Commemorative

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.

Presentation At Torrington Ceremony in the Square

Presentation of £20 each coupled with expression of the town’s pleasure at seeing them back home and best wishes for the future, were made to returned prisoners-of-war from Torrington at the largely attended public gathering in the Square on Thursday May 31st. Torrington is thus continuing its gesture of presenting £20 to every repatriated prisoner-of-war from the town.

The money has been raised by the combined Social Committee of the Home Guard by means of various entertainments, the chairman of the committee being Capt F S Kelly and the hon. treasurer and secretary, Mr N L Lockton.

At the ceremony Capt Kelly introduced the Mayor (Ald L S Hutchings), who first took the opportunity of congratulating the Social Committee of the Home Guard for what they had done for various charities. It had been wonderful work raising £465, and his Worship knew it would be of interest to know how the amount had been distributed, which included the following: Mr Ebsworthy’s Prisoner-of War Fund, Toc H, Red Cross Penny-a-Week Fund, Torrington Cottage Hospital, British Legion, National Institute for the Blind, Army Cadet Force, Mrs Grantham’s HM Forces Fund, to the patients at the local Institution, to a piano for the use and entertainment of those at the local Institute, four Challenge Cups, instruments for the Band, and twelve benefits for prisoners-of-war when repatriated.

He wishes to acknowledge the great work of Capt Kelly, of Mr Lockton, and of members of the Committee, and the hard work for the prisoners-of-war by Mrs Eastmond and Mr Charles Ebsworthy.

Col J E Cruickshank, commanding the 24th (Hartland) Batt, Home Guard, which includes Torrington, then handed the gifts of £20 to each of the prisoners – Pte E R Perryman, Sgt T J Hocking, Gnr W C Piper, Radio Officer R J Long, Cpl J Bastone and Pte R Rook.

Full Gazette article dated 12 June 1945

Thanks From Evacuees

Now that evacuees are officially returning to their own homes from reception areas such as ours it is pleasing to place on record their appreciation of the hospitality accorded.

Their thoughts are briefly but none the less sincerely and feelingly expressed in a letter received by a local resident from an evacuee from Surrey. The letter stated “As this is Thanksgiving Sunday I feel I must write to tell how deeply thankful we all feel to you for the sanctuary you gave us all when we needed shelter. All my life I will remember your great kindness to us all’.

Gazette article dated 12 June 1945

Sirens Again

In Bideford and Torrington, as in other parts of the country, sirens are being brought into use again, this time for summoning part time members of the National Fire Service to report for duty.

This has been found to be a most valuable method of conveying an immediate general call to firemen in time of emergency. only the ‘All clear’ note will be sounded. There will be none of the ‘wailing’ that was associated for so many years with imminent danger from enemy air attacks.

Bideford was one of the places where such a warning system was operative before the war. Torrington previously used maroons for this purpose but is now changing over to conform to the general rule.

For the most part, the sirens will be used in the daytime only; it may be necessary to use them at night in certain places, at any rate until it is possible to have the customary call bells installed in the firemen’s homes, but it is extremely unlikely that the siren call will be heard at night where there is a fully-staffed National Fire Service Headquarters. Only a breakdown in the usual form of communication would necessitate such a step.

Gazette article dated 5 June 1945