Troops and refugees arrive in St Neots

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.