on fixed tracks and relied upon the enemy obligingly coming within range. Based in North Walsham, it comprised four carriages with a steel shell half an inch thick. At either end was a gun truck with a Maxim gun and a 12 - pounder naval gun. For the duration of the conflict it noisily banged up and down the track on the Mundesley line as far as Great Yarmouth, and it never fired a shot.

Air threats led to two 75-mm guns being placed at Bacton and two more at Sandringham to protect the queen. In addition, the airbase at Pulham St Mary had three 3-inch guns and Yarmouth two 18-pounders.

In 1916, following the April bombardment of Lowestoft by the High Seas Fleet, which caused great panic and fear of invasion, trenches were dug along the cliffs at Pakefield and inspected by the king.

Invasion contingencies

In 1916 it was decided by the Admiralty and War Office that an invasion by up to 160,000 men was quite possible and that half a million troops must always be stationed in the UK to counter the threat. The attack was deemed probable between the Wash and Dover. Consequently, two command posts were set up, one at Bretford and one at Mundford. The defence plan was to hold the coast as long as possible and then, if German troops landed, seen as probable for exercise reasons, then they should be attacked by mobile units of cyclists and infantry. Thereafter it would be a case of harass, and hopefully defeat, the enemy on the way to London – it was assumed the enemy would make a beeline for the capital.

The government also sought the active help of the public in keeping vigilant. The Eastern Daily Press of Tuesday, 18 July 1916 wrote, ‘The War Office request that the public will render assistance...by notifying...of any bomb or projectile or fragments thereof or any other article discharged, dropt [sic] or lost from any enemy aircraft or vessel.’

The defences never approached those of the Napoleonic wars, but in 1917 more trenches were dug at Weybourne and Sheringham, Sea Palling and Great Yarmouth. South of Lowestoft was further strengthened by guns and men. Weybourne in particular became an important army coastal defence base.

Mobile guns included six 60-pounders at Weybourne, Mundesley and Pakefield: these would be useful against troops but were not really designed to pierce armour. Cromer also had two of the same guns in a permanent mount. Monitors operated 24/7 from Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

Pillboxes

Some forty-eight pillboxes, named, some say, because of their shape which resembled the boxes that pills could be obtained in from the local chemist, were built in Norfolk, the majority along the Norfolk coast. The picture is not entirely clear, especially as some were re-used and adapted in the Second World War. Twenty-four remain today.

Often circular or hexagonal in shape and made of concrete, they were designed to protect British troops when firing at the enemy through the ‘loopholes’. Steel shutters could cover the openings when in defensive mode. They were often built in pairs to provide greater support and they ran from Cley to West Runton. It is possible that the pillbox at Stiffkey was also in this defensive line, but even now experts are trying to work out whether it was built in the First or Second World War. It is unsually flat, thus making it difficult for troops to stand inside, and the openings are wider than normal: possibly it was some kind of observation, rather than defensive, post. A second line reinforced these and ran just inland between Holt and Aylmerton. A line ran along the banks of the River Ant with other locations including Mundesley, Bacton, Sea Palling Hanworth, North Walsham and Great Yarmouth. Many were built by the Royal Engineers.

The Pillbox Trail

A pillbox trail was launched with great success in 2015. Fourteen are accessible and these are: Stiffkey, Weybourne, Beeston Regis, Aylmerton, Thorpe Market (2), Bradfield (2), Little London (2), White Horse Common (2), Wayford Bridge and Sea Palling. Further information and leaflets are available from any north Norfolk information centre or online at www.visitnorthnorfolk.co.uk

The extraordinary life, war service and terrible death of Harold Davidson, Rector of Stiffkey

Harold Davidson came from a church family and could count an Archbishop of Canterbury among over two dozen clerical relations. He was not overly academic, having been asked to leave Exeter College, Oxford, as he preferred to be elsewhere most of the time and therefore failed his exams. He was, however, a powerful speaker and a deeply principled man, gaining the lifetime support of the Bishop of London with the result that his clerical career went very well, indeed – at least initially. In 1906 he gained a fine appointment as Rector of Stiffkey St John with Stiffkey St Mary Morston where he administered all the land owned by Marquess Townshend. He was diminutive in stature at just 5 foot 3 inches, but full of energy and much loved by his parishioners, all of whom he sought to know and visit. His future looked golden.

Lifeboat station and lookout at Sea Palling.

In the Great War, he served and survived as a naval chaplain. He joined HMS Gibraltar in the Shetland Islands where he ruffled the men’s feathers by calling church parades at the drop of a hat, but as the base commander was Sir Reginald Tupper, also known as ‘Holy Reggie’, this was deemed acceptable. He was not, however, on good terms with the captain or his crew. He transferred to HMS Fox in the Middle East in October 1916 and was caught by the naval police in a brothel. He claimed he was on duty, trying to find a particular prostitute known to his men. In August 1918 he joined HMS Leviathan and finally left the Navy in March 1919.

He returned to his flock in Stiffkey, but coming home was not so happy as he found his wife pregnant and quite obviously this had nothing to do with him. However, he accepted his wife’s new daughter as his own and resumed his post, once more working extremely hard. He had, however, if not exactly a secret, at least something that it was wise not to shout about in this highly prudish age – he used to visit prostitutes in Soho, London, helping them in any way he could – sometimes giving them money but more often arranging for them to gain employment. Later, at his trial, it did not bode well for him as it was revealed that this employment was usually in the theatre, which was seen as a den of vice. In reality, he had many contacts there because he had been keen on the stage since his undergraduate days. By his own estimate, in his diaries, he befriended between 2-3,000 girls between 1919 and the time of his trial, and writes that he liked to take each to a café for tea and a chat, trying to work out how he could place them in safe accommodation and a stable job. He makes it quite clear in his writings that this work was vastly more important to him than sitting in innumerable village sessions for the local women’s group or other worthy, but dull, charity affairs.

Some in Stiffkey did not agree at all, and he made one or two serious enemies as he saw himself not as a man to hold his tongue unnecessarily. One person, in particular, could not stand him – a Major Philip Hamond who owned land in Morston. The rector had refused to allow the major to be churchwarden and they had several other altercations.

In 1930 the rector missed Remembrance Day Service, and he was accused by Major Hamond of insulting the dead. It did not help that the rector kept quiet about the reasons for his absence, which may well have been because he was delayed while returning from his work with the Soho prostitutes.

In what sounds remarkably similar to the persecution of Oscar Wilde several decades previously, Major Hamond gained wind of the rector’s London ‘mission’ and made a charge of immorality against him which, if proved, would lead to defrocking. A private detective agency was engaged in London to follow the rector. Of forty girls who were approached, only one had anything dishonourable to say about Davidson and this was when she was drunk: when sober, she recanted and subsequently tried to commit suicide. However, the wheels of ecclesiastical law had begun and Davidson was sent for a Church disciplinary trial, which began on 29 March 1932. On 8 July the rector was found guilty on all charges.

Blakeney lifeboat, the Caroline (1908-35). On 17 and 18 January 1918, she rescued sixteen from the SS General Havelock and, in severe blizzard conditions, went to sea again and rescued fourteen from HM Tug Joffre.

His life became even more bizarre. It is claimed by some historians that he applied to become a football manager and then to open a naturist colony. What we do know is that in September 1932, he appeared fasting in a barrel in Blackpool. He would also appear being roasted and prodded by the ‘devil’ with a pitchfork. Finally, in 1937, the rector appeared in an amusement park in Skegness where he shared a cage with a lion and lioness called Freddie and Toto, all the while bemoaning his fate. On 28 July he was attacked and mauled by Freddie and died in hospital two days later. It is claimed that his last words were ‘Did I make the front page?’

He was buried in Stiffkey, thousands gathering to pay their respects. The case of Harold Davidson, the rector of Stiffkey, sometimes known as the ‘Prostitutes Padre’, remains the subject of fascination right up to the present day. It is an extraordinary tale and has been the subject of several plays, films, novels and even a musical. As to his guilt or innocence, the jury is still out.

Cley

Cley at the outbreak of war.

Windmill at Cley next the Sea by Daniel Tink.

Rupert Brooke.

Rupert Brooke

He was a minor celebrity before he died and a monstrous one afterward, holding on, to this day, to his fame and a rather tattered glory. The New Yorker, in an article dated 23 April 2015, the hundredth anniversary of Rupert Brooke’s death.

The poet Rupert Chawner Brooke was staying at Cley on the Norfolk coast when he heard of the outbreak of war. Frances Cornford, granddaughter of Charles Darwin, was with him at the time and wrote:

A young Apollo, golden-haired,

Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,

Magnificently unprepared

For the long littleness of life

He reputedly did not speak for a day until Frances Cornford asked: ‘But Rupert, you won’t have to fight?’ to which he replied ‘We shall all have to fight.’

W.B. Yeats called him ‘the handsomest young man in England’ and he had an illustrious group of friends. He joined the navy and, following his death on 23 April 1915 when his unit was sailing to Gallipoli, Winston Churchill wrote that he ‘was all that one would wish England’s noblest sons to be in the days when no sacrifice but the most precious is acceptable’. He died on board a hospital ship moored off the Greek island of Skyros and was buried in an olive grove there later the same day as his unit was in a hurry to leave. He had been bitten by a mosquito and passed away from blood poisoning, although in his obituary Churchill claimed that he had died of sunstroke – an image to suit the times, one of a young English literary lion, dying in Greece like Byron. The well-known description by his friend, William Denis Browne, who sat with him to the last, of his end embellished the myth: Brooke passed away ‘with the sun shining all round his cabin, and the cool sea-breeze blowing through the door’.

Unlike his famous contemporaries Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke saw no fighting and he epitomised for many the youthful idealism and devotion to country felt during the first year of the war. In 1912 he had written The Old Vicarage, Granchester. He was in Berlin and longing for home and the poem presents a fervent, enchanted view of English rural life, which caught the imagination of the period. It ends like this:

Oh, is the water sweet and cool,

Gentle and brown, above the pool?

And laughs the immortal river still

Under the mill, under the mill?

Say, is there Beauty yet to find?

And Certainty? And Quiet kind?

Deep meadows yet, for to forget

The lies, and truths, and pain? . . . oh! yet

Stands the Church clock at ten to three?

And is there honey still for tea?

His patriotic sonnet, The Soldier, was read from the pulpit of St Paul’s Cathedral in April 1915.

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Legacy divided

Few poets have polarised thought so much. George Woodbury, in his introduction to Brooke’s Collected Poems (1916) wrote:

There is a grave in Scyros, amid the white and pinkish marble of the isle, the wild thyme and the poppies, near the green and blue waters. There Rupert Brooke was buried. Thither have gone the thoughts of his countrymen, and the hearts of the young especially. It will long be so. For a new star shines in the English heavens.

Woodbury’s contemporary, poet Charles Sorley who was killed in 1915, had a rather more cynical view of all war poetry:

The voice of our poets and men of letters is finely trained and sweet to hear; it teems with sharp saws and rich sentiment: it is a marvel of delicate technique: it pleases, it flatters, it charms, it soothes: it is a living lie.

Recently, a bundle of papers has been opened by the British Library that details his love affair with the poet Phyllis Gardner and other loves.

There is a Rupert Brooke society based in Norwich at www.rupertbrooke.com

Holt

It is exceedingly neat and clean, stands upon high ground, has several good houses and some stately mansions in surrounding villages.

Jarrold’s Guide to Cromer, 1902

The Sussex Cyclists and defensive work

Holt was the station for men who were fondly known as the Sussex Cyclists (that is where they came from) who were put up in wooden huts in the Fairfield. This was their headquarters but they also had companies in Hunstanton, Brancaster, Weybourne Hope, Weybourne Springs and Wells. An important part of their work was strengthening defensive positions on the cliffs around Norfolk and digging trenches. Three lines of trenches were dug in key defensive positions, the first between Weybourne and Salthouse as well as others around Sea Palling, Yarmouth and Gorleston.

Heavy 60-pounder guns of the Royal Field Artillery were set up at Weybourne and Mundesley and other lighter guns at Cromer and Gorleston cliffs, Eccles, Newport and Caistor.

Greshams School

Holt is home to Greshams School. Over 100 former pupils died in the war, many of them officers who, as such, would have been the particular target of snipers keen to rid the army of leaders. In a moving book, When Heroes Die, by a former teacher of history at the school, Sue Smart, we are told of the cricket team that took to the field on behalf of the school against the Old Boys on Saturday, 18 July 1914. When the war ended eleven of those playing had lost their lives. It is reputed to have been an agony to witness for the headmaster, George Howson, who died in January 1919 ‘spent in grief’.

The school is preparing an online archive of the men and events of the war, which it is hoped those researching the conflict will use: www.greshams.com

Holt town centre.

Old School House, Greshams, and war memorial, 1921.

The war memorial in Holt today.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Wells-next-the-Sea

The War Memorial is set in the Wells Memorial Institute Club and faces the street.

Harry Bone, DCM, Corporal. Number 4, Special Co, Royal Engineers, died of wounds on 30 August 1917. His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in proceeding at great personal risk to a pile of gas bombs that had been struck by enemy shell fire, and burying two that had burst; the remainder might have exploded at any moment. He then worked his gun from the same pile of bombs until they were all fired off. Later he made two journeys along an open track under heavy hostile barrage, in order to carry guns from their emplacements. He has at all times shown a splendid example and total disregard for danger.

He was born in Wells-next-the-Sea and enlisted in Cambridge. He is the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Mary Bone, East End, Wells. He is buried in Noeux-Les-Mines Communal Cemetery Extension.

Alfred Philip Bone, DCM, MM and Bar, Sergeant, 34th Division Signals Co, Royal Engineers, died of wounds following the Third Battle of Ypres on 28 October 1917, aged twenty-six. The MM is gazetted on 23 August 1916, the Bar on 18 June 1917 and the posthumous DCM on 26 January 1918:

Wells-next-the-Sea beach, by Daniel Tink.

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He worked continuously for four days and nights during the operations maintaining communication with four battalions in the line. The wires were continually cut, and he remained in the open under heavy fire repairing breakages and keeping up communication. He showed great coolness and skill.

He was born in Wells-next-the-Sea and enlisted in Norwich. He was the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Mary Bone, East End, Wells. He is buried in Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinghe.

Alfred Creed, Driver, Army Service Corps, 37th Reserve Park, was reported missing near Lake Doiran on 1 September 1916, aged nineteen. He was the son of Mrs Sarah Creed of Theatre Road, Wells-next the-Sea. He is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial, Greece.

Nelson Hinson, Apprentice, Mercantile Marine, SS Ilston (Swansea), was killed when his ship was torpedoed off the Lizard, Cornwall, on 30 June 1917. He was eighteen and one of six men who drowned. He was the son of Anna Maria Ninson of Church Plain, Wells-next-the-Sea.

Stiffkey

The principal Memorial to the dead of the Great War is in the Church of St John the Baptist. There are others, including one with names hand-painted on silk, in the church.

Francis Albert Curson, Private, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action on 14 April 1917, aged twenty-nine. He was born and raised in Stiffkey and enlisted in Holt. He has no known grave.

Charles Douglas Wordingham, Private, 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action on 4 June 1916, aged twenty-one. He was born in Stiffkey and enlisted in Fakenham.

James Reginald John Wordingham, brother of the above, was a private in 9th Battalion, Essex Regiment, and died of wounds on 23 March 1918, aged twenty-four. His parents were John and Esther Wordingham of Walnut Villa, Holt. He and his brother are buried in France.

Blakeney

Edward A. Adcock, Private, 2nd/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action on 21 March 1918 in France and Flanders. He was born and lived in Blakeney and enlisted at Swaffham. He is buried in Heath Cemetery, Harbonieres, France.

Basil Claudius Ash, Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment,) was twenty-eight when he was killed in action on 20 September 1914. His parents lived in Blakeney. He is buried in Chauny Communal Cemetery, Aisne, France.

Vincent Keeble Bullen, Chief Stoker, HMS Vanguard, Royal Navy, was killed along with over 800 men when the ship blew up at Scapa Flow on 9 July 1917. He was forty-four. His parents, William and Ellen, lived in Blakeney.

Frederick Walter Pyke, Rifleman, 1st/17th (County of London) Battalion (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), was killed in action on 23 December 1917, aged twenty-five. He and his parents, Samuel and Mary Ann, lived in High Street, Blakeney. He is buried in Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel.

William Samuel Pyke, Private, 9th Battalion, Essex Regiment, died of wounds on 19 September 1918 in France and Flanders, aged nineteen. His parents are as for Frederick Walter Pyke above. He is buried in Doingt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.

Herbert Young, Private, 7th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action on 13 October 1915. He was the 20-year-old son of Mrs S. Hubbard of Fern Cottage, Brancaster, and he enlisted in Norwich. He is commemorated on Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Cley

William Elijah Barnes, Private, 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, died on 29 September 1916, aged twenty-three. A farmer in Canada, he was the son of Mary Ann and George Barnes of Cley. He is commemorated on Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Raven Cozens-Hardy, Second Lieutenant, 4th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action on 9 October 1917, aged thirty-one. He was the son of Mary Cozens-Hardy and Arthur Wrigley Cozens-Hardy of Cley Hall, Norfolk. He is commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.

Holt

The Memorial is at one end of the High Street, not far from the library.

Charles Edward Dack, Lance Corporal, 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, was killed in action in France and Flanders on 30 September 1915. He was born in Holt and enlisted in Norwich. He is buried in Norfolk Cemetery, Somme, France.

Charles Henry Steer, Drummer, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, was killed in action in France and Flanders on 26 October 1914, aged eighteen. He lived in Holt and enlisted in Norwich.

Weybourne

There are three memorials for both world wars in All Saints Church, Weybourne.

Herbert William Digby, Rifleman, 1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifles, was killed in action on 10 March 1915, aged tweny-one. His parents lived in Kelling Road, Weybourne. He was in the USA when war broke out and came over to serve.

Robert Woodyard, Private, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, died at sea on 13 August 1915, aged twenty-three. He was born in Weybourne and enlisted in Norwich. He is commemorated on Helles Memorial.

Weybourne panorama by Daniel Tink.

*Details of this story were gathered by Keith Leesmith of the Wells Local History Group from Christine Rayner, a relation of Percy Green, and local sources.

CHAPTER 6

Sheringham, Beeston Regis, The Runtons

If the women in the factories stopped work for twenty minutes, the Allies would lose the war.

French Field Marshal Joffre

Sheringham

The main income of Sheringham has historically been derived from fishing, with the high ground of the Cromer Ridge the perfect spot from which to take stock of the mood of the huge ocean as well as, of course, to keep an eye on potential incursions from hostile forces. As a front line town during both wars, it was host to thousands of soldiers, some resident and others on manoevres from nearby coastal bases. The feeling of being a garrison town was increased with the dropping of the first bomb in Britain by a Zeppelin on 14 January 1915, which fortunately failed to explode (part of the bomb can be seen today in Sheringham Museum).

James Ardley, well-known grocer and shops, Sheringham, c.1914.

Sheringham around the outbreak of war.

Present-day shot of the above scene.

The coming of the railway in 1887 had transformed the area from a relatively unsung fishing town into a major holiday resort for the Victorians, keen to experience the healthy air. Hotels, shops and fine villas shot up with the cream of society wanting to be seen here, prompted in no small part by Clement Scott who was sent by his newspaper, The Telegraph, to find out why people suddenly loved this area, which he christened ‘Poppyland’, and which he completely fell in love with along with a miller’s daughter, Louie Jermy. His love for Poppyland prompted him to write a poem, The Garden of Sleep, while waiting for his love in Sidestrand, just along the coast from here. It ends:

In my garden of sleep, where red poppies are spread,

I wait for the living, alone with the dead!

For a tower in ruins stands guard o’er the deep,

At whose feet are green graves of dear women asleep!

Did they love as I love, when they lived by the sea?

Did they wait as I wait, for the days that may be?

Was it hope or fulfilling that entered each breast,

Ere death gave release, and the poppies gave rest?

O! Life of my life! On the cliffs by the sea,

By graves in the grass, I am waiting for thee!

Sleep! Sleep!

In the Dews of the Deep!

Sleep, my Poppy-land,

Sleep!

Sidestrand tower as Clement Scott would have seen it: later it tumbled into the sea.

The Clock Tower, Sheringham, 1906. The building itself was originally a reservoir with the clock being donated by Miss Mary Pym in 1903.

The Clock Tower and shops today.

National Children’s Homes

The Norfolk coast was a very healthy spot and, as the war progressed, a fairly quiet one, in which to place a children’s or convalescent home. The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette of Friday, 23 March 1917 asked:

PEOPLE OF NORFOLK. Do you know that in your midst, at beautiful Sheringham, is a branch of the National Children’s Home, entirely reserved for THE SONS OF OUR GALLANT FIGHTING MEN with upwards of 30 boys, many of them fatherless, already in residence? May we claim your interest in this house? VISITORS ARE WELCOME.

The Lifeboats

The J.C. Madge.

Sheringham had two lifeboats, one run by the RNLI and one privately funded. The RNLI operated the J.C. Madge, which was in service from 1904 to 1936. It was 41 feet long and 11 feet wide with 16 oars and 2 masts, the largest of its type ever built and cost the vast sum of £1,436 provided by a legacy from Mr James C. Madge. She was built by the Thames Ironworks Shipbuilding Company. Thirty men were required to launch her, which was from a carriage.

The rescue of the SS Uller

It is estimated that the J.C. Madge was launched about three dozen times during her service life and saved fifty-eight people. During the war she famously went to the rescue of the SS Uller of Bergen, which had set off from Sunderland with a cargo of coal and struck a sandbank in the early morning of 24 February 1916. She floated off the sandbank, drifted for eighteen hours, struck the bottom of the Blakeney Overalls Bank and became tossed in a howling storm: even worse, snow began to fall heavily and the severity of the weather prevented the Cromer and Wells lifeboats being able to launch. The crew of the J.C. Madge, however, managed to launch but not before they were drenched to the skin. They found the Uller and assisted, whilst it managed to gain half steam and limp, badly damaged, with the propeller half out of the water in consequence, towards Grimsby. Mission accomplished, the J.C. Madge was taken in tow by a French vessel and made Sheringham again just over four days after launch, to the huge relief of family, friends and the town.

On 16 March 1916 she assisted the steamship Rhenania of London and on 6 May saved seven lives when called out to the steamship Theodor of London. 18 April 1918 saw eighteen lives saved aboard the steamship Alice Taylor.

Henry Ramey Upcher

The Henry Ramey Upcher is – it is kept in pristine condition in Sheringham today – a so-called ‘private’ lifeboat as it was paid for by Mrs Caroline Upcher of Sheringham Hall in memory of her husband. Serving from 1894 to 1935, it was significantly different from the J.C. Madge. It was built in Sheringham by famed local craftsman Lewis ‘Buffalo’ Emery, utilising local wood – mainly oak – and copper and carried sixteen oars. As it was lighter and faster and could be launched more quickly than its RNLI sister ship, the fishermen valued it highly. It was not, however, able to cope with such severe weather as the J.C. Madge.

The Henry Ramey Upcher outside her boathouse, 1904.

Manned by thirty men who were fishermen themselves, the lifeboat gained a reputation for helping save a stricken ship and lives, but also, realising the value of the catch and any fishing equipment, took that back to shore, too, whenever possible. On at least one occasion, the crew of the Henry Ramey Upcher not only took the catch back, but also sold it on behalf of the men who had been rescued!

It served several times during the conflict, helped to launch by locally billeted soldiers. On 16 November 1914 she launched to assist the steamship Vera of Newcastle. On 23 January 1915 she went to the aid of the coal-carrying SS Empress, which had struck an old wreck off Sheringham Shoal and was sinking. The crew, who had managed to transfer to a nearby steamship, were picked up and taken back to Sheringham. The next day the lifeboat travelled back to the wreck of the Empress, but nothing could be done and it lay as a hazard to shipping for years. On 12 May of the same year she saved eleven lives by aiding five fishing vessels.

The Henry Ramey Upcher, when retired, was neglected for years before gaining attention in the 1960s and ’70s. She was renovated with money from both private and council donations, and on 23 September 2011 was added to the National Register of Historic Vessels by the National Historic Ships Committee. Beautifully restored and painted she can now be seen in a building at the top of the west slipway on the front.

Olive Edis

Olive Edis is generally regarded as Britain’s first female war photographer and she worked in the glass plate process from her studio in Sheringham. She was born in 1876 and, by the time of the conflict, had established a name for herself, many of her portraits being Norfolk fishermen, but some of them were also of the rich and famous, and royalty, too.

She took a number of images of war scenes in black and white using her bulky square camera on a tripod with a black hood. She visited the Western Front toward the end of the war, taking a special interest in the work of women. Her pictures bore her initials ‘O’ and ‘E’ in the shape of a key. She tended to stick with the same technology, even when others began to use film.

She was also a pioneer of early colour pictures using the autochrome technique first developed by the Lumiere brothers: this used grains of dyed potato starch to create colours.

In 1917 she was asked to take photographs in Downing Street. Her photographs included portraits of Lloyd George, Prince Albert, Nancy Astor and the novelist, Thomas Hardy. She toured Canada in 1920. One of her great strengths, remarked upon by subjects, was her ability to make the sitters feel at ease and thus give the photograph a sense of personality, an ‘inner truth’ maybe: many of the photographs of the period tend to look posed and rigid in comparison.

Olive Edis died in 1955.

In 2015 a grant of £81,000 was made available by the Heritage Lottery Fund to make a digital archive of Olive Edis’ work, which is based at Cromer Museum.

Sheringham’s war dead

Sheringham had a population of 3,500 and lost 75 during the conflict.

Sheringham town centre looking towards the sea by Daniel Tink.

Two Beestons: Beeston Regis and Beeston Nottinghamshire

This area played host to many holidays for scouting units, as well as recuperating troops all keen to sample the famous clear air and healthy bathing. The authoritative Guide to Cromer and District by Ward Lock and Co (1918) said:

Not only in summer is this corner of the Norfolk coast alluring. In spring the woods are carpeted with wild flowers; gorse decks the undulating downs with gold; and the air, tempered by the sea, is exhilarating without being too keen for the invalid… a place where Nelson as a schoolboy frolicked during many a happy holiday, and the afflicted poet Cowper found rest and solace in walks along the pleasant sands.

The famous Boys Brigade from its near namesake, Beeston in Nottinghamshire, came here and to East Runton for a final care-free holiday in early July 1914. The roll of the brigade was over 300 at this time. They held bathing parades every morning, played football and cricket and visited local spots of beauty and interest. The brass band gave a concert for the local people which, the local paper said, was much appreciated. When they returned home it was to the grim news of war and a party of twenty-seven ‘old boys’, led by Captain Pearson, who had also led the holiday activities, signed up as ‘pals’. Twenty-four of them went on to join the Sherwood Foresters ‘Notts and Derby’ Regiment and two went into the Army Service Corps. They were joined by more as the war progressed, forty-two never to return, including Captain Pearson who was killed in France.

Contrasts with the other side of the channel

The press was not tardy in sending reporters to France who sent back colourful descriptions, sometimes decried as fanciful and even humorous in their dramatic impact at the time, of life on the European coastline. The Norwich Mercury of 24 October 1914, under the headline: ‘THE TIDE OF THE BATTLE FOR THE COAST CONTINUES’ reported that ‘the great struggle for the possession of the Calais district continues with unabated vigour. The latest news speaks of the position of the Allies as in every way satisfactory.’ It proceeds:

THE COASTAL FIGHTING HAVOC IN THE COUNTRYSIDE. Parts of the region where fighting has been in progress now present a melancholy aspect. Many of the once-prosperous homesteads and hamlets are literally torn to pieces, the walls still standing, pitted by shrapnel balls, and in some of the villages the churches are smouldering ruins. Dead horses, cows, and pigs, which have been caught in the hail of shrapnel, litter the village streets, and among the carcasses and debris, wander the wretched inhabitants, who have returned to see what they can save from the wreckage. Here, blocking up a narrow side street, is a dead horse, still harnessed to a trap, and beside it is stretched the corpse of a Jager; close by, in an enclosure, where a shell has found them, lie 30 cavalry horses; a little further on is laid out a row of German dead, for whom graves are being dug by the peasants.

Some reporters found a new and colourful streak entering their usually fairly prosaic accounts when talking of the enemy. Here is an excerpt from the Norfolk Chronicle: ‘Germany has writhed like a monster in chains, occasionally snapping one, and yet always writhing and groaning and proclaiming impotence by the fury of its passion.’

Be prepared!

The scouts were invaluable in charting out the land and general patrolling. The Eastern Daily Press of 5 December 1915 had this report: ‘NORFOLK BOY SCOUTS. SCOUTS DOING SPLENDID COAST PATROL WORK. The County Scoutmaster (Mr Hastings), reporting on the work being done by the coast watching patrols, said the boys were carrying out their duties in a most satisfactory manner, and every provision was made, as far as possible, for their comfort. Each boy received 7s a week for his food and was provided with clothing, light, fuel etc. They were provided with warm fishermen’s jerseys and six oilskin outfits were provided for each patrol. The boys who were engaged in this coast patrol work were having no picnic, but doing hard, slogging work.’

There were teams of eight scouts attached to all the signal stations between Kings Lynn and Gorleston.

In order to prevent a similar situation at home to the one that people read about in France, residents were encouraged to know what to do in the case of invasion. The Norwich Mercury of 30 December 1914 ran the headline ‘PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES AT SHERINGHAM’ and wrote:

The Emergency Committee’s instructions in case of bombardment or raid have been issued. One is in case of bombardment to prepare ‘dug-outs’ in the garden. The committee warns people not to go out into the streets, or on the front or any open plain or square. For those near, the Skeldon Hills and Beeston Hills, on the south side would be safe places; also lime kiln and pits. In event of invasion, Sheringham and district would at once come under martial law, and instructions from the military must be implicitly obeyed. All main roads would be required extensively for military purposes; also the railways.

The instructions go on to say:

If it is considered necessary for inhabitants to leave, necessary directions as to roads will be given by special constables. As far as can be seen at present the best roads out of Sheringham and Beeston would be 1) The pathways through the Water Works wood 2) the road across Beeston Common past Gamekeeper’s Cottage 3) Briton’s Lane 4) the road through Mrs Cremer’s yard at Beeston Hall.

The troops sent to the coast were either Home Defence Battalions of the National Reserve or members of the Territorial Force on horseback or bicycles. Anti-invasion work on the coast between Wells and Gorleston was undertaken by 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment (Cyclists) and 1/25th (County of London) Cyclist Battalion, The London Regiment, and 1/6th Battalion, The Norfolk Regiment (Cyclists). Rapid response troops on horseback were formed of the Yeomanry, 1st and 2nd Mounted Divisions. Yeomanry from other parts of the UK, for instance from Wales and Cheshire, also served for periods in Norfolk.

Signing of Armistice at Sheringham

The Norfolk Chronicle of Friday, 15 November 1918 had this report of the signing of the armistice:

The news of the signing of the armistice reached Sheringham just before 11 am. The Sheringham Urban District Council immediately sent a bellman round the town and distributed typed leaflets asking the townspeople to attend a special service of thanksgiving to be held outside the Council Offices at 3pm. Practically all the town attended the demonstration. The streets meantime having been adequately decorated with bunting the town presented quite a festive appearance. Mr R.H. Johnston, Chairman, said no words of his could convey what he felt and he knew they all felt on this great day. After four and a half years of war, and such diabolical war as this had been, there was peace. Peace! That great word was being echoed and re-echoed throughout this land and all lands and he felt sure the shout was also being taken up in Heaven. This was followed by other speeches, the Lord’s Prayer and The National Anthem.

In the same paper were details of the terms of peace:

GERMANY SURRENDERS

THE KAISER ABDICATES

REVOLUTION IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE

TERMS OF ARMISTICE

WHAT GERMANY GIVES UP INCLUDING TO BE SURRENDERED: 2,500heavy guns, 2,500 field guns, 30,000 machine guns, 2,000 aeroplanes, 5,000 railway locomotives, 150,000 wagons, 5,000 motor lorries. TO BE INTERNED: 6 Battle cruisers, 10 battleships, 8 light cruisers; 50 destroyers. TO BE HANDED OVER: all submarines. Vast swathes of German territory to be occupied by the Allies.

The next week the Norfolk Chronicle reported:

THE COST OF THE WAR, as reported in the House of Commons was £8,742,000,000

It announced at the same time ‘A THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT THE CATHEDRAL’.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Sheringham and Beeston Regis

Sheringham and Beeston Regis memorial for both world wars is on The Boulevard, Sheringham. It was designed by H.H. Palmer, is Grade II listed and was originally unveiled in 1921 at a cost of £541 1s 8d.

George Bane, Lance Corporal, 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, died as a Prisoner of War in Mesopotamia on Tuesday, 5 September 1916. He was born in Southrepps and enlisted in Norwich.

Arthur Cook Bird, Private, Advanced Motor Transport Depot, Royal Army Service Corps, died in Mesopotamia on Sunday, 5 May 1918. He was born in West Bickham, Norfolk, resided in Sheringham and enlisted at Cromer. His wife, Jessie M. Bird, lived in South Street, Sheringham. He is buried in Iraq.

John Reginald Kempson, Midshipman, HMS Hawke, Royal Navy, was lost with his ship on Thursday, 15 October 1914. He was 17 years old. He has no known grave.

Herbert John Knights, Boy, 3rd Class HMS Ganges, Royal Navy, is listed as ‘dying from disease’ on Friday, 4 June 1915. He was born in 1898 in St Faith, Norfolk, and then lived in Beeston Road, Sheringham. He is buried in St Mary Churchyard, Shotley, Suffolk.

Robert Clarence Middleton, Stoker, HMS Hampshire, Royal Navy Reserve, died on Monday, 5 June 1916, aged twenty-two. His parents, Elizabeth and Henry, lived in Augusta Street, Sheringham. He has no known grave.

Douglas Wardleworth, Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps, was a doctor at Sheringham and died on 24 October 1914, aged thirty-four. He had married Mary Winifred in October 1910. He is buried in Le Havre, France.

CHAPTER 7

Cromer, Mundesley, North Walsham, Happisburgh, Sea Palling, Caister-on-Sea

Our way of getting an army to fight the German army is to declare war on the Germans just as if we had such an army, and then trust to the resultant appalling peril and disaster to drive us into wholesale enlistment.

George Bernard Shaw

Till quite recent years Cromer was known simply as a fishing village, occasionally resorted to by persons seeking absolute quiet, so that a writer no longer ago than 1866 called it ‘a paradise for clergy and old ladies’…Within the last ten years Cromer has grown far more rapidly than at any former period in its history... Among the most important and valuable improvements effected at Cromer of late years have been – lighting the town with gas; an effective system of sewerage; supplying the town with excellent spring water, derived from a well 400 feet deep; and the building of the Town and Temperance Halls.

Cromer air has an extraordinary effect upon the digestive organs of those not accustomed to such a bracing climate, but that effect is of the most satisfactory and gratifying character.

Hotel de Paris, Cromer, at the height of summer just prior to the conflict.

Hotel de Paris and Church of St Peter and St Paul today.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Cromer, showing the war memorial.

Both of the above quotes are from Jarrold’s Illustrated Guide to Cromer and Neighbourhood, 1902, Jarrold and Sons.

Henry Blogg and the Cromer Lifeboat

Traditional Fishers’ Song:

Come, messmates, ’tis time to hoist the sail,

It is fair as fair can be;

And the eddying tide, and the favouring gale

Will carry us out to sea.

So down from the boat from beach so steep,

We must part with the setting sun;

For ere we can spread our nets in the deep,

We’ve a weary way to run.

As through the night watches we drift about,

We’ll think of the times that are fled,

And of Him who once called other fishermen out,

To be fishers of men instead.

Like us they had hunger and cold to bear,

Rough weather, like us, they knew;

And He who guarded them by His care,

Full often was with them, too.

Around the coasts of Britain, the RNLI launched lifeboats 1,808 times between 1914 -18. Sometimes, of course, this would be a false alarm or, as the Eastern Daily Press of 9 October 1916 reported about one of Cromer’s lifeboats launches, something more mysterious:

‘The Cromer lifeboat had a fruitless trip on Friday night. At 8.30 a vessel but a few miles abreast of the town was observed burning flares fore and aft, and was evidently in need of immediate assistance, the lights being plainly seen by large numbers of residents who lined the approaches to the sea front. Shortly after the lifeboat was launched at nine o’clock the lights disappeared and although the lifeboatmen cruised about for four hours they found nothing.’

Cromer pier 1922.

A similar view of the pier today.

The Louisa Hartwell.

The catch in 1913 was a new record – here, mackerel is sold off on Cromer front for 1 penny each.

The Cromer lifeboat during the war years was the Louisa Hartwell, skippered by the legendary Henry Blogg who is still often referred to on this part of the coast as ‘one of the bravest men who ever lived’. His crew was not young, as was the case in all lifeboats in the country as the younger men were on other duties, most likely having enlisted: average age was over fifty. The Cromer boat was, at the time, launched from the open beach.

The Pyrin and Fernebo rescues

Seen here are the two halves of the wrecked ship Fernebo and the Pyrin , beached on the right of photograph. For the Fernebo rescue, Henry Blogg was awarded the RNLI Gold Medal.

The most famous rescue began on 9 January 1917 to aid a vessel just in sight off Cromer, the Pyrin. The Cromer men rowed to the vessel and managed to take off the crew. On safely reaching the beach they heard that another ship, the Fernebo, had struck a naval mine and was blown in two. A small boat, launched by the stricken crew from one half, managed to launch with some men but then capsized. With the heroic efforts of a human chain stretching out into the water, all these men made it safely on to the beach. The lifeboat set to relaunch immediately to assist the other half of the ship but was thrown back repeatedly by the ferocity of the waves. Eventually, although exhausted, the lifeboat crew reached the ‘half ship’, taking off the crew.

The Greek steamer SS Pyrin,19 January 1917.

Sculpture of Henry Blogg, overlooking the sea at Cromer.

Henry Blogg’s gallantry is without equal in the history of saving souls at sea and he is commemorated today at his museum in Cromer. In 1924 he was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal; in 1927 a gold watch and his crew a silver one for a rescue on Haisborough Sands; in 1932 he received a silver medal for saving thirty men and a dog from the Monte Nevoso – and a second silver medal from the Canine Defence League; in 1941 he gained the British Empire Medal and at the same time his Empire Gallantry Medal of 1924 was changed to the George Cross.

When not manning the boats, Henry Blogg was a crab fisherman and also ran a business hiring out deckchairs from the beach. He died on 13 June 1954 and his sculpture today suitably commands the finest views from the top of the cliffs over the pier and the vast Norfolk seas.

In June 2016 a project was completed to place the hull of the boat he used for crab fishing in the 1930s, the intriguingly named QJ and J, alongside his memorial on North Lodge Park. A 90-ton crane was used to place the hull. The Eastern Daily Press reported that £10,000 had been raised to cover the costs.

How was life in Cromer?

Cromer vista looking towards the town centre, church and pier, on a sunny day, 1902.

The same Cromer vista today.

Jetty Street, Cromer, date uncertain but probably early 1900s.

Jetty Street, Cromer, today.

At first, there was optimism that the war would soon be over and that the holiday season, essential to the town’s economy, would resume after a short hiatus. In early July, the Eastern Daily Press was pressing the resort’s case as the place for a fine holiday:

Cromer – A haunt of ancient peace some call it, a health and holiday resort which all recognise nature has given of her best to make it a pleasant spot in which to stay. Its sea frontage has a nice length of promenade, and a pier free from anything in the nature of advertisements. The pavilion is the season home of an orchestral band, and in the town itself provision by private enterprise of cinema entertainments will be a feature in the season months.

There were no shortages of adverts in the local press encouraging people to spend their money:

‘Waverley Cigarettes 10 for 3d.’

‘Nitvite - The Premier Wine Food of the World Unrivalled for Anaemia, Weakness, Nervousness, and Want of Energy. Enriches the blood, invaluable for Convalescents and recommended by Physicians.’

‘Overland (1914) There are more Overlands sold than any other Standard Touring Car in the world. Five seated touring car with full equipment, including Electric Lights and Gray and Davis Electric Engine Starter £275.’

On 16 July the East Anglian Horticultural Club ran an advertisement for a ‘SPECIAL TRAIN to Liverpool Street for Royal Gardens, Kew and National Sweet Pea Show. Return fare 7s’.

Dating journals continued: ‘DON’T MARRY A GERMAN. But don’t let the Germans stop you getting married. Many happy marriages have been brought about by THE MATRIMONIAL CIRCLE, an introductory journal containing hundreds of GENUINE advertisements.’

At this time the town was still enjoying its entertainments. On 2 July the local paper suggested: ‘Wellington Pier Gardens. Today at 11.15 3.15 and 7.45. The Artists. Every Artist an Artiste: admission to Pier 2d; Day tickets 3d; Front seats 3d extra… Roller Skating, Band in attendance.’

‘Aquarium Tonight at 8 The World’s Greatest Conjurer, Chung Ling Soo in a Performance of Oriental Splendour and Weird Mysteries.’

By 4 August the mood had changed and the war was very much on citizens’ minds as the Eastern Daily Press reported: ‘Cromer and Sheringham send their national quota to the national call...There was great applause on Cromer Pier on Sunday night when the Royal Italian Band...played the national anthem.’

Church Street Cromer, 1900.

Church Street Cromer today, looking towards the church and town centre: the Albion pub is still there on the right and the shops and buildings are the same, although they have changed use.

Trade went on as well as could be expected. The Eastern Daily Press carried an advert on 1 February 1916 reminding people that car purchase was quite possible, in case they should feel disinclined. There was a reminder of ‘AN IDEAL REALISED. A STATEMENT MADE BY HENRY FORD just 12 short years ago: “I shall make a car for the multitude...” Town Car £185 Four seater £135. Delivery Van £130. Two-seater £125. Service in Cromer, Dereham, Fakenham, Norwich, Stalham, Thetford and Great Yarmouth’.

Shows continued and serving troops were often offered a special deal. The Norfolk Chronicle of Friday, 23 March 1917 advertised: ‘OLYMPIAN GARDENS, CROMER “The Royal Scarlet Entertainers”... Front seats 1s 8d...Men in uniform to Back Seats only 4d’.

Eating less

Guesthouses and hotels were, by December 1915, required to restrict the eating habits of their patrons as reported in the local papers: ‘LIGHTER MEALS. THE RESTRICTED MENUS. The Regulation of Meals Order came into operation yesterday, for in the interests of economy and to safeguard our food supply we are required to eat less.’ Two-course breakfasts and luncheons and three-course dinners were the order of the day in all hotels and restaurants while some hotels put on half menus.

The courts

The courts continued to be busy and the following cases were reported in the Eastern Daily Press in 1914:

Norfolk Quarter sessions, Fowl-stealing charges. John Henry Crittoph, Baker, pleaded not guilty to stealing 25 game fowls, property of Ernest Edward Fish of Scottow. Prosecutor said he missed the fowls on Feb 8 from their portable fowl houses...The leather hinge of one of the doors had been cut through...Mr Dodson to witness – ‘Anyhow, they were not in the habit of tearing the hinges off the doors of their huts’ (laughter). Witness ‘No’. Robert Lee said he saw the 25 fowls in a cart covered with a net. Prisoner said he had bought the fowls from a man in Ber Street, Norwich. The Jury returned the verdict that the prisoner was not guilty of stealing the fowls, but of receiving them knowing them to have been stolen. Prisoner was sentenced to six weeks with hard labour.

Frederick Charles Barber, chauffeur, Cromer, was summoned for driving a motor at a speed dangerous to the public in Church Street. From the evidence of Inspector William Pile, it appeared that seeing defendant driving fast, he called for him to stop. He put the pace at about twenty miles an hour. There were pedestrians about at the time. Defendant said that his car was six years old and noisy. He put his speed at about ten miles an hour...The Chairman said that the magistrates were unanimously of the opinion that the case was proved. Defendant would be fined 10s with 10s costs.

A WARNING TO SUFFIELD PARK. Two brothers were accused of breaking a pane of glass in the old Post Office...They admitted it...Bench decided not to convict but ordered the father to pay 11s 6d for the damage. They also strongly advised him to correct the boys in their future conduct.

Once the conflict began, the courts had cases of a new nature to consider. The following details were given in the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette of Friday, 23 July 1915:

CROMER PETTY SESSIONS. UNSHADED LIGHTS AT MUNDESLEY. Alice Powell of the Clarence Hotel, Mundesley, was summoned for failing to effectively obscure lights on June 20...Special Constable gave corroborative evidence...fault of servant...Fined £2 including costs.

Jarrold’s store, Cromer, 1922.

Jarrold’s store today.

James Francis Dennis summoned for failing to put out a light at the Grand Hotel, Cromer on night of July 3...About 11.30 pm...military observer saw bright light which could be seen out to sea. Called for it to be put out three time but no result so threatened to put a bullet through the window...arrested defendant who said it had only been on for a few seconds while he went to pull down the blind...Fined 15s with 4s costs.

War Tribunals

The War Tribunals sat throughout the war. Whilst initially unsympathetic to able-bodied young men who chose simply not to fight, the hearings were prepared to be flexible for businessmen or in the cases of a person who chose to take on ‘pacifist’ military duties. In fact, as the war progressed, being a conscientious objector carried less of a stigma as the reasons behind it became more generally understood, taking the lead from some prominent cases in London.

The Eastern Daily Press of 19 July 1915 carried the following reports:

CROMER TRIBUNAL: SINGLE MAN’S RESPONSIBILITIES. An appellant, who had had one period of exemption, applied on the grounds of financial and domestic hardship. He was single...but had a mother and sister totally dependent on him...He also had a business and had tried hard to get someone to manage it. Captain Williams: ‘I want this single man; it causes much ill feeling when we take married men of 40 with families and leave single men. I think the Tribunal has been exceedingly kind to him.’ Exemption was refused.

A Cromer firm renewed its application for a man ‘absolutely indispensable’ to be exempted. Mr C.J. Parker said that they must bear in mind that rates and taxes must be paid and if they took this man the business might collapse. Common sense was needed. Conditional exemption was granted.

Conscientious objector produced letter to show he had been offered work under the supervision of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit but he could not accept fighting. There was no pay in the job. He was granted exemption provided he started work within 14 days.

YOUNG MAN’S BIG FAMILY. A travelling hawker, who was represented by his mother, was stated to be aged 23 and to have wife and 8 children dependent on him. His wife had 6 when they married. The application was refused but, to help him sell his ponies etc, the military agreed not to call him up for a fortnight.

A Leatheringsett miller, who applied for his assistant, said he had tried in various places to get an assistant, but had not succeeded. Mr Farmer: ‘Why don’t you advertise? The “Eastern Daily Press” gets to a lot of places you cannot get to’. (Decision not recorded).

The Norfolk Chronicle carried a story: ‘CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR ARRESTED. Cyril Storey, cabinet maker, having failed to report...The Chairman said: ‘You will be handed over to the Military authorities and you will have to pay a fine.’

Not everyone was convinced that a war should be fought. A lively situation was reported – it was in Norwich – by the Eastern Daily Press in the edition of Tuesday, 1 February 1916:

MR EDWARD GRUBB REFUSED A HEARING. There were disorderly scenes at the Friends Meeting House yesterday when Mr Edward Grubb was announced to give a lunch hour talk on ‘The Overcoming of Evil’....Chairman failed to open the meeting drowned out by a number of soldiers...Mr T.W. Hayes shouted ‘This is a hotbed of shirkers, slackers and Quakers’....At this point electric snuff set a number of the audience sneezing...and the chairman closed the meeting...

The Royal Cromer Golf Club during the war

The Royal Cromer Golf Club was founded in 1888 and thrived, partly due to the patronage of Edward VII. However, when war came it faced obstacles, both financial and practical and the way it progressed through these, whilst at the same time ‘doing its bit’ for the war effort, makes a fascinating small study, not untypical of other sporting clubs. The club managed to survive and thrives today but some, including Norwich Football Club, which was driven into administration by the war, were not so fortunate.

It became quickly apparent that financial problems loomed, especially as it owed money to the bank. The committee proposed economies, even reducing the course to nine holes and laying off some staff. The debenture holders agreed to waive their interest and Lord Suffield agreed to a reduction in rent. The secretary offered to reduce his salary to £100; later he waived it altogether. All this notwithstanding, £75 was raised for the Prince of Wales National Relief Fund.

There was at the same time a reduction in membership, subscriptions and green fees, and by September 1915 the situation looked dire. Debts were over £2,000. Should the club be wound up? This idea was rejected as a few members volunteered financial help and, with this, it was felt that the club could go on for a couple of years. In 1917 the committee had talks with the Norfolk War Agricultural Committee, who wished to have part of the course ploughed up for cereals. The following year, an acreage at the Overstrand end of the course was given over to crops. In 1918 the practice course was similarly utilised, although this led to some friction with the military who were using that land at the time. A compromise was the order of the day.

In the event of invasion at Mundesley

All settlements on the coast were given specific instructions by December 1914 on how to evacuate, and which routes to use, in the event of invasion. In the case of Mundesley the way would pass through Trunch, Bradfield, Antingham, Felmingham, Skeyton and Mayton Bridges. Use of ‘main’ roads was forbidden as these would be needed for the troops. The list of instructions was, understandably, a little imprecise. No livestock was to be taken, neither was it to be destroyed – presumably to be left where it was. Everyone should take some food and water but no ‘unnecessary items’. Motors were to be either taken or destroyed at the behest of the military authorities. Nothing ‘of use to the invaders’ was to be left.

By early 1915 everywhere on the coast had been given specific instructions as to where to head for – Yarmouth, for example, was to direct civilians to Norwich; people in Holt were to go to Kings Lynn, while Loddon folk were instructed to travel to several places including Norwich and Thetford.

Rough Riders at Happisburgh

Many of the so-named ‘Rough Riders’ were stationed in private homes in Happisburgh where a great deal of trench digging and other defensive work originated. Despite this, only one bomb was ever dropped in the area – at Walcott Hall where it killed two horses. Ninety-three men served from Happisburgh, of whom eighty-three came home safely.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Cromer

The memorial stands in the grounds of Cromer Parish Church.

David Cecil Charles Dudley, Corporal, 1st/4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, was killed in action in France and Flanders on 19 May 1916. He was born in Cromer and lived at Heath House. He is buried in Doullens Communal Cemetery, Somme, France.

Alfred Lennox Fenner, Lieutenant-Commander, HM Submarine K4, Royal Navy, died on 31 January 1918, aged thirty-one. He was born in Cromer and died in controversial circumstances when his submarine sank in the Firth of Forth: apparently here was a tragic lack of communication between submarines and trawlers.

John Harbord MC, Captain, Norfolk Yeomanry, died on 10 July 1918 of wounds acquired near Nieppe Forest four days earlier. His parents, Philip and Elinor, lived at Northwold Lodge, Brandon. He is buried in Sangatte, Pas de Calais, France.

Plaque paying tribute to the Gurkha soldiers in both wars.

Lt-Commander Alfred Fenner, who was brought up in Cromer where his father was a doctor.

George William Needs, Lance Sergeant, 1/5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, was killed in Gallipoli on 12 August 1915, aged twenty-eight. He was born in Kings Lynn and enlisted at West Newton, Norfolk. His parents lived in Alfred Road, Cromer. He is buried in Turkey.

Oliver Crossley Rayner, Captain ‘A’ Company, 3rd Battalion, Manchester Regiment, was killed in action on 18 November 1916, aged twenty-three. He was the son of the Hon Sir Crossley Rayner, who had been Chief Justice of British Guiana, and Lady Rayner. He is commemorated on Thieval Memorial, Somme, France.

Arthur Benjamin Royall, Private ‘A’ Company, 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action in France and Flanders on 26 September 1917, aged nineteen. He was born and enlisted in Cromer and his parents lived in Cabbell Road. He is commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.

Mundesley

The memorial for the Great War and Second World War is to be found in the church. There are twenty-seven names listed for the Great War and fifteen names for the Second World War.

Bertie George Gotts, Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, died on Saturday, 5 January 1918, aged thirty-seven. He was born in Mundesley and enlisted in Norwich. He was married to Rosie Gotts. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Douglas Lambert, Second Lieutenant, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), was killed in action on 13 October 1915. He had a twin brother, Percy, who also lived in Mundesley. He has no known grave.

Alfred John Matthews, Bombadier, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action on 1 October 1916. He was born in Mundesley and enlisted in Norwich. He is buried in Pas de Calais, France.

Great Walsingham

The memorial is in the churchyard.

Albert James Bullen, Private, 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed in action on 25 September 1917, aged nineteen. He was born and raised in Walsingham and enlisted in Norwich on 18 October 1916. He is buried in Ypres.

Charles Ernest Shepherd, Gunner, HMS Vanguard, Royal Navy, died on Monday, 9 July 1917, aged thirty. He was an agricultural worker and is commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Southsea, Hampshire.

CHAPTER 8

Great Yarmouth, Gorleston-on-Sea and Coastal Settlements to the South, Harwich

We’re telling lies; we know we’re telling lies...

Harold Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere, chairman of Associated Newspapers

Yarmouth is an ancient town that has been put into modern dress and made a city beautiful by the sea. It caters for the millions and rejoices in its spaciousness...The largest East Anglian coast town, it can do things on a grand scale, and knows how to do them well. It has sheltered visitors by the tens of thousands, and given them jollity and good company...

Eastern Daily Press, 1914

That Great Yarmouth was a popular centre for the holiday trade is apparent from the letters column of the local press. On 29 July 1914, the Eastern Daily Press carried this complaint:

ROWDY TRIPPERS AT YARMOUTH Sir, I have been spending a fortnight in Yarmouth for a rest and holiday after a very busy year in London. On my arrival there I thought I had found an ideal place for rest and comfort. I was, however, soon to be undeceived, as at 1.30 in the morning I was awakened by what very well might have been a crowd of escaped lunatics or a victorious invasion by the Germans...Needless to say, I shall never spend a holiday again at Yarmouth.

War Memorial, Great Yarmouth.

Detail of War Memorial, Great Yarmouth.

Market and Palmers department store, Great Yarmouth, c.1920.

Great Yarmouth Market today, showing Palmers department store.

The Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth claims to be the largest parish church in England.

The next day carried the comments:

Sir, one is rather surprised that Dr De Morgan expected to find Yarmouth an ideal place for a rest in midJuly...Nonetheless the authorities might do something to stop these orgies that give the town a bad name. The other afternoon in Regents Street, between four and five, I saw and heard a party of young women, old enough to know better, making a hideous noise with trumpets.

Fishermen bring in their nets to the Minster Church of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, for blessing, c.1900.

Glass window dedicated to the Norfolk Regiment, Minster Church of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth.

On 4 August, as people hurried to the seaside, the Eastern Daily Press carried a mixed report including a problem with insects, a change in mood and a tragic death:

DANGERS OF GNAT BITES SERIOUS RESULTS FROM ATTACKS OF SUMMER INSECTS. The war cloud in Europe did not appear to have given any check to the number of excursionists who poured yesterday into Yarmouth by rail from London, the Eastern Counties and from still farther afield, who took their pleasures in the accustomed fashion on the beach and front. To some it even appeared that the influx marked a new record. It was, however, to be noted that as the crowds surged through Regent St, all stopped to read the war bulletins shown at our office, and it was the one theme of conversation, as they passed...In the morning there was a tragic episode, one bathing visitor being drowned off the North Beach. While another had a narrow escape, and was only restored by artificial respiration.

Happisburgh lifeboat, the Jacob and Rachel Valentine (1907-26). On 17 January 1917, she rescued fifteen men from the SS Edenwood.

Nannies on Gorleston pier (now gone), early 1900s.

Great Yarmouth Air Station

There was a warning on the same day:

OHMS IMPORTANT NOTICE. All persons are hereby warned that all Naval and Military Sentries at, and in the vicinity of, the R.N. Air Station, Great Yarmouth and on the Foreshore both to the Northward and the Southward of the Air Station, HAVE ORDERS TO CHALLENGE ONCE AND IF NOT INSTANTLY OBEYED TO FIRE. The order to halt must be immediately obeyed.

The evidence of the Great Yarmouth Air Station, in the form of derelict buildings, can still be seen today. It was situated in an area known as South Denes, which is about a mile from the pleasure beach. Opened in 1913, it was basically a sea plane station designed to protect this area from Zeppelin attack. The first Zeppelin to be shot down by a machine from Yarmouth was the L21 on 27 November 1916. There were thirty machines here at its peak and it also helped with submarine detection. The station was finally closed in 1920.

Market Place, Great Yarmouth, probably 1900s. The spire of the Minster Church of St Nicholas, which can be seen in the background was destroyed by enemy action in 1942.

Yarmouth Market today with the Minster Church of St Nicholas in the background.

Crime

The courts had their work to do, as usual. On 11 July 1914 the local press carried this report:

A BLACK EYE CASE DISMISSED. Ethel Fountain, Row 123, was summoned for assaulting Charlotte Clarke, also Row 123, of Middlegate Street on Saturday night as she was leaving the Magdala Tavern in Middlegate Street. Complainant suffered slapped face and black eye. Two witnesses said complainant was worse for drink and magistrates dismissed the case.

On 30 July there were these reports:

CONVICTED HIMSELF. William J Mountain was charged with being in a bedroom at the Duke of York, George St, for a supposed unlawful purpose...Prisoner found under bed and told to come out...On Wednesday morning prisoner said ‘I met a young lady outside the public house. She said to me “You go upstairs and I will come to you”. I was waiting for her arrival and the landlord came. I don’t know the young woman. She is a stranger to me.’ The Mayor said he had convicted himself and was sent to hard labour for seven days.

Shopping and tram in Great Yarmouth, c.1914.

STRANGE THREATS TO A WIFE.

Frederick John Brewer, chip potato merchant, North Market Road, was summoned for threatening his wife. Sergeant Buckle said that as soon as he served the defendant with the summons, he tore it up...Defendant was bound over to keep the peace...He was also ordered to pay the costs or face seven days in goal...Asked if he was going to pay the costs, he told the Court Officer to draw it out of the poor box.

This report appeared in the Eastern Daily Press of 1 February 1916:

BAD CHARACTER COMMITTED. Beatrice Swan, single, North Beach, Lowestoft, was summoned for loitering and importuning passengers in High Street...Police Constable Ribbons...said that at 11.10 pm defendant accosted two men in Naval uniform...Later on defendant was in company of naval man in St Peter’s Street...Defendant said the gentleman she was with she was going to marry... Detective White said he had known the defendant for eight years. She obtained her living by adopting a certain mode of life...several previous convictions reported...Superintendent Page said that these women were a serious threat to the forces... The Mayor said the defendant would go to prison for 14 days.

Edwardians testing the ocean temperature, Great Yarmouth, 1913.

Great Yarmouth and Zeppelins

At the outset, any German attacks were basically nuisance raids or else designed to bring the Royal Navy to action. The Germans in 1914 were far from agreed on how to use them. Bombers? Most thought bombing was the job of planes. Also the use of Zeppelins for destructive missions was opposed by the kaiser who did not want to harm historical buildings or risk the lives of members of Royal Family. This is not so surprising as the British, German and Russian Royal families were all related. The kaiser was forced, however, to change his position as the war progressed.

The British response to the kaiser’s airships: Pulham St Mary in Norfolk was a key development centre. This is Rigids at Pulham by Sir John Lavery, 1918.

Certain raids were sanctioned, though. The first Zeppelin incursion was on 19 January 1915 by airships L.3, L.4 and L.6. One of them, L.6, was forced to turn back due to mechanical trouble and the others were meant to bomb the Humber but decided to go for easier pickings. Yarmouth was clearly lit and the commander of L.3, Kapitanleutnant Fritz, took a line from the Happisburgh Lighthouse – as did many others afterwards – and dropped his bombs there. How many? This is not known for sure, perhaps seven, but one fell in the Haven. No military targets – including submarine bases – were hit. Fifty-three-year-old Samuel Smith, cobbler, and 73-year old Martha Taylor were the victims.

It has already been said that many ridiculed the attacks by the enemy. Not everyone, however, took the same view. The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette of Friday, 23 April 1915 reported:

THE ZEPPELIN RAIDS – THE ADVICE OF MR ARTHUR FELL MP. Writing under the date 17 April from Yarmouth to The Times Mr Arthur Fell, the popular member for the Borough, says ‘Sirs, I am sorry to note the general tone of the comments on the two recent Zeppelin raids on this country. They have been described as fiascos and the small amount of damage that was done has been commented on and they have been more or less ridiculed. I fancy our enemies will have a very different view of them...They have learnt that they can easily visit these shores in favourable weather, stay as many hours as they like, and return to Germany uninjured. They have learnt that for some reason they are not attacked here...’

Flt Sub Lieut GWR Fane. He was one of the team which shot down Airship L21 just east of Great Yarmouth. He reported seeing the top gunner fall out of the sky just before the whole ship became a blazing wreck and fell into the sea.

A watercolour by Felix Schwormstadt showing the rear internal gondola of a German Zeppelin after a successful raid on England, 1917.

English propaganda postcard: The End of the ‘Baby Killer’.

Throughout the war there were extraordinary successes from a military point of view which thrilled the general public at home and raised morale. One such was on 28 November 1916 when the L.21, one of a force of ten airships dispatched to bomb the Midlands – which they did with very limited success – found itself over the coast at Great Yarmouth. Exactly why it was there cannot be determined with certainty. Did Kapitainleutenant Frankenberg lose his way? Did the engines play up? We cannot be sure but by the time he had meandered towards the coast, three naval B.E.2c aircraft were on his tail. They were flown by Flight Lieutenant Egbert Cadbury, Flight Sub-Lieutenant G.W.R. Fane and Flight Lieutenant E.L. Pulling. Fane attempted to close on the airship on the starboard side, but his Lewis gun jammed. He then attempted to rise above the ship in order to bomb it. Pulling began firing at about 50 feet below the ship but his gun also jammed. Meanwhile, however, Cadbury emptied four drums of ammunition into the body of the airship from about 700 yards below and closing. The L.21 became a blazing fireball, which dropped into the ocean, killing everyone on board.

North Quay, Great Yarmouth, just prior to the war.

Attack by ships

On 26 April 1915, Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer decided on a joint German attack on both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. He regarded both as legitimate targets of war on account of the mine-laying and submarine activities of the towns, as well as the fact that they housed a good number of sailors and soldiers. Part of the plan was also likely to have been to draw the British ships out in a trap as they would have found the High Seas Fleet waiting. This strategic part of the plan did not work, but in Lowestoft a ship was sunk and four people, including a child, were killed whilst at Yarmouth, most shells cleared the town and landed harmlessly. The Harwich force, under Reginald Tyrwhitt, did suffer some damage when HMS Penelope was hit in the stern by a torpedo but, even then, they managed to limp home.

The old docks, Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth.

Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth, today.

The attacks caused great consternation in the two towns with the result that Lowestoft received a guardship in the form of HMS Havelock and Yarmouth, HMS Roberts. Great Yarmouth was ineffectually attacked by German destroyers again on 15 January 1918. British ships did tardily set out from Harwich in pursuit but the enemy ships were long gone.

HARWICH

It is not possible to tell the complete story of the Norfolk or Suffolk coasts during the war without also looking at the activities centred on the towns to the south as far as Shoeburyness and Thameshaven. The whole coastline, principally from Weybourne to the London Defence Position, was seen as potentially vulnerable. And along this coast, by far the most important naval base was Harwich.

Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt was commander of the Harwich Force throughout the entire four years of war. He was an exceptional seaman, bold and proactive, who knew exactly what a ship was capable of and tolerated no nonsense from those who did not. He required complete dedication from his officers, going so far as to ban wives from living with the officers in order to keep distractions to a minimum – at least until his own wife put her foot down in 1916 and insisted on moving from Portsmouth to Harwich as she rarely saw her husband.

There was already a large fleet at Harwich when war broke out, including over sixty destroyers and a dozen submarines. These were joined in 1914 by the 1st and 3rd Destroyer Flotillas, which included the Amphion and Commander Tyrwitt’s flagship, Amethyst, both of which would soon be in the thick of the action. Some of the fleet was already seen as obsolete, including the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue.

Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt (1870-1951) by Francis Dodd.

The Harwich Force was held in reserve in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. There was a good reason for this as the Admiralty thought that a second attack might be made farther south in the North Sea. Nonetheless, some people at the time, as well as historians since, could not help wondering what might have become of Admiral Scheer, who was controversially able to claim a German victory, had Tyrwhitt been released to join in the attack.

Fishing Smacks

Fishing smacks, as already seen, were a vital part of Britain’s defences, the U-boats seeing them as such and thus as legitimate prey. In August 1915 one of the smack-owners, F.W. Moxey, suggested that some smacks be fitted with a hidden gun and this was taken up by a number of them. Very soon, the German submarine UB.4 had a nasty surprise when it surfaced and ordered the Inverylon to prepare for boarding. Skipper Phillips ordered that the White Ensign be raised and the ship’s 3pdr. gun was brought into play, bullets hitting the conning tower. UB.4 dived but it was too late: all crew were lost. For this action Skipper Phillips was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Thereafter many smacks claimed, often quite improbably, to have sunk U-boats but only a handful of incidents were accepted by the Admiralty, resulting in substantial financial rewards to the skippers and crews. The drama was irresistible, however, to the press and illustrators of books of what today we might call ‘The Boys Own’ variety and an enduring legend of the small smack crew defying the mighty Hun was born. This was very effective propaganda.

In 1916 some of the smacks were given engines and it was now common practice to jiggle the names and numbers on the hull. F.W. Moxey, for example, sailed on a smack that was named successively G&E, Bird, Nelson, I’ll Try, Foam Crest and Extirpator. An example of claims that turned out to be unfounded came in February 1917, just after the German High Command had given the order to henceforth sink any smacks or other boats without prior warning. I’ll Try and Boy Alfred claimed to have sunk two submarines in the North Sea. Tom Crisp, later to become one of the legendary VCs of the war, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in this action. Both submarines in question were to turn up in later actions.

Submarines and changing tactics

British submarines – ‘damned un-English weapons’ thought some – went out from many Norfolk coastal stations, including Gorleston. The Germans laid a series of mines, one of which saw to submarine D5 – twenty-one men were lost but a dozen survived, rescued by two steam drifters, the Faithful and the Homeland. The skippers, J. Collin and A. Jenner, respectively, were both awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal. There was controversy about the mine, the charge being that it was not a German but a British one that saw to the D5: the line of mines laid by the British from Goodwin Sands to Ostend were thought to have inefficient moorings and to have drifted into the North Sea. Three other drifters also went down with all hands on the same day. The press was not encouraged to say anything about this, but some of the sailors in the region subsequently voiced this opinion.

A variety of attempts were made to enable an armed trawler and submarine to work together. One such was when a submarine would be towed, at all times invisible under the surface, by a trawler, both vessels being connected by a telephone line. If necessary, the telephone line could be cut allowing the submarine to act on its own. This had some success at the start of hostilities before being made known to the Germans when it was dropped. Sometimes submarines were sunk by ships, occasionally by accidentally colliding with a friendly vessel and, on many occasions, by unknown factors. Some of the twenty-three boats lost to Harwich in the war, for example, simply went to sea and never came back. It is not recorded what happened to them.

Conditions aboard submarines were appalling – sanitation was non-existent (a bucket); conditions were painfully cramped; and the air, after ten days at sea, very unhealthy. Lack of any kind of exercise, indeed of reasonable movement for arms, legs and the body, meant that many men suffered painful constipation. When on land, efforts were made to provide entertainment, exercise and good food – sports and games were popular. The men knew that the next trip might easily be their last.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Swaffham. In the east graveyard lies Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, VC, Bart, a controversial figure, who acted as an advisor on strategy to Winston Churchill throughout the war. He championed the development of Britain’s submarines.

Interior of an E class submarine, 1916.

Seaplanes and Great Yarmouth

The development of the seaplane bears a debt to one man in particular, John Porte. Previously with the Royal Naval Air Service before being invalided out, he became a pilot for the Curtiss Company of America, a company which made flying boats. The first twelve ordered by the Royal Navy were of the Curtiss H-4 design, which was found to have handling problems, partially rectified in the new H-8. This, however, was greatly underpowered when tested in 1916 and so Porte had the idea of replacing the engines with 250hp Rolls Royce Eagles. The Royal Navy was impressed and ordered a large quantity of these new H-12s, as they were referred to.

John Porte and his second prototype of the Wanamaker seaplane, June 1914.

The first of these was delivered to the RNAS Great Yarmouth in April 1917, and thereafter patrols over shipping lanes looking for U-boats became much more effective. There were, however, particular problems carrying out operations from Great Yarmouth as the aircraft had to operate from the often rough open sea which was hazardous.

Two pilots – Captain Albert Ball and Henry Montgomery Scott Pillow

Initially, it was thought that the best flyers should be spread out to encourage best practice. One of the most famous of these was the young flyer, Captain Albert Ball, DSO, MC who, on 4 October, was sent to Orfordness. His time, however, was not happy as he constantly sought to return to active fighting. It is true that the Experimental Flying Section, of which he was a part, took part in the downing of the L.48 on the night of the 16 June 1917, a month after his own death and so it cannot be said that the training was of no use. However, his badgering had paid off three months before this and he was allowed back to action. He lasted just another month, but this was at a time when many new pilots lasted a mere number of days. He became a romantic symbol, not unlike the poet Rupert Brooke, of a handsome young man, the flower of the country’s youth, doing his duty and giving his life for England.

The Last Flight of Captain Ball, VC, DSO and 2 Bars, MC 7 May 1917 by Norman Arnold.

Captain Albert Ball.

Henry Montgomery Scott Pillow was born in Castle Meadow, Norwich, and at the beginning of the war was training as a dentist. Having been previously attached to the Royal Fusiliers, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and underwent advanced training at Wyton. He was posted to 7 Squadron near Ypres on 30 July 1917. On 13 October he was attacked by three German machines, evaded two of them but was hit by the third. He managed to crash land on allied territory but died half an hour later. He is buried just outside Poperinge. He survived less than three months as a pilot.

Loddon

Loddon is a small village, inland from the coast and about 12 miles south east of Norwich. The war memorial stands in front of the striking church of the Holy Trinity. It bears the name of the Cadge brothers and inside is a marble memorial to them. They were the sons of Edward, a local solicitor, and Caroline Emma Cadge of Bank House, Loddon.

Loddon and the Cheshire Yeomanry

Loddon was also chosen as the barracks for the Cheshire Yeomanry in October 1914. In December 1914 the Cheshire Observer gave this report of the detailed work entailed in erection of the barracks:

The Church of the Holy Trinity, Loddon.

Detail of war memorial, Holy Trinity Church, Loddon. Note the names of the Cadge brothers, upper left (see photograph of plaque to their memory in Loddon Church).

Monument to Francis and William Cadge in Loddon Church.

CHESHIRE YEOMANRY IN WINTER QUARTERS AT

LANGLEY PARK

COMFORTS IN WOODEN HUTS.

Langley Park, near Norwich, 7 December

One squadron (A) of the Cheshire Yeomanry are now housed in huts at Langley Park, while it is expected that B squadron, on their arrival back from Yarmouth on Tuesday next, will proceed to the huts also, and take up residence in the wooden barracks. The remainder of the regiment, C Squadron, are living in barns etc in the vicinity of the park, until the huts are completed. It is expected that the whole of the regiment will be in residence in the huts in about a fortnight, and then the regiment can enjoy the Christmas festivities, and meet again after about six weeks’ separation. Several of our old pals from Chester we have not seen for weeks, it will be a grand reunion when we meet together again, practically under one roof. Trumpet-Major Mayers, who has the construction of the huts in hand, explains that our quarters, when finished, will consist of 17 stables, each 30 yards long by 10 feet wide, fitted up with zinc mangers and open at one side, the open side being covered with tarpaulin sheets at night to protect the horses from the weather. Each troop will have its own stable. The men will be housed one troop in a hut, 90 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 18 feet high, heated by two stoves and lighted by two candle power naptha lamps. The beds consist of three 10 inch planks, 6 feet 6 inches long, on a trestle raised 9 inches off the ground, each man providing his own ‘spring mattress’, which consists of a case filled with either straw or wheat chaff. The men’s huts are made to look very comfortable. One half is given up to sleeping accommodation, while the other half is used as a dining room etc, fitted up with tables and forms, and also 10 deck chairs per hut. There are also food cupboards, shelving and rifle racks, which make it very convenient for the men to keep their kit, arms and equipment…There is also a recreation room, 150 feet long by 28 feet wide, and a bath house, containing 60 washbasins and 10 baths, fitted up with hot and cold water. There is also a drying room, where men can dry their clothes, and this will be much appreciated by us all. We also have cook house, 60 feet long by 30 feet wide, fitted up with two Army cooking ranges with cooking capacity for 1,000 men. One and a half miles of piping has been laid to bring water from a well at Langley Hall. In addition to other conveniences we have a miniature railway, 2½ feet gauge, used for the conveyance of supplies to various portions of our wooden barracks. The huts are situated in a beautiful portion of the park adjoining a charming country road.

SOME LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Great Yarmouth

The memorial is in St George’s Park, Great Yarmouth. It was unveiled in 1922 at a cost of £4,000.

Sidney Frank Alexander, Sergeant, 9th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, 14th Division, was killed at Ypres on 24 August 1917, aged twenty-three. He enlisted in Great Yarmouth where his parents lived in Kitchener Road. He has no known grave.

John James Amis, Second Hand, HM Trawler Nadine, Royal Naval Reserve, died with nine other men when his ship was mined off the Thames Estuary on 1 September 1915. His parents lived in Bradwell and his wife, Elizabeth Charlotte, lived in Suffield Road, Gorleston. He was thirty-six and has no known grave.

Alfred Edis, Air Mechanic, 1st Class, HMS Louvain, Royal Naval Air Service, died on 20 January 1918 when his ship was torpedoed by UC 22 in the Aegean. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial.

Frederick George Key, Officer Steward 2nd Class, HMS Alecto, Royal Navy, died of influenza at home on 8 March 1919, aged twenty-five. He was the husband of Ruby Hilda Key who lived in Gordon Road, Great Yarmouth.

Walter Thomas Payne, Deck Hand, HM Drifter ‘Moss’, Royal Naval Reserve, died with five others when his ship was damaged during the raid on Lowestoft 25 April 1916. He is buried in Gorleston Cemetery.

Frederick William Read, Stoker, HMS Aboukir, Royal Naval Reserve, died when the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue were sunk by U9 on 22 September 1914. He has no known grave.

George Charles Ward, Gunner, ‘B’ Battery, 181st Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action on 1 May 1917, aged thirty-one. His wife, Rosa, lived in St Nicholas Road, Great Yarmouth.

Henry John Yeates, Gunner, ‘C’ Battery, 256th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action on 7 July 1918, aged twenty-eight. His parents lived in Great Yarmouth. He is buried in France.

CHAPTER 9

Out at Sea

...there are only two divisions in the world today – human beings and Germans

Rudyard Kipling, 22 June 1915

There were some incredible examples of service and heroism out at sea.

The legend of Tom Crisp VC

Tom Crisp was the East Anglian skipper of the smack Nelson and he was in the North Sea on 15 August 1917 with the fishing smack Ethel and Millie when he saw a U-boat about 3 or 4 miles distant. His crew immediately went into action stations, manning their 13pdr gun. They were, however, no match in range for the gun of the U-Boat UC.63, which, after several shots finding range, tore a hole in the smack’s wooden bow. Another shot passed through Tom Crisp’s body and, although falling to the deck mortally wounded, he kept command, giving the helm to his son, also called Tom. He ordered confidential books to be thrown overboard and released the ship’s pigeons with the message, ‘Nelson being attacked by submarine, skipper killed. Jim Howe Bank. Send assistance at once.’ Meanwhile the crew had kept firing back, ineffectually as the submarine was out of range, and were now about to run out of ammunition. Their small life boat was lowered and son Tom tried to manoeuvre his father on board. ‘No, throw me overboard, I’m done for,’ his father said. The crew watched from the boat as Tom Crisp sank with his smack.

Thomas Crisp, VC.

The U-boat then shelled the Ethel and Millie, which received a direct hit. The crew were picked up and an explosive charge put aboard the smack by the German sailors (this was the usual method of sinking captured ships as torpedoes were far too expensive to waste). What happened next has never been satisfactorily resolved. Some suggested that the submarine dived leaving the crew on deck. Alternatively, it may be that they were cast adrift in their inadequate boat and, like so many others, died of starvation and exposure.

Tom Crisp junior summoned to Buckingham Palace

Tom Crisp junior and the surviving crew of the Nelson were luckier in that they were picked up after two days by HMS Dryad. On 2 November 1917 it was officially announced that the Victoria Cross had been awarded to Skipper Thomas Crisp, DSC, RNR, while his son received the Distinguished Service Medal, both of which were given to him by the king.

German UC-1 class submarine.

The Sagitta

One steam yacht, the Sagitta, was noted partly because of its heroism and partly because it was manned entirely by students from the University of Cambridge. It did much valuable work clearing mines off the coast of Cromer and farther afield.

The heroic deeds of Captain Charles Fryatt and his crew

Captain Fryatt was a well-known captain who worked for the Great Central Railway Company, which basically operated between Tilbury and Rotterdam. He first came to fame when, on 2 March 1915, he was in command of the Wrexham and was ordered to stop by the U-boat, U.12. He refused, ordering all available crew to help stoke the boilers, and managed to outrun the submarine. He was presented with a gold watch by his employers. He executed the same escape two weeks later when in command of another ship, the Colchester.

On 28 March in command of yet another ship, the Brussels, he was ordered by the U-boat U.33 to stop but set his ship to ram the U-boat at full throttle. The German ship managed to dive just in time but this enabled the captain to escape. He was given a second gold watch. He came under attack in the same ship twice more, this time by torpedoes which missed and he subsequently managed to outrun two U-boats. However, on 2 June, he was cornered and his ship captured.

There was no escape this time – he and his crew were interned. The German High Command decided that he must be tried by a naval court and he was accused of deliberately attempting to ram a ship. Of course he had attempted to do this against the U.33, but this was surely a legitimate act of war, according to Winston Churchill and the British public. However, the ‘sentence’ was death and this was immediately carried out. The tragic tale bears more than a passing resemblance to the trial and death by shooting of UK and Norfolk hero, Edith Cavell. Both were tried on charges that were held to be ridiculous – in Edith Cavell’s case it was for treason when she was, in fact, a civilian nurse in occupied Belgium. Both defendants had shown the greatest bravery and the sentences were seen as outrageous, being held responsible for the signing up of thousands of new recruits into the armed services. Both Captain Fryatt and Edith Cavell were brought back to Britain at the end of the war in the same railway carriage van. Charles Fryatt was buried at Dovercourt after a service in St Paul’s Cathedral, whilst Edith Cavell was brought back to a peaceful spot alongside the Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Norwich, where her immaculately tended grave remains to this day. The Captain Fryatt, a steam drifter, was built in the captain’s memory by two Yarmouth owners in 1917.

Charles Fryatt.

Charles Fryatt death sentence notice in three languages.

The Falaba rescue

East Anglian boats were involved in many rescues during the war, one of the most notable being that of the passengers and crew of the Falaba on 28 March 1915 – ironically, this is the same date that Captain Fryatt committed the attempted ramming of the U.33, actions which, as discussed, led to his death. The Falaba attempted what Charles Fryatt had several times successfully accomplished – the out-running of a U-Boat, this one being the U.28. After forty-five minutes, however, Captain Davis could run no more and was forced to surrender to the commander of the German vessel, Baron von Forstner. Having ordered everyone to abandon ship, the Baron fired a torpedo at close range as the boats were being lowered. The Eileen Emma, a Lowestoft drifter, rushed to the scene along with four other boats from East Anglia. One hundred and thirty-eight people were saved, and 104 died, including Captain Davis. The local East Anglian press reported, rightly or wrongly, that the Germans jeered as the men drowned. No attempt was made by the U.28 to save anyone, but it was later claimed at the enquiry that to do so would have risked the safety of the submarine. On board was one American, Leon Chester Thrasher, whose body was washed up considerably later. This led to American protests.

SS Brussels scuppered, Zeebrugge, 1918.

A Convoy, North Sea 1918, by Sir John Lavery.

Altogether, almost 5,000 merchant ships were lost during the course of the war. That the Germans almost succeeded in starving the country by such means is a matter of historical record – fortunately for Britain, the convoy system and the stubbornness of the Norfolk and Suffolk fisher-folk and seamen changed the balance of the sea war from 1917. Norfolk and Britain did not starve but managed to survive – just.

Mine work

As remarked already, British mines were problematic. One of the most unpopular of British tasks was the consequent sweeping up and relaying of them. Night-time sweeping was particularly dangerous, but essential, especially near the enemy coast. No lights could be shown and the whole operation was conducted using sounding wire: anytime a mistake could result in shell attack either from land or nearby ships. Although much improved methods of mine-sweeping were developed as the war progressed, over 200 mine sweepers were lost by the end of the war, half of them based on the east coast.

The Royal Naval Trawler Section of the Navy had been established in 1911 as a defensive measure and experiments were conducted to find the best ships to ‘sweep’ mines. Trawlers were found to be most suitable and the section had fifteen by 1915, the newest, the Kingfisher, being based in Great Yarmouth. Dozens of others were rapidly adapted. One problem was the depth of the trawlers’ hull. A partial answer was simply found in adapting paddle steamers many, such as the Yarmouth Belle, having previously acted as passenger ferries. They were relatively easy to modify, all passenger quarters and dining rooms becoming platforms for the necessary heavy winching gear.

Armistice Day in Norwich, 1918.

A new menace in late 1915 was the introduction of mine laying by submarine. It is possible that the British authorities only learnt of this new threat when a steamer struck the UC.2 on 22 July 1915 as it was laying its twelve mines. The submarine was underwater but the crew of the Cottingham heard a loud explosion upon impact. The remains of the UC.2 were subsequently found on the seabed along with evidence of her mission. Mined nets were tried with some success by the Royal Navy as the war progressed. One example was the capture of the U.48 on 24 November 1917 when it became entangled in the nets off Goodwin Sands and was immediately attacked by four drifters. One of these, built in Yarmouth, was the Present Help, which was damaged by fire from the stricken submarine. In the end, however, the U.48 had no option but to surrender, which it did, having laid explosives on board, as was usual practice to save the vessel from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Major General Sir J.E. Capper KCB awards medals in the Market Place, Norwich, 1919. The statue of His Grace the Duke of Wellington seen in the background has now been moved to the Cathedral Close.

Appendix 1

The Norfolk Coast Path – A Walk Along the North Norfolk Coast from Hunstanton to Cromer

This exhilarating trek is about 46 miles long depending how much you meander – there is so much of interest both on and just off the path, it is an easy and rewarding thing to do – and ranks as one of the UK’s great outdoor walking experiences. For those with an interest in local history it holds special charms, which include seeing at first hand the immensity, beauty and potential vulnerability of the wild Norfolk coastline.

The Norfolk Coast Path is linked at Holme with the Peddars Way and, together, they make up a path of about 96 miles, which many thousands of people explore every year and in all seasons as each delivers particular rewards. Some people manage the whole route in just over three days but most are content to take a couple of weeks or longer. The coast path is not, unfortunately, as far as this study is concerned, linked to either Kings Lynn on the one end nor Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft or Harwich on the other, although large parts of these coastlines can be explored riding in a bus or car, on a bicycle or on a horse. If you wish to cycle the particular route given here, there is a dedicated bicycle route just a little inland.

On the Norfolk Coast Path itself, as given here, there is plenty to see and investigate as you go. At Hunstanton, for example, you can stand on the cliffs and imagine the work of Bayntun Hippisley and his team, walking on the exact spots where operators set up listening devices to track the conversations of U- boat commanders; explore the beautiful village of Cley where the poet Rupert Brooke heard of the war and determined he would fight; trek along the Pillbox Trail from Stiffkey to Sea Palling; take a close look at the lifeboats of Cromer; and investigate many other features and places mentioned in the book.

It can also form part of a photographic and/or research trip. For example, one or a series of war memorials, details of which are given in the text, can be photographed and studied. There are memorials ranging from the grand, made of stone and designed by famous architects, to a brass plaque or even an exquisite roll of silk with names lovingly painted by hand. With the help of superb websites such as www.roll-of-honour.com, facts of service and the experiences of soldiers and sailors can be freshly uncovered. There is a very active and dedicated body of volunteer researchers which you will encounter if you undertake any research at all, and this walk can get you started on what for some becomes a life-long interest.

This itinerary is divided into seven parts, although each leads on to the next and so the whole 46 miles can be attempted all at once if wished.

Section 1, Hunstanton to Thornham, 5.5. miles

The walk starts at Hunstanton (or Sunny Hunny to the locals), a complete new town built by Henry Le Strange in mid-Victorian times and, before that, the landing place of St Edmund, the first Patron Saint of England. Many ask about the baying wolf sculpture at the top of the cliffs near the lighthouse and also on the town sign. There is a legend that St Edmund, a just and Christian ruler of East Anglia from 855AD, was overthrown by the Danes and offered his life if he rejected Christ. He refused, was shot through with arrows and beheaded, his head being thrown into a nearby wood. His broken-hearted subjects quickly found his body but could not locate the head. They heard a cry from the wood ‘Hic, Hic, Hic’ (‘Here, Here, Here’). The head was found guarded by the forelegs of a wolf who allowed them to take it back to the body, accompanying the party all the way, where the head and body mysteriously connected seamlessly.

The path proceeds to the vast flat seashore and sand dunes of Holme and on to Thornham. Here you will see a land of rolling mists and the legendary and mysterious Thornham stumps.

Section 2, Thornham to Burnham Deepdale, 5.5 miles

The path continues past Brancaster which, apart from being incredibly beautiful, is legendary in being the spot where Norfolk’s greatest sea hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, gained his love of the ocean. The section ends in Burnham Deepdale as it is a good stopping-off point with a campsite, information centre, shops and cafes. The panorama is simply stunning.

Brancaster lifeboat, the Winlaton (1917-35), built following a donation by Mr Thomas Thompson of Winlaton.

Section 3, Burnham Deepdale to Holkham, 8.1 miles

This is one of Norfolk’s most beautiful stretches of coastline. You may get blown about a little! You may like to visit Holkham Estate, home of the famous Thomas Coke whose ancestor, the 1st Earl of Leicester, built a beautiful house and began the task of reclaiming this hitherto barren land for agriculture.

Section 4, Holkham to Stiffkey, 7.2 miles

For many, this stage of the walk is paradise and passes through Wells-next-the-Sea with its seemingly endless sandy beaches. It is also a site of international importance, as is much of this coast walk as well, for rare birds: autumn will see tens of thousands of pink geese crossing the skies in a V-shape formation as they begin their migratory odyssey.

You may well spare a thought for the Rector of Stiffkey, Harold Davidson, as you pass by. Details of his troubled life are given earlier. His memory lives on today in articles and books: there has even been a musical about his life.

Here you can take the Pillbox Trail, viewing fourteen pillboxes from Stiffkey to Sea Palling. www.visitnorthnorfolk.co.uk

Section 5, Stiffkey to Cley, 6.5 miles

Then the walk continues to Morston, Blakeney and Cley next the Sea. This is unforgettable for views over the saltmarsh and for bird lovers. Binham Priory is just south, founded by Pierre de Valognes, nephew of William the Conqueror.

It was in 1912 that Charles Rothschild bought Blakeney Point and handed it over to the National Trust. There is a visitors’ centre here.

Section 6, Cley to Weybourne, 5.2 miles

The next part to Weybourne is beautiful but can be hard on the legs as there is some shingle. But what views! You will pass through Salthouse, once very prosperous as salt was a most valuable commodity in days gone by. It was also the home of one Onesiphorous Randall, who built a lovely house on the beach. He put a canon in front of his domain to stop prying eyes, as often a carriage could be seen whisking along the sands carrying a beautiful lady. The ‘folly’, as it was known, lasted until 1953 when it was duly carried away by the sea. You can travel on the North Norfolk Poppy Line from here.

Coastal Path sign at Blakeney, by Daniel Tink.

Blakeney, by Daniel Tink.

Weybourne beach by Daniel Tink.

In 1998 Michael (now Sir Michael) Savory took over the old Weybourne Military Camp, abandoned after 1960, and established an impressive array of military, guns, weapons and uniforms, basically from the Second World War. It is reputed that Winston Churchill came to the military camp so that he could see the latest anti-aircraft weapons and was almost killed when a projectile, although shot down successfully, landed within a whisker of his cigar. He was not best pleased and sacked the top brass. This brings into focus Churchill’s amazing political longevity – from First Lord of the Admiralty and Minister of Munitions in the Great War to Prime Minister in the Second.

A panoramic view of Sheringham today, showing the huge open beach, by Daniel Tink.

Section 7, Weybourne to Cromer, 8.6 miles

On this section you will walk into Sheringham, East and West Runton and finally reach Cromer, which is famed always and now for the ‘Cromer Crab’. Once, this was the centre of the herring industry, probably the most important industry in Norfolk. This is a good opportunity to view some of the lifeboats that served the coast so well during the Great War. Much of what you will see, such as the main street in Sheringham, the whole of East and West Runton, and the cliffs, the famous pier and town centre of Cromer, all the way down to some of the actual shops, are – small changes apart – the same as during the Great War.

Weybourne to Sheringham, by Daniel Tink.

View towards Sheringham from Beeston Bump, by Daniel Tink.

The area also has associations with the Black Shuk, a huge dog with glowing eyes who was partial to the throats of any foolish folk who ventured onto the cliffs at night. In fact, it was here that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the most widely read author in the world, heard of the legend and based one of the greatest of the Sherlock Holmes stories on these events. It was The Hound of the Baskervilles, and it gained immediate international attention just a year after his visit here in 1901.

It is perhaps fitting that Holmes’ final case was His Last Bow and took place on the eve of the Great War. Holmes outwits a clever German mastermind and the story ends with him saying:

Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.

Appendix 2

The internet has several sites of interest. The Great War Forum is fascinating for help with all manner of queries from other researchers. The Long, Long Trail is excellent for details of Norfolk battalions and miscellaneous details of service www.longlongtrail.co.uk The Imperial War Museum is very accessible and has some wonderful films and podcasts: www.iwm.org.uk. Lively and sometimes irreverent, www.arrse.co.uk is often seen as the unofficial site of the British Army. It has an excellent war book review section. Another very useful site for books about the Great War and reviews is www.booksmonthly.co.uk.

Some of the most useful sites and addresses are given in the text. Others include the following:

Norfolk Record Office

The Archive Centre

Martineau Lane

Norwich NR 2DQ

01603 222599

Norfolk Record Office

Norfolk Heritage Centre

The Forum

NR2 1AW

Norfolk Record Office

Kings Lynn Borough Archive

The Old Gaol House

Saturday Market Place

PE30 5DQ

Email norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk

Website www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk

Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk

Commonwealth War Graves www.cwgc.org

EDP special site www.edp24.co.uk/first-world-war-memorial

Imperial War Museum www.iwm.org.uk/collections-resrearch

National Army Museum www.nam.ac.uk

The National Archives www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Western Front Association www.westernfrontassociation.com

www.armyancestry.blogspot.co.uk

www.armymuseums.org.uk

Appendix 3

No-man’s land under snow is like the face of the moon: chaotic, crater-ridden, uninhabitable, awful, the abode of madness

Wilfred Owen, January 1917, in a letter home

The Norfolk Regiment 1914-18

The regiment raised a total of 19 battalions and lost 6,000 men during the course of the war.

Regular Battalions

1st Battalion

Went to France in August 1914 and fought at Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne, Le Bassee and Ypres and elsewhere. The men suffered one of the first gas attacks in May 1915. Their last battle was an assault on the forest of Mormal on 5 November 1918.

2nd Battalion

Fought with great distinction in India, one of the most famous advances being against gun emplacements at Shaiba. Numbers were so depleted by February 1916 that two companies from the Norfolks and the Dorsets were combined to form what was known as the ‘Norsets’. When Kut fell in April 1916, the majority of the men became prisoners of war.

3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion

Based initially at Britannia Barracks, Norwich, the battalion was sent to Felixstowe forming part of the Harwich Garrison coastal defences. Here it remained for the duration of hostilities.

Gassed by John Singer Sargent.

Territorial Force

Primarily formed for home defence duties, many men volunteered for overseas service and were to see action in Gallipoli and the Middle East.

1/4th Battalion TF

Formed in Chapelfield Drill Hall and stationed at St Giles, Norwich. Served in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine

2/4th Battalion TF

Formed in Chapelfield Drill Hall, Norwich, and were stationed at Peterborough and in January 1915 moved to Lowestoft where they constructed defences and helped man the armoured trains. The men moved to Aldershot and then Colchester and some served overseas. The unit was disbanded in July 1917.

1/5th Battalion TF

Formed in East Dereham, many were from the king’s estate at Sandringham and, as related earlier, they formed the ‘vanished battalion’ at Gallipoli. The remaining men also served with great distinction in the Middle East in 1917.

2/5th Battalion

Formed in October 1914 at East Dereham with no uniforms or basic equipment, the men often had to parade in civilian clothes. This was to be a continuous problem. Nonetheless they helped construct defences in Peterborough, Thetford and London. Some men chose to volunteer for active service in Gallipoli.

3/4th Battalion

Formed in Norwich in 1915 and worked in Hertfordshire and Sussex. Some men transferred to active service.

3/5th Battalion

Formed in East Dereham and served basically alongside the 3/4ths.

1/6th Battalion (Cyclists) TF

The battalion served on Norfolk coastal defence duties before being greatly relieved of these duties by a Royal Naval Air Service brigade at the end of 1915. The battalion became a mobile training unit. Many men served overseas but not as a unit.

2/6th Battalion (Cyclists) TF

Formed by Lieutenant-Colonel Leathes Prior, these men became famously known as the Half Crown Holy Boys. Many men transferred to active service while the battalion served in Bridlington, Yorkshire.

3/6th Battalion (Cyclists) TF

Formed in Norwich in 1915, it was disbanded less than a year later, having acted as a bicycle training school.

7th (Service) Battalion

Raised in Norwich as part of the First New Army, the battalion embarked to France in May 1915 where they fought with terrible losses in engagements throughout the hostilities.

British cyclists in France, 1917.

8th (Service) Battalion

Often called the Businessman’s Battalion because of the profession of many of their number, the battalion was raised at Norwich as part of the Second New Army and served in France throughout the war. They were disbanded in February 1918.

9th (Service) Battalion

Formed at Norwich and serving in France, this battalion was commanded from October 1916 by Lieutenant-Colonel Leathes Prior who led it with great distinction. The battalion formed part of the Army of Occupation in Germany from 1918.

10th (Service) Battalion

This was formed at Walton-on-the-Naze in October 1914. In September 1916 it became the 25th Training Reserve Battalion.

11th Battalion (TF)

This battalion was raised at Lowestoft and served at Guildford and Colchester. It was disbanded in December 1917.

12th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Battalion

The Norfolk Yeomanry was formed in April 1908 and the headquarters were at Cattle Market Street, Norwich. It had squadrons in Norwich, North Walsham, Fakenham and Kings Lynn. Men from the Battalion fought in Gallipoli, Palestine and on the Western Front. Some remained at home throughout the war.

Bibliography

There is an extensive range of books on specific aspects of the Great War and the local neighbourhood. Some that I have found especially useful include:

1914-1918 – An Eyewitness to War, Bob Carruthers (Pen and Sword Military, 2012)

Aces High, Alan Clark (Fontana, 1973)

Cromer and District Illustrated Guide Book, (Ward Lock and Co, 1918)

Dover and Folkestone During the Great War, Michael and Christine George (Pen and Sword Military, 2008)

Edwardian England, Donald Read (Harrap, 1972)

The First World War in Photographs, Richard Holmes (Carlton, 2001)

Jarrold’s Illustrated Guide to Cromer and Neighbourhood (Jarrold and Sons, 1902)

Norfolk and Suffolk in the Great War, ed Gerald Gliddon (Gliddon Books, 1988)

Norfolk in the First World War, Frank Meeres (Philimore, 2004)

North Sea War, Robert Malster (Poppyland Publishing, 2015)

Norwich in the Great War, Stephen Browning (Pen and Sword Military, 2015)

Poetry and Myths of the Great War, Dr Martin Stephen (Pen and Sword Military, 2014)

The Somme, The Day-By-Day Account, Chris McCarthy (Cassell, 1993)

When Heroes Die, Sue Smart (Breedon Books, 2001)

World War 1 in Photographs, Robin Cross (Parragon, 1996)