MP joins farmers to petition for soldier’s release from duties
David Penman looks at the headline stories in the Ashbourne Telegraph 100 years ago this week
NOVEMBER 22, 1918 A PETITION from 100 farmers in the Ashbourne district calling Saddler F Lowndes of the Royal Field Artillery to be released from military duties led local MP Captain H Fitzherbert-wright to ask a question in the Commons.
The Under-secretary of State for War heard the appeal was being made in the interests of food production and on compassionate grounds.
Lowndes had been serving continuously at the front since early 1915, until he was granted one month’s leave in July of 1918, extended until the end of September on account of the death of his father who carried out the family saddlery business. His brother had been killed on active service and his mother and two sisters were alone with no one to continue the business other than a German prisoner of war, “which in the circumstances of the family is undesirable”.
The government response was that Lowndes’ leave had been extended to October 20 but because his skilled services were required by the army no further leave or discharge could be sanctioned.
News of fatalities and casualties from the front continued to filter home. Private Samuel Smith was reported to have been killed in action in France on October 23. Smith, from Mappleton, had been serving with the 11th Sherwood Foresters as a machine gunner.
His battalion went to Italy in December 1917 and later to France, where they were involved in ‘severe fighting. He left a widow and five children. Smith had been a member of the Ashbourne Voluntary Aid Detachment for several years before the outbreak of war and worked in the town’s Red Cross Hospital. In September he 1915 volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps.
The parents of Private Joseph Hudson received news that the 19-year-old soldier had died ‘on the eve of peace’ while serving with the 10th Sherwood Foresters. He had only been drafted to France in April. The Hudsons, of Mayfield, had lost Joseph’s elder brother, William in May.
A memorial service was held in Clifton Church for Harry Chell, who had died of wounds received in France on October 8. The vicar told the congregation no family in the parish had a finer record than the Chells: “Five serving, two killed and one a prisoner.”
The Telegraph continued to carry the Government’s Press Bureau-produced War Supplement which this week carried news of the graves of servicemen killed in Europe. The article, headlined ‘Our Dead Heroes,’ said the military situation in France and Belgium meant that restrictions on civilian visits would not be lifted for some time.
“This may cause some anxiety to many in whose thoughts a soldier’s grave is continually present, and the following information is communicated by the War Office in the hope that it may do something to relieve the strain and suspense.”
The piece explained that in the northern part of France was a western area, which had been in Allied occupation, and an eastern area which for four years had been under the Germans, and a central area where the past two years of fighting had taken place.
“In the western area lie the graves of four years’ fighting which have never been disturbed. In the eastern area it is hoped there may be found also some of the graves of the two corps which retreated from Mons to the Marne.
In the middle area, which includes the Somme battlefield, the tide of war has dealt unequally with the graves of the British dead; some cemeteries are left in good order, while some are partly, and a few wholly, destroyed by shellfire.”
Readers were told there was no evidence of graves having been desecrated the Germans, but it would take time to repair the damage done by fighting.
Richard Burton, of Smith’s Yard, Compton, was brought before the town magistrates, charged with being a deserter from the Royal Field Artillery depot in Newcastle for a year.
“Constable Brooksbank stated that he visited defendant’s residence and asked him what he was doing there. Burton replied, ‘What do you mean?’ and the witness asked him if he had his discharge papers. Defendant said he had not, and afterwards admitted that he had been a deserter for the past 13 months.” The court remanded Burton in custody to await a military escort.
The war might have been over but the day-to-day impact on daily life continued. The National Egg Collection for the wounded launched a fresh appeal for new-laid eggs for the men repatriated from Germany. Many were reported to be exhausted and requiring medical attention and nutritious food.
“Donors can have boxes sent to them free of charge by passenger train. We beg for an immediate and generous response.”
The appeal director suggests the following week should be Egg Denial Week to coincide with what sounds like an inventive publicity stunt which he said would see “all the dogs of the country begging for us”.
“No one should eat eggs while the needs of these repatriated prisoners remain unsatisfied.”
In anticipation of Ashbourne men being among the prisoners of war returning, the POW Committee urged the people of the town to be prepared to show their “appreciation for the sacrifices and hardships our gallant men have experienced”.
●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