100 Years Ago

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

100 Years Ago - September 1914

Captain T S Wickham DSO of the 2nd Manchester Regiment who was the youngest son of T. T. Wickham JP and former mayor of Bideford was one of the first deaths of the First World War to be reported in the 1st September 1914 edition of the Bideford Gazette. The circumstances and the whereabouts of his death are unknown at this time.

There were public Meetings across North Devon to raise money for the Devon Patriotic Fund and to encourage men to volunteer for military service. The first was held at Clovelly Court at the end of August and a considerable sum of money was pledged. Bideford held its mass meeting in the Market Hall which was "packed with every class and section of the communitV'
The Devonshire Patriotic Fund was swelled by E715:2:3d. this week from collections across the area and as a result of a benefit night sponsored by Hancock's Steam Circus E3:4:10d was added to the fund.

Owners of Homing pigeons have been advised by Bideford Police to keep their birds in as they run a great risk of being shot by military authorities. Several have already been killed but the newspaper gives no indication why and one can only assume the birds are used as target practice.

Pte Jones and Pte Kelly and other recruits who have joined Kitchener's Army from Bideford & North Devon districts have written interesting letters home about their experiences in Exeter and Aldershot. They claim to be "well cared for and are having a good time".

The Board of Trade confirm an Order made by the Light Railway Commissioners for North Devon & Cornwall Junction Light Railway, Order No. 191, authorising the construction of a light railway from Torrington to Halwill including the reconstruction of part of the mineral line known as the Torrington & Marland Railway.

100 Years Ago - August 1914

The Motor Omnibus service from Bideford to Clovelly and Hartland has been inaugurated. Mr Henry Sowden is in charge. The cars are 21 feet in length and are coloured green.

The programme of events for the London Bidefordian Society has been published. The subscription is 2s 6d for gentlemen and Is 6d for ladies. Mr R S Chope, Mayor of Bideford, is President.

On 11 August the Government's official Declaration of War was published in the Gazette. The 6^thDevon Territorials entrained for Barnstaple to join the war effort, as did the members of the Royal North Devon Hussars. In Bideford Market Square, tradesmen, farmers and owners paraded their horses. The Remount officers who needed horses for their regiments made their selections and a good price was paid for the horses taken.

The Mayor took out an advert reassuring Bideford people that food supplies are sufficient for ordinary demands. He encouraged frugality and requested that townsfolk did not draw more cash from the banks than was normally necessary.

Thirty new special constables are being recruited.

On 18 August, the front page of the Gazette carried a call to arms headed "Your King and Country needs you."

100 Years Ago - February 1914

In the Bideford Gazette during February there is a report of the second annual dinner of the Farmers Union which was held in the New Inn Hotel.

The town water supply is still causing problems and Bideford Urban District Council are discussing whether to turn off the water between 10 pm and 6 am in an effort to save a depleted supply reservoir.

On 17^thFebruary Charles Williams announced that he had sold his Cycle and Motor business at 1 Allhalland Street to Mr George Boyle, both the name and premises will still be familiar to many of you.

We are all aware of what is about to happen to Britain in the second half of 1914 but the events that led to World War 1 are far from widely understood. In the forthcoming months we will look at local events, places and people who became casualties of the conflict but for now we will try to set out the events which caused the Great War.

Europe and the countries it contained was a seething mass of discontent, each country had struck treaty after treaty with neighbours in an effort to secure protection for larger rivals and it was this tangle of alliances that led to the conflict. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, at Sarajevo on 28^thJune by a Serbian nationalist belonging to the Black Hand secret society was the spark that set alight a calamitous series of events. Austria-HungarVs reaction was to try and crush the troublesome Serbs by issuing an ultimatum that they could not meet. This gave them the pretext for invading and launching a limited and crushing war against the Serbs. However the Serbs had strong ties and a treaty with Russia who immediately declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany, who was allied to the Austro-Hungarians by Treaty, viewed the Russian mobilisation as an act of war and retaliated by declaring war on Russia on 1^stAugust.

France, allied to Russia, found itself at war with Germany who proceeded to invade neutral Belgium as a way of reaching the French capital quickly. By 4^thAugust Britain, who again by Treaty had a moral obligation to defend France, declared war on Germany. We were also asked to help defend Belgium. Our colonies and dominions abroad offered military and financial support thus drawing Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa into the conflict. The USA took a position of absolute neutrality which continued until 1917 when GermanVs aggressive naval warfare forced the US to retaliate and enter the war on 6^thApril.