School holiday was pondered after two hard-won victories

David Penman looks at the headline stories in the Ashbourne Telegraph 100 years ago this week

November 1, 1918

A DECISIVE battleground victory in France on September 29, saw the Sherwood Foresters of the 46th Midland Division storm the St Quentin Canal near Belle Englise in northern France. The assault resulted in Allied troops breaching the Germans’ Hindenburg Line, taking 4,000 prisoners and 70 guns.

A second attack on the German line in the Battle of Ramin-court on October 3 again involved the Sherwoods, with many more of the enemy killed or injured and a further 2,000 captured.

Such was the impact of these military actions that Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were reported to be on the verge of declaring a day’s school holiday to mark the occasion.

The suggestion came from Major General GF Boyd, commander of the 46th Division.

“When the full history of that famous attack comes to be written, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire people will have full cause to be proud of their achievement,” said the Ashbourne Telegraph.

“The Sherwoods have been prominent throughout the war, being present at most of the great, decisive battles, suffering losses like other regiments, which were rapidly filled by others who have gallantly maintained the glorious traditions of the regiment.

“Few divisions can claim such an heroic performance as theirs on this occasion, and it is only right that the memory of the victory should be treasured, and that our rising generation should be trained to honour such a brilliant success.”

However, the “daring and successful” attack had consequences for many of the men.

Albert Etherington was one of the Ashbourne men who had been on a Territorials’ training camp in North Yorkshire when war broke out and had been among the first to be mobilised.

“He was taking part in the attack on Saint Quentin, when the division broke through the Hindenburg Line. A large shell fell, severing his left leg. In a letter to a friend he says it felt like someone had given him “a big hit with an axe”.

“Sergeant Etherington, prior to the war, was a footballer in the district, having played for Ashbourne Town and Ashbourne Wednesday.

“He also always enjoyed the Shrovetide Football, at which he was generally prominent.”

Four years separated the deaths of brothers Henry and Charles Chell, sons of Mr A Chell, of Green Lane, Clifton. Henry, serving with the Essex Regiment, died of a gunshot wound on October 3. Charles, of the Sherwood Foresters, had been killed in October 1914.

The vicar of Calton had received official notification that his son, Flight Commander Clement Watson Payton, RAF, was missing in action.

A letter from his son’s commanding officer said: “He failed to return from an offensive patrol yesterday morning.

“I am extremely sorry to say there is no chance of his safety as his machine was seen to fall out of control after it had been hit by anti-aircraft fire.

“Your son had been with me for some months and he was one of my best officers and my best friend off duty. He always set a splendid example to his fellow officers

“You have every reason to feel proud of your son’s achievements. He has destroyed five enemy machines and a kite balloon, and has driven down two other enemy machines out of control. He was a skilled pilot and very courageous.”

Gunner George Taylor, of the Royal Field Artillery, had written home to South Street, Ashbourne, to say he was currently in hospital in Paisley being treated for shrapnel wounds to his left arm. Gunner Taylor and his brother, Sydney, had been among the first to answer Lord Kitchener’s call to arms in 1914, and had spent more than three years in France.

Private F Naylor was another injured soldier. He was being treated for inflammation of his left forearm in The Edinburgh Hospital in Bangour.

An outbreak of flu was sweeping the Ashbourne area and a local GP recommended that, as a precaution to prevent its further spread, people should stop visiting each other in their homes as “much harm is done this way”.

The latest order to be introduced under the Defence of the Realm Act was the Sale of Sweetmeats in the Theatres (Restriction) Order, which prohibited the sale of any confectionery in any place of public entertainment from October 17, 1918.

● David Penman is a senior lecturer in Journalism at De Montfort University in Leicester. You can read more of his week-by-week analysis of the Ashbourne Telegraph at greatwarreports.wordpress.com