St Neots on the edge of war

In 1914 the annual Hospital Week Parade in St Neots fell on Sunday 2nd August. With the widespread sense that war was coming a large crowd watched the parade.

All the major community services in the town took part in the Parade including the Salvation Army Band, the Scouts, the Red Cross, the Railway Union, the Fire Brigade and various Friendly Societies.

Call to Arms

Britain did not have a history of conscription into the army so in August 1914 Lord Kitchener, the new Secretary of State for War, called for volunteers to join the army.

By the 14th August every local newspaper across Britain, including the St Neots Advertiser, was printing ‘A CALL TO ARMS’, which asked all men aged 19 to 30 to join up ‘in the present grave National Emergency’.

Many men who had already been professional soldiers re-joined the army. Alfred Chapman of Eynesbury had already served in the army from 1889 until 1907, fighting in the Boer War in South Africa. He re-joined in early 1915 and served until 1917, by which time he was 49 years old.

Many local men joined the local Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion. Lord Kitchener did not intend to use his new volunteer recruits until they were fully trained (in 1915) and the Hunts. Cyclists were based in the Grimsby area where they began serious training to turn a battalion of volunteers into a fighting force.