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.

World War 1

Bideford and Northam Joint Fuel And Lighting Committee

The Fuel Wood Order, 1918

Notice is hereby given that:
All PERSONS retailing or otherwise dealing in FUEL, WOOD must OBTAIN A LICENCE for the purpose from the Local Fuel Overseer, Town Hall, Bideford.
A Licensed Retailer shall not sell more than 2 tons of Fuel Wood to any person for consumption on any premises to which the Household Fuel and Lighting Order, 1918, applies, during any period of 12 calendar months, except with the consent in writing of the Local Fuel Overseer of the District within which such premises are situate.
E J Labbatt, Local Fuel Overseer

Gazette article dated 19 November 1918

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Parkham

A postcard has been received from Pte T Pearce stating that he is a prisoner of war in Germany. No news had been received of him for some months. This is the third Parkham boy to be taken prisoner by the Germans.
Our Parkham boys appear to be on all the theatres of war. They took part in the Dardanelles, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Salonica, and the Western Front, and also in the North Sea affairs.
Much corn awaits stacking, and no one can remember such a late harvest in general. In 1903, the wet October would not permit the few scattered fields to be collected until November, but up to last week this year the corn could be seen in the fields by the hundreds of acres. Tuesday was a good day, when great progress was made, and the harvest in bulk was practically completed by the end of the week, except on Melbury, where some 50 acres still remain to be cut and nearly the whole acreage has to be stacked.

Gazette article dated 8 October 1918

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The British Scuttle And The German Scuttle By Vulcan

He was a bit of a curmudgeon, and I rather expected to find him grumbling about the coal shortage. But I found him sitting in the kitchen quite cheerily, although the fire was burning low. ‘You see’, he said, pointing to the empty scuttle, ‘I’ve finished my allowance for the day. But that doesn’t bother me’. And he laughed as if at some secret joke he was hugging himself. ‘What are you laughing at?’ I said. ‘Well’ he answered, ‘whenever I see a scuttle I think of the Germans scuttling and the Bulgars scuttling and the big scuttle of the Turks in Palestine. I guess if it comes to scuttles, we British have got the best of it’. ‘Yes’ I replied, ‘the coat we do without is making it hot for the Germans’. ‘And perhaps it won’t be very long’ he added, ‘before we hear the Rhine whine’. ‘Of course’, he said becoming serious, ‘one does feel the cold a bit sometimes, but when I think of the boys in hospital and the other fellows in the ice and slush of the trenches I feel a bit ashamed if I’m tempted to growl’.

Gazette dated 22 October 1918