Initially, women were only expected to encourage men to enlist in the armed forces, but from the day the War was declared they were keen to do all they could to play their part in the conflict.

Within days of the declaration of war local women had set up a working party to make clothes for sick and wounded soldiers and begun to plan for a Red Cross convalescent hospital in St Neots.

Early WWI Poster aimed at Women

St Neots VAD Red Cross Hospital, St Neots Advertiser, 14th August 1914

 

 

Letter from Harris Marshall of Waresley, St Neots Advertiser, 16th October 1914

In January 1915 Russia asked its Allies (France and Britain) for help to fight the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey) who were attacking them on three Eastern fronts.

The Allies were reluctant to commit troops to the East as this would mean taking them away from the Western Front.

Lord Kitchener suggested a naval attack was the only solution and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, suggested the Dardanelles waterway next to the Gallipoli peninsula, at the entrance to the Black Sea, as a possible target.

British ships began shelling Turkish forts in February 1915.

Naval disaster at the Dardanelles

Albert Tidman of Eynesbury, who was serving with the Royal Navy at the Dardanelles, wrote home to say that he had helped to rescue sailors who had survived the torpedoing of HMS Goliath, when 570 of the 700 strong crew died. Goliath had been providing cover for the soldiers landing on the beaches at Gallipoli.

1/5th Beds at the Dardanelles

The failure of the naval bombing campaign at the Dardanelles led to the decision to send troops to the Gallipoli peninsula.

On the 10th September the St Neots Advertiser published a letter from Sergeant-Major Milton reporting the many challenges of the fighting at Gallipoli; the heat, the dust, the lack of water, the steep hilly terrain, the insects and the Turkish snipers – including women – who could look down on the approaching Allied soldiers and pick them off as they advanced. The death of well-known local man, Captain Rudolph Smythe at the Dardanelles was also announced.

The Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles

HMS Goliath, sunk on 13th May 1915

Letter from Albert Tidman, St Neots Advertiser, 28th May 1915

ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, 1915 from the Imperial War Museum archive

Sergt-Major Milton describes life in the Dardanelles, St Neots Advertiser, 10th September 1915

Announcing the death of Captain R. M. Smythe, St Neots Advertiser, 13th August 1915

As the German army advanced into Belgium they met unexpectedly strong resistance from Belgian, French and British forces.

The first local man to die was Harry Murphy of Avenue Road, St Neots, who was killed in August 1914 during the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) withdrawal from Mons, Belgium, as German soldiers tried to advance.

Scoutmaster Harris Marshall from Waresley, wrote home to his wife about the Battle of Mons and his letter was published in St Neots Advertiser, 18^th September 1914.

Private Holyoake wrote home about the Christmas truce in the trenches of 1914.

Map of the Western Front, 1915

Waresley soldier in the trenches, 30th April 1915

 

Recruitment, and Conscription

Throughout the autumn months of 1914 and into 1915 enormous efforts were made to encourage men aged 19 – 30 to join the armed forces. Young men such as James Malin (Jim), an 18 year old building labourer who lived in Cambridge Street, St Neots, enlisted in August 1914.

By June 1915, as casualties mounted, the age of men able to enlist  rose to 35 and by August Huntingdonshire was recruiting for a ‘Bantam’ regiment of men below the usual height requirements for the army.

Conscription

The government realised that voluntary recruitment was not producing enough men and Conscription was introduced in early 1916, with the first exemption tribunal in St Neots reported in the St Neots Advertiser of 18^th February 1916. The Tribunal meetings were held in the Magistrates Room, now St Neots Museum.

Many local farmers, manufacturers and shopkeepers applied for exemption for their staff fearing that their businesses would fail if they lost all their staff, many had signed up in the initial rush to enlist in August 1914 and employers were finding it hard to recruit new staff.

For example Mr Cadge, who ran a clothing and shoe shop on St Neots Market Square, asked for Charles Saddington, the manager of his boot department, to be given exemption in May 1916, but this was refused and it was suggested that he could employ a woman to help in the shop.

By September 1916 the local recruiting office was printing the names of men who had not yet enlisted on the front page of the St Neots Advertiser.

5th Bedfordshire Regiment Recruitment advert, 25th June 1915

Bantam Platoon advert, 6th August 1915

 

James Malin & the Hunts. Cyclists Battalion ‘D’ Co. Football Team, St Neots Advertiser May 1915

Report of the first meeting of the local Military Tribunal, St Neots Advertiser, 18th February 1916

An advert for Mr Cadge’s working men’s boots, August 1915

Boot Manager Must Go, St Neots Advertiser, 2nd June 1916

Cartoon postcard of a Military Tribunal, 1916

 

 

While local St Neots men were sent to the East coast, the 1st Highland Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery from Aberdeen in Scotland were sent to parts of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire for their training.

The 3rd City of Aberdeen Battery of the Highland Royal Field Artillery were stationed in St Neots, many men were billeted with local families and quickly became popular with local residents.

The Evans family of Cambridge Street allowed part of their builders yard to be used to stable some of the Royal Artillery horses with blacksmiths using one of their workshops.

The heavy field guns belonging to the Battery were stored close to Priory Park on a field which became known as ‘The Gun Park’. During the very wet winter of 1914 / 15 the guns were moved to the Market Square.

During October 1914 Belgian refugees began to arrive in Britain, driven from their homes by the invading Germans. By the 9th of October the St Neots Advertiser was reporting that Belgian families were arriving at Little Barford.