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 17th February 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 28th June 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 1st August.
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 4th August 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 6th April.