“the herald of a better day”* ......... stories behind the book nu 14 ..... thoughts of Victory and a thank you

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*

I am guessing that this picture postcard sold well.

There are four from the collection and two contain messages on the reverse.***

One sent from Eastbourne in the June of 1919 carries the simple message, “Peace June 28 1919" and the other posted on January 1 1919 to Mrs H Norton at 262½ Maynard Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia from Charlie Wishes his mother well telling her “I am well.  Love to you, and the children, Love Charlie, XX”

Now when you write about the Great War it is all too easy to dwell on those who died but of course the majority came back and went on to live productive lives putting as best they could the war behind them.

But here are two of those that survived, and given my own attachment to Canada Charlie’s message has an added significance, given that one of my great uncles fought in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, while another great uncle, along with my grandfather, great grandfather, and two uncles served in the British army and more on the side of Germany.

So I think it is more than possible that one of my family would either have sent or received Victory, the only puzzle I have is which version because Tuck & Sons issued two.

The first on the reverse had the simple message, “The Path of duty was the way to Glory” from Tennyson and in larger and bolder print “May the Future make amends for the Sacrifices of the Past.”

This was followed later by a second which added an extract from King George V’s message to the Empire, and ran “May the morning star of peace which is now rising over a war worn world be hears and everywhere the herald of a better day in which the storms of strife shall have died down and the rays of an enduring peace be shed upon all nations.” *

I wish I had access to the catalogues of Tuck and & Son to see exactly when each version was published and how long the series ran but at present that is not possible.

I had toyed with the idea of using the postcard for the book but I know my old friend David Harrop has a card which he thinks even more appropriate and it to David that I have to give a special thank you.

Without him the book would have stumbled at the first hurdle because attempting to amass a collection of material from the Great War which was varied and special to Manchester is a daunting exercise, but David has just such a collection

And he was more than happy to supply anything I wanted and continues to find more from that collection.

So with a quarter of the book written and a selection of memorabilia “in the bag” from picture postcards, letters home, as well as photographs, souvenirs from the Front and medals and very personal memorials it is time to thank David again, remind you of his permanent exhibition at the Memorial Lodge in Southern Cemetery and point you to the collection of stories on the blog which David has inspired.****

And that is all I want to say other than for the curious, the flags on the card are the United States of America, Italy, Belgium, Montenegro, Roumania, Greece, Panama, China, Great Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, Portugal, Cuba, Siam, Japan.

Pictures; Victory; from the series, Victorious Peace, issued by Tuck & Sons, first issued January, 1919, courtesy of Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/ 

*King George V’s Message to the Empire, November 19, 1918

**Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

*** Victory; from the series, Victorious Peace, issued by Tuck & Sons, first issued January, 1919, courtesy of Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

****David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

One hundred years of a public library in Chorlton and an exciting new project from Edge Theatre & Arts Centre

Now we are entering one of those long sustained periods of reflection on past events.

The Library in 2012

It began earlier in the month with the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War and will rumble on with coverage of the first big battles of that conflict and conclude with stories of the first war time Christmas of 1914.

And amongst all of that will be the 100th anniversary of the opening of our Library.

It is a story I keep coming back to, not only because it says much about how Chorlton was changing in the last decades of the 19th century but also because it was opened just two months after the Great War began.*

From the 1880s into the 1920s our township grew a pace with an influx of new residents taking advantage of the housing boom which pretty much obliterated the countryside around what we now know as the Four Banks and off along Wilbraham Road and the long roads by Oswald.

In the course of that development the old name for the area was lost and so what had once been Martlege became “New Chorlton.”

I doubt that many who moved in even gave a second thought to that older Chorlton instead they looked to stamping their own identity on the area.

They set up sporting and cultural clubs and societies and above all wanted the Corporation to honour its promise of a public library made when we voted to join the city in 19104.

Back in 1914

This came about in November 1914 and so it is fitting that the Edge Theatre & Arts Centre are embarking on an exciting new project, which is being funded by the Arts Council of England and want as many people from the local community as possible, to get involved.

Janine Waters who will be directly involved in the project is keen that

“Opening 1914 will be a new piece of musical theatre; participatory workshops and accompanying exhibitions to celebrate the lives of ordinary people opening a long awaited for library, against the backdrop of a world just three months into the Great War.

We would love to hear from anyone who has any stories, photos, letters, anecdotes or imaginings about the library in its early days. It opened in the November which coincides with the annual Chorlton Book Festival and this project will be a highlight of the birthday celebrations.

Are you the great grandchild of Chorlton's first librarian?

Do you have an invitation in your attic from the Lord Mayor to the opening?

Do you remember stories from the streets surrounding the library in 1914?

The Library in the 1920s

Do you have anything to share about the people who lived and worked in Chorlton during WW1?

We also want to use this opportunity to explore the war memorial in the grounds of The Edge and any others in Chorlton. 

We would love to hear from anyone who has a connection to this too”

Now I am quite excited about the project especially as it might give us an insight into how people got on with their lives when they weren’t thinking of the war or worrying about loved ones who had gone off to fight.

You can contact Janine  janine@edgetheatre.co.uk or  0161 282 9776

Pictures; the Library today from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the opening courtesy of Sally Dervan and the Library in the early 1920s from the Lloyd Collection

*Chorlton’s Libraries, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%27s%20libraries

**The Edge Theatre and Arts Centre, http://www.edgetheatre.co.uk/index.php/contact-us/

Manchester and the Great War, part two what to write about?

From Tomas "On Active Service", October 1916

“We have just heard H, is in Blighty.  But do not know which hospital.  Hope you are quite well, shall be glad to hear from you soon. Flo & E.”

Now if you wanted a short introduction to life during the Great War this is a pretty good start.*

Flo was writing to her brother Sid who was serving with the Canadian Army about Harold.

Like so much about any war communications were not always good and so Flo and Ethel had to wait for more news about where their brother Harold was in hospital.

Lord Kitchener's Appeal

For me it is also that use of the word “Blighty” which takes you right back to that conflict and sits alongside the recruitment poster announcing “Your Country Needs You” and those countless images of the mud, trenches battlefields of the Western Front coupled with the often savage war poetry and the poignant songs of the period.

So this should be a must for the book on Manchester and the Great War.**

Alas Sid, Harold, Flo and Ethel were born in Sussex and I suspect never visited Manchester.

That is no matter because I am now privy to a vast collection of Great War material courtesy of David Harrop, which includes picture post cards, letters, official communication and much more.***

Date unknown

And like always it is what to include.  The publishers have suggested a format which makes sense and follows a pattern adopted by other historians writing in the series about their towns and cities.

In all it is to be about 35,000 words long include 80 images, and divide up into six chapters covering the outbreak of the war, its impact on the civilian population and the aftermath.

But I always knew that it would be the original material that really wrote the book and as I sift through the postcards, letters and memorabilia the shape of the book and the stories it will feature are beginning to take form.

As ever amidst the great events are the little things that people still did despite a war.

There are postcards from holiday resorts, requests to help move house or sell something and the general round of trivia which vie with letters home from the Front, and mass of propaganda aimed at both the fighting men and the civilians.

All of which give a powerful insight into how people coped.

Trying to decide which of the saucy and comic postcards to include has been hard.  And it has been equally difficult to choose those which express the yearning to be reunited with a loved one.

To Nellie from George Davison, at Woolwich, October 1915

But some things jump out at you like the huge volume of correspondance from George Davison to his wife Nellie who lived in Hulme.

They include letters and picture postcards following his journey from Manchester to Woolwich and on to the Front.

His was not a happy ending and included in the collection are the official letters of condolence, and details of Mrs Davison’s war pension.

But there is much more including his birth and marriage certificates, school reports and news of his first job as well as his admission into the local working man’s club and details of his time with Territorials.

Date unknown

So this is where the material shapes the book because I rather think each chapter may contain at least one of Mr and Mrs Davison’s letters and postcards providing a vivid introduction to each chapter of Manchester and the Great War.

And the way these things work it will be impossible to draw a strict line between Manchester, and Salford, Stockport and the nearby towns of Ashton and Oldham and Rochdale, if only because some of those in the collection came from one, lived in another and worked across another municipal border.

The Davisons may have begun their married life in Hulme but during the course of the war she moved to Stockport.

Likewise David Harrop’s collection spans the country and while the book will not be finished for a while some of his postcards letters and memorabilia can be seen at two exhibitions during the summer.***

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop

*Sidney James Luther, born in Surrey, served with the Canadian Army and died back in England aged just 34, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/sidney-james-luther-born-in-surrey.html

**Manchester, Remembering 1914-18 from the series, Great War Britain, The History Press, http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?order=relevance&dir=desc&q=the+story+of+chorlton

***David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

****The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport from July 28 and Oldham Archives, Union Street, Oldham, from August 4

Looking for William on "active service" in France in October 1916

This is the second of the Great War picture postcards from the collection of David Harrop.

Over the last few years I have been looking at the stories of those who lived through the Great War both the men who marched away and those who stayed on the Home Front.*

David has a vast collection of postcards, letters, and other memorabilia and has kindly shared some of them with me.**

And in return I will be featuring ten from that collection covering letters and cards from men at the Front, to the medals and official communications down to the souvenirs which sat on a mantelpiece of sideboard.

It will be impossible to draw a strict line between Manchester, and Salford, Stockport and the nearby towns of Ashton and Oldham and Rochdale, if only because some of those in the collection came from one lived in another and worked across another municipal border.

Some have come from even further afield like this one from Thomas to A H Hosking.

Thomas was on “active service” in France and the post card is dated October 1916 which would place Thomas on the Western Front during the last month of the Battle of the Somme.

This had begun in the July of 1916 and dragged on till November by which time both sides had sustained heavy casualties.

Now so far I have not been able to discover anymore about Thomas or Mr A H Hosking who received the card.  The address is still there and it is one of what were once very impressive solid houses on St James’s Road in Croydon

The message gives little away focusing on the positive and comments on the letter and newspaper sent out to France and promises a letter later in return.

With a bit of research I should be able to identify Army Post Office S 18 which may help.

All of which at present just leaves us with the image on the front of the card which came from a series produced by the Daily Mail Official War Pictures.  This was number 11 from series two and carries the title,
“Before battle, in battle, and after battle our "Tommies" are ready for a "fag." These men are lighting up after a scrap.”

And with a little careful research and help from Epsom and Ewell History Explorer I discovered that “during the Great War the Daily Mail produced a number of sets of postcards each showing an Official War Photograph. We believe there were 22 sets each with 8 images. 

The total number of postcards is therefore 176 but some images were used twice, once in colour and once in monochrome. 

All the images had been cleared by the censor and the cards were part of the official British propaganda effort so it is possible that some of the photographs had been posed.”*** 

I will go back into the records and try and find both Thomas and A H Hosking.

If as I expect Thomas’s surname was Hosking then there are a few clues both in the military records and official documents either side of the Great War.

It would be nice to follow up the two individuals and put lives behind the post card.

And that is what David has been able to do with many of his collections.

Only yesterday as I looked through the material he has lent me I came across stories of young fighting men and their families from enlistment to the conclusion of hostilities.

Some of these will be available to see at two exhibitions David will be mounting later in the year.****

Picture; from the collection of David Harrop

 *The Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Great%20War

**David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

***World War 1 Postcards, Epsom and Ewell History Explorer, 
http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/WW1Postcards.html

****The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport from July 28 and Oldham Archives, Union Street, Oldham, from August 4

One family caught up in two world wars and the cards they sent home

Uncle Roger and mother, 1939

Judging by the huge loss of life and even greater casualties my family came out of the last two world wars almost unscathed.

Of the eight members of my immediate family we lost just one.

He was my uncle who died aged just 21 in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1943.

The rest which consisted of my great grandfather, grandfather, two great uncles and two uncles came through the Great War as did my mother in the Second World War.

I am less sure of my German family.  I know my grandmother’s brothers survived but the fate of her nephews are unknown to me.

My Uncle George, 1918

Not that I spend much time reflecting on this.  Of the eight, six were still very much alive as I was growing up and so you take them for granted.

Of course the shadow of my uncle Roger was always there in pictures and in occasional stories but my mother and grandparents rarely spoke of him and it is only recently that I have got to learn more about him and of course the loss that his death caused.

All of which makes both those conflicts more than a little remote.

And yet that is less so now because during the last month I have immersed myself in the postcards, letters and memorabilia of the First World War.

Most have come from the collection of David Harrop and are a moving testament to what people endured.

Almost all of them hint at stories that will now never be told and of lives as distant as those lived out centuries ago.

But you come away feeling it has been a privilege to share their experiences ranging from the happy to the sad and everything in between.

An embroidered card

Now none of what I am going to say is original but that said it is something I have personally uncovered from the letters and postcards.

And the over abiding emotion that comes through from the material is the stoic fortitude that those in uniform as well as those at home conducted themselves.

The correspondence is often short, lacks detail and at times is quite mundane, but then the space on the card to fill was small, often there were many distractions and most were intent on fostering a sense of normalcy.

But there is no hiding the affection, and love expressed over and over again, coupled with a real need for stories from home and news of the most routine things.

Now like many of my generation I was never very far from accounts of both world war but seldom came close to knowing how the “small people caught up in the great events” felt and until recently had never read their stories mixed with their hopes and fears and it has been a powerful experience.

So I am going to return to the occasional series which features the postcards of David Harrop.

The Manchester Regment

These are embroidered ones produced in France and sent home by the troops in specially made envelopes.  I have never come across them before although the style of card was being marketed both before and after the Great War.

According to one source those with the name of a regiment are quite rare today.

Sadly we have no such cards although the one sent by my uncle to my dad in the December of 1918 is fascinating but that as they say is for another time.

For now I shall just mention the two travelling exhibitions of David’s collections at Oldham and Southport during the summer and the permanent display in the Remembrance Hall at Southern Cemetery

Picture; of Roger Hall 1939 and George Bradford Simpson, 1918 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and embroidered cards from the collection of David Harrop

*David Harrop,

Souvenirs for the Great War ......... stories behind the book nu 23

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book, Manchester Remembering 1914-18*

I wonder who bought those porcelain figures which were manufactured as souvenirs for the Great War.

They were turned out in their thousands ranging from replica tanks, lorries and field ambulances to ships and later imitation war memorials.

And to further add to the potential sales they were issued with the coats of arms of different cities and towns offering the people of Manchester, London and Southport a unique souvenir.

Some including a tank and HMS Manchester appear in the book along with a description of how the porcelain companies that made them had effortlessly switched from models of Blackpool Tower, the Great Orme and Big Ben to war time themes.

Many of the ones I have seen come from the collection of David Harrop who turned up this interesting example yesterday of a bull dog in his kennel.

He tells me that cats on postboxes were equally popular but this one is rather special given that my uncle served in the Black Watch at the end of the Great War.

I have no idea if one of these made their way to my grandparent’s home in Gateshead or if similar ones bearing the coats of arms of Derby, and Gravesend were ever bought by other members of the family.

And I am now on the lookout for examples from the Canadian Expeditionary Force because in 1915 one of my great uncles who been migrated to Canada as a British Home Child, enlisted and ended up on the Western Front.

I doubt he would have bothered with such a thing but it would be interesting to compare the souvenirs and reflect on just how such objects were marketed and the role they played.

Some of them have already appeared on the blog and can be found by following the link.**

Which just leaves me to point out that the book will be published on February 2 and the book launch will be on Saturday February 18 at Central Reference Library in Manchester.

Along with me, a shed load of books there will be a folk group, some military rein actors and a guest appearance from David Harrop who sourced most of the memorabilia for the book and who will be bringing along some of the items featured in Manchester Remembering 1914-18.

Location; the Great War

Pictures; souvenir porcelain figure, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*Manchester Remembering 1914-18 by Andrew Simpson will be published by the History Press in February 2017

Order now from the History Press, http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/great-war-britain-manchester-remembering-1914-18/9780750978965/ or Chorlton Book Shop,info@chorltonbookshop.co.uk 0161 881 6374

**A new book on Manchester and the Great War http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

“How good you Sisters are to us”* ......... stories behind the book nu 13 ..... Miss Thelka Bowser

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War.*

Miss Bowser, date unknown

I wish I could have met Miss Ida Thelka Bowser.

She was born in 1873, served with the Red Cross from 1902 and “died on January 11 1919 after three years painful illness, patiently borne.”**

It was a short enough life but packed through with service to the community.

As well as being a Red Cross nurse who served in France during the Great War, she was a journalist who will be remembered for her vivid account of the Voluntary Aid Detachments.

The  V.A. Detachments had been established in 1909 to supplement the military in the event of a major European war and were “a voluntary organisation supported by public subscriptions ....... to supplement the medical services of the army and navy and to supply comforts to soldiers and sailors in addition to those provided by the authorities.”***

V.A.D.s at work in Heaton Mersey

It was,  to quote Miss Bowser a contribution made "willingly, smilingly and as though theirs is the privilege”****

And it was made in full recognition of the sacrifices being made by the servicemen the V.A.D.’s were helping, as she went on to write “during of the great pushes, whilst I was working in France amongst our wounded men as they came down from the firing line to the Base, they often said to me, ‘How good you Sisters are to us’ and I with a catch in my throat always made one reply, ‘Good – not a bit of it.  Where should we Englishwomen be today if it were not for such as you?’”*****

Now it became fashionable in the 1960s to view such sentiment with a cynical eye but I rather think with the distance of a century it is now possible to divorce the overt jingoism and propaganda of the struggle from the genuine sacrifice made by men and women and the appalling price paid both in the lives lost and the lives blighted by those four years of war.

V.A.D.s at work in Heaton Mersey

Which brings me back to Miss Bowser.  I have been reading her book on the work of the V.A. Detachments and in turn got drawn into her life story which I have Debbie Cameron to thank who had got their first and has added Miss Bowser to the data base,  Lives of the First World War run by the Imperial War Museum.******

She was born in London to a comfortably well off family and as well as her work with the Red Cross and as a journalist she was the “founder of the King's Daughters' Guild for busy girls in London.  This was a friendship league, enabling the members to help each other enjoy their leisure in intelligent ways, and also to increase their opportunities by self-education.”

There is much more but always mindful that if someone has already done the research it is always appropriate to defer to their work which in this case is that piece by Debbie.

Location; The Great War

Research; Debbie Cameron

Picture; Miss Ida Thelka Bowser courtesy of Lives of the First World War, IWM and the kitchens, the Red Cross Hospital, Heaton Mersey circa 1914, T Everett-Innes, from the collection of David Harrop


* Bowser, Thekla, The Story of the British V.A.D Work in the Great War, 1917 pages 4

**Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, due out at the end of 2016, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

*** Hastings and St Leonards Observer January 18 1919

*** The Red Cross in Lancashire, Manchester Guardian, September 12, 1914

****ibid Bowser, Thekla, page228

*****ibid Bowser, page 4

****** Lives of the First World War, IWM, https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/4943202#timeline

A thank you ......... stories behind the book nu 24 to those that made the book possible

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book, Manchester Remembering 1914-18.*

The will of George Davison, 1918

I am looking again at the will of George Davison which he made in the March of 1918 just four months before his death on the Western Front.

It forms one of the many hitherto unseen documents from the Great War which are featured in the book Manchester Remembering 1914-18.

It is a moving a document no less because we know what awaited him but for me it also has a very personal link with that conflict.

George was born in Manchester and spent most of his life in the city but he was stationed in Woolwich and in the spring of 1918 was living just a few doors down from where I grew up in Well Hall in Eltham.

Not that I will be alone in finding such links.  In the course of writing the book I came across people who had discovered medals, letters and pictures of relatives they knew only as a name and others who could take me to where family members who participated in the war had lived and were buried.

Harold Moss, who died in 1916

And I suppose that is the point about the Great War for while it is now a century and more ago almost all of us will have a direct connection with the conflict.

In my case I can count seven close family members who served of which five of them I remember vividly and one of whom only died in 2001.

The book allowed me to share the memories and stories of many others, some like Bob Jones who could take me to the grave of his grandfather in Southern Cemetery and who died from flu while on leave in 1918 and Ken Fisher who talked of his grandmother whose first husband had been captured.

Along the way I was also privileged to share some very personal items, like the replica Cenotaph belonging to the grandfather of Nicola O’Neil and the diary of Harold Wild who was a conscientious objector.

And then there was the help from people who offered up research as well as their own treasured family items, and here I have to thank amongst others Tricia Leslie who tracked down the house George Davison was billeted in when he made that will and Liz Sykes of the Together Trust who provided a selection of photographs and letters from the Trust’s archives.

But the biggest thank you goes to David Harrop who provided the majority of the original source material and who not only offered up advice and encouragement but went out of his way to find fresh material.

So that is about it.

The first batch of books arrived from the publishers today weeks ahead of the publication date and now the preparations are being made for the book launch on February 18 at Central Ref leaving me only to reflect on what the book has meant to me.

Uppermost was a great respect for the heroism and determination of those who participated coupled with a greater understanding of what my own family will have experienced.

None of them ever spoke of the war and only through reading the letters, memoirs and official documents have I come close to what they encountered.

George Bradford Simpson, 1918

And it was that very personal set of discoveries that led me to include a photograph  of one of my uncles.  He wasn’t born in Manchester and he served in a Highland Regiment but after writing the book I have come to know a little bit more of what he did.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the will of George Davison, March 1918, from the collection of David Harrop, Harold Moss courtesy of the Together Trust, and George Bradford Simpson, 1918 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Manchester Remembering 1914-18 by Andrew Simpson ispublished by the History Press in February 2017

Order now from the History Press, http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/great-war-britain-manchester-remembering-1914-18/9780750978965/ or Chorlton Book Shop,info@chorltonbookshop.co.uk 0161 881 6374

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

Stories from the Great War ............ the Shaw family and their loss of five sons ..... no. 2 the Western Front

Even from the distance of a century the impact of the Great War continues to reverberate through most families.

The five brothers

Few I suspect cannot account for one family member who either joined the Colours or was engaged on essential war work.  In our case we can count seven from our immediate family and in the course of the book I wrote many of those I interviewed had stories of grandfathers and great grandfather’s who had fought on all the battle fronts, including the Italian one, and of grandmothers who had done their bit in the munitions factories, as Red Cross nurses, or working on the land and on the trams.*

In the case of Pam it was her five great uncles.  She told me, “We grew up with their memories as part of our lives. “

And she also passed over an account written by one of her relatives of the five men, all of whom died during the conflict.

The article written by the son of Thomas Shaw is undated and there is no clue where it was published, but it must post date 1986 because there is a reference to the Queen’s birthday of that year.

Thomas Shaw

The piece is short but details the fate of all five. Two had left for Australia before 1914 and they both enlisted in the Australian army.

Of these Jessie died at Gallipoli in 1915 and his brother John who was a Lieutenant in the 20th Battalion, 9th Brigade of the Australian Force was on May 3 1917.**

On the same, day, the eldest son, Rifleman Thomas Samuel Shaw, aged 32 of the 8th King’s Royal Rifles was killed during an attack on German positions in a wood.

His body was never recovered.

Thomas was the father of the author of the article, who added, “With Uncle Jessie at Gallipoli, three brothers were killed on May 3; Private James Friend Shaw was to be the third brother to be killed in 1917, overstating his age to enlist.  

He was with the 20th Battalion London Regiment which was in Ypres area.  Uncle James was killed in action on August 3 1917 aged 20.”

Jessie Shaw

In the previous year Lance Corporal Henry James Shaw was killed during the Battle of the Somme.  He was 29.

By any measure the loss of five sons must have been very difficult and it underlines the sacrifice that was made by so many.

Their father lived in New Cross.

In time I will devote some time to researching the five men, their families and the life of their father, mother and sister.

All of whom will have stories that should be told.

Location; London, Gallipoli and the Western Front

Pictures; from an article written by the son of Thomas Shaw, and kindly supplied by Pam White Prosser

*Manchester Remembering 1914-18, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/today-new-book-on-manchester-and-great.html

**The Shaw family and the Great War, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/stories-from-great-war-shaw-family-and.html

Blighty ............. a unique record from the Great War part 1 with a bit more from Canada

I am looking at a picture of the staff and patients of the St John’s Red Cross Hospital in Cheltenham on July 1915.

And somewhere on the photograph maybe Rachel Wattis who in the following year later bought a sketch pad from J.J.Banks & Son which became an autograph book used by the men convalescing from their wounds.

They contributed poems, comments and sketches and reading them on this warm sunny day in June is to be taken back in an instant to that hospital and to the men recovering from wounds received the year before at Gallipoli and many more from the Battle of the Somme which was still in full swing.

In the fullness of time I will go looking for Rachel Wattis.  As yet the Red Cross have not completed their mammoth task of putting all their personnel from the Great War on line and so far a search for Ms Wattis has revealed only a possible candidate leaving in Birmingham in 1911.

Likewise I will also look for the identities of the men who left a contribution partly to satisfy my own curiosity but also because I think it is important.

After all by sheer luck the autograph book has survived a century and it is important that the men and women who made the book should be recorded and something of their lives before and after 1916 brought out of the shadows.

So this is just the first of a series of posts which tries to explore the stories of these people caught up in one of the great events of the last century.

And from those pages I have selected two entries, neither of which I have researched yet.

I could have chosen others including that of Private A E Dunn of the Border Regiment whose poem on Gallipoli was written in November 1916 and recorded the exploits of the 11th Division “who landed at Sulva Bay

They were part of Kitcheners Army
Some left children and wives
To fight for England’s freedom
And they fought for their very lives”

But for today it is the sketches of J Wilson who like one of my uncles was in the Argyle and Sutherland Regiment and a Sergeant from the 47th Canadian Infantry wounded at Vimy Ridge on January 3rd 1917.

He too has a personal connection because my great uncle was also serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

And there I think is one of those simple and obvious observations that most of us will have a relative who served either in the armed forces, the Red Cross or another of the voluntary organisations during that conflict.

It is luck that this book has survived but also a tribute to David Harrop who acquired it and has kindly lent it to me so that some of the stories of those who filled its pages can be researched and told.

And soon after this was posted I recieved a message from a fellow Canadian researcher who had gone looking for the young soldier from the 47th Canadian Infantry.

Barb Torres discovered that he had enlisted in 1915, was 30 years old, from Vancouver and because the records of men from Canada who fought in the Great War are intact it will be possible to uncover his full military record.*

Now apart from the excitement of taking the story one step further it points yet again to that degree of co-operation between researchers and historians which advances our common knowledge.

I rather think Ms Wattis would be pleased and endorses her comments on the opening page of the autograph book, "When the leaves of this Book are yellow with age and the fingers  are still that have wrote on this page, those sweet to remember the dear ones of old whose friendship you prize more than silver or gold." 

Picture; St John’s Red Cross Hospital in Cheltenham Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire Graphic July 31 1915, courtesy of Cheltenham Local & Family History Library, cheltlocalstudies@gloucestershire.gov.uk and pages from Blighty, the autograph book of the men recovering in the hospital, from the collection of David Harrop and the Attestation Paper, courtesy of Library and Archives Canada,

With additional research from Barb Torres

*Library and Archives Canada,
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/image.aspx?Image=286018a&URLjpg=http%3A%2F%2Fdata2.archives.ca%2Fcef%2Fgpc002%2F286018a.gif&Ecopy=286018a

And a thank you to Cheltenham Local & Family History Library, cheltlocalstudies@gloucestershire.gov.uk

The Tank Bank and the children’s charity......... stories behind the book nu 17

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*

The Tank Bank, 1917

Now the war was sustained by a tidal flow of voluntary work and money.

Some of the charities established during the Great War have survived into the 21st century, and they covered everything from the National Fund to relieve hardship, to sending comforts to the troops including cigarettes through the “Fag Days”.

And as the conflict dragged on the Government found a whole range of ways of raising funds including the Tank Bank which was what the title said a tank bank in Albert Square with an office set aside in the Town Hall to take deposits from the general public.

There was an expectation that the total amount collected would out do Liverpool which in its first three days had raised £797,800 and Sheffield’s £113,380 and with a degree of civic pride the Manchester Guardian reported that the city had hit £870444 in just two days.**

But the downside of the outpouring of the public’s money to the war effort was a squeeze on the existing charities.

The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges set up in 1870 relied heavily on voluntary contributions and during the war there was a profound reduction in what it received.

It made regular appeals highlighting the shortfall.  In the October of 1915 it announced that “there is a deficiency of £10,000 on Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges maintenance account, the institution having been most unfavourably affected by the War. 

At least 4000 boys and girls are helped by it. There are over 350 children continually under its care. About £11,000 a year is needed to meet all the requirements of the work.”***

At the beginning of the war instructions were sent to the masters and matrons of the various homes to exercise the ‘strictest economy in provisions and other purchases,’ and the monthly magazine, the Children’s Haven’ was reduced to four issues a year in a bid to lower costs.

Collection Box for the Charity, date unknown

One unforeseen result of the enlistment of the older apprentices in the charity’s care resulted in the closing of four out of the five workshops with a loss of around £3000 in earnings and proceeds from the work sold.

And yet the number of admissions increased leading the charity to comment in its paper the Children Haven in September 1916 that
 “while they carry on for King and country for justice and liberty we must carry on for the young children who will be the future members and defenders of our great commonwealth.”****

The Refuges did survive, changing its name to the Together Trust and relocating out of the city and continues to work helping young people, vulnerable adults and families.

Others may not and yet there is no definite research on the effects of war on charities in Manchester and it is unknown how many establishments had to close due to the restrictions on resources.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the Tank Bank 1917, from the collection of David Harrop, and a collection box of the Manchester & Salford, Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges courtesy of the Together Trust

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

**The Tanks Second Try, Manchester Climbing to the top, Manchester Guardian, December 19, 1917

*** Manchester Evening News, October 30, 1915

****Tightening the belt, Getting Down and dusty, September 1 2014, the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/tightening-belt.html

The power of the Union ............ half forgotten stories from the Great War

“This meeting views with grave concern the enormous rise in the price of foodstuffs and coal, which is equivalent to a considerable reduction of wages of those fully employed and the enormous profits that Shipping, Dealers and other gamblers in the means of life are at present reaping by their unholy profiteering.

We therefore call upon the Government to take immediate action to control supplies to regulate food prices and to put an end to this flagrant exploitation of the necessities of the poor.”*

Such was a resolution passed by a large audience in the Free Trade Hall on Sunday February 14 1915.

It was the culmination of a few days of factory and street corner meetings which focused on the swift rise in rents as well as food and coal prices since the beginning of the war.

And it is an aspect of life on the Home Front which does not always feature prominently in many accounts of the Great War.

The popular story of how we coped during the four years tends to fasten on the participation of women on the shop floor and in the fields; the impact of Zeppelin raids and the blackout but all too often skips over the huge hike in the cost of living.

As Henry Hyndman the leading socialist pointed out “since the war had begun prices had gone up 22%, so that now the purchasing power of a sovereign was from 13s. 6d to 13s.9d.”**

And this was the context behind the industrial conflicts which rumbled on and which some at the time and since have sought to characterise as greedy workers exploiting a country at war.

The reality was very different as Sam Hague who spoke at that Free Trade meeting was quick to point out, “there never had been a time in the nation’s history when the working classes had so solidly backed the Government.”***

Working hours increased, and under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 and The Munitions War Act 1915 workers were being prosecuted for absenteeism and striking over wages and conditions.

In Manchester the first prosecutions under the Munitions War Act were held at the Town Hall on Friday July 30 when thirty-two men employed at Craven Bros Ltd Reddish were brought before the Recorder charged with going on strike  over wages and working conditions without first submitting the matter to the Board of Trade.****

But this is to get ahead of ourselves.

Back in January the Manchester Guardian had reported “the all-round advance in the price of most household commodities since the outbreak of hostilities – an advance amounting in several instances to over 50% [was] causing concern to the average householder whose income is inelastic”*****

And amongst working class families this all-round advance was causing great hardship more so because it was accompanied by rises in rents and fuel prices.

But strikes to maintain living standards were not the only response to the jump in the cost of living.
On the day war broke out the Labour Movement had formed the War Emergency Workers National Committee tasked with defending the interests of organised working people.

During the next four years it received daily reports all on everything from rises in rents, the cost and quality of food to pensions and conditions in factories and on the land as well as the railways, war babies, air raids and women’s war service.

Much of the correspondence came from local Labour and Trades Councils across the country which set up their own local committees.

Here in the city the Manchester & District Workers (War Problems) Joint Committee consisted of Manchester & Salford Trades and Labour Council, Manchester & Salford Labour Party, Gorton Trades Council, the Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades Federation, Building Industries Federation, Women’s Trade Union Council, Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade & Labour Council, Manchester & Salford ILP, Manchester Salford  & District Co-operative Societies, Women’s Co-operative Guilds, Women’s Citizen’s Association, and the Women’s War Interest Committee.

This was a broad cross section of those organisation representing the working class.
In turn Food Vigilance Committees were set up across the country to monitor prices and ensure local councils were enforcing regulations on both prices and the quality of food.

They also called meetings, distributed leaflets and like the War Emergency Workers National Committee pushed hard for more Government intervention in regulating the abuses thrown up during the war.

Now that to me promises to be a fascinating story.

Pictures; courtesy of the Labour History Archives & Study Centre,  at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/

*Resolution passed at the Free Trade Hall on February 14 1915

**LABOUR AND FOOD PRICES. A FREE TRADE HALL PROTEST, Manchester Guardian Feb 15 1915

***ibid Manchester Guardian Feb 15 191

****O’Neil Joseph, Manchester in the Great War, 2014

*****FOOD PRICES AND THE WAR, Manchester Guardian January 31 1915

Letters from the Front ..... my family in the Great War

We have little in the way of documents from the men of my family who fought in the Great War.  Now given the class they came from and the distance of time that is not surprising.

And so we have just a few photographs, a handful of letters home and some military records which is not much to sum up the contribution of my immediate family.

We sent six off to fight for King and Country.  Along with two uncles, two great uncles, and my grandfather there was also my great grandfather.  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/stories-of-great-war.html

Now I have written about the experiences of my great uncle Roger before who ran off and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the August of 1915 and even quoted from his letters and these I have brought out again.

The letters reflected the routines of army life.
“I was shooting on the ranges a day ago. We are in huts and it is fearful muddy all around, we have bayonet fighting, physical drill etc.”

There was the usual preoccupation of waiting for pay day followed by the comment that “the Canadian Government put half our pay in the bank so that of our $33 a month $16 go in the bank”

In some ways army life was suiting him, “I have” he wrote “put a bit of flesh on since you saw me last.”  But his inability to get on with authority led him to the first of his court-martials for refusing to follow orders. And in all of this there was that ever present knowledge that at some point soon he would be shipped to France.

There are no letters from his time on active service but there are his military records which track him across the three years he served and the regimental war diaries. Both are an invaluable insight into the life of a young soldier. His records cover everything from his state of health, further infringements of army discipline and his eventual discharge and journey from France to Britain and back to Canada.

But it is the war diary which best I think opens up the life of my great uncle. Now these regimental diaries had been introduced after the South African war and were meant to help assess how successful army units were under fire and so draw valuable lessons about how to improve performance. They do not record individual soldiers but describe the daily routines, including the periods of rest and recuperation, time in the front line, unit strength and even the weather. Here in great detail are descriptions of attacks and the losses incurred. So armed with these it is possible to know something of his life during those years.

So on October 15th 1917, “weather fine. Battalion carried on with musketry and squad drill during the morning. Afternoon Recreation. Attack in the north continued, all objectives gained”

So here is the usual mundane and routine of army life, but mixed in are the reports of planned actions, real fighting and the casualties. On the morning of October 30th 1917 the diary recorded that
“Barrage opened at 5.50 am sharp. Enemy artillery opened up immediately. Our troops left trench at 5.54 am. At 6.00 am covering fire became intense. At 6.20 am supporting platoons of “A” and “C” Coys left the trench. On account of smoke it is very difficult to see any movement beyond Woodland Copse. At 6.25 am, “B” Coy, went over the top. A considerable amount of our shrapnel in bursting short at this time, some bursts occurring right over our trench.”

These were made in the heat of battle and only later typed up. This particular entry was timed at 6.30 and signed by Captain W.J. Atherton. Shortly after wards the diary continued with
“one of the runners bringing the report was wounded enroute and the other runner Pte, LeMarquand, stopped and bandaged his comrade’s wounds before delivering the report."
A little over an hour later “C” Coy had reached its objective and the men were “digging in”

Later after the fighting was over the diary attempted an assessment of the attack which reported that the artillery barrage was “generally faulty and unsatisfactory. Many causalities being inflicted by our own artillery barrage on our men before they left their trenches for attack”
“The going was extremely heavy on account of the marshy nature of the ground over which the attacking troops had to pass. In many cases men could only advance by helping one and another long.” **
And concluded with the list of causalities which amounted to 400 men killed, missing or wounded out of a total of 590.

I guess this pretty much sums up what the rest of my family went through somewhere on the Western Front.  But nothing much else has survived.  Although we do have a short letter from my uncle to my dad in the December of 1918 and it came with a Christmas postcard which well reflects the prevailing propaganda.

The Great War had ended just a month before and uncle Fergus and his battalion of the Black Watch were in Cologne.  He wrote that “Cologne was a lovelly city with some fine cinemas” but they were prohibited from fraternizing with the civilians which for a young man of 21 was a bit of a bore given the attractive young women he came across.

But duty was never far away and preparations were being made because “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” and there was a determination “to show the rest of the division the way as we proved to be the finest marchers during the trek to Germany.”  In its way it is as telling as that written my my great uncle in the midst of the war. There is no sense if triumphalism just pride at the job done and the one yet to do and a respect for the German city they were occupying.

So there you have it letters home from two young men , one just eighteen and the other twenty-one.

Pictures; letter from James Rogers[Roger James Hall] February 1916, and With Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas and Victorious New Year, December 1918 from the collection of Andrew Simpson