This Week in World War One, 10 March 1916

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Berwick Advertiser title 1915

 

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 10 MARCH 1916

 

LOCAL NEWS

 

Memorial in Parish Church to late Mr Stephen Sanderson – At a meeting of Berwick Vestry on Friday the application by the Vicar and Churchwardens for the erection of a brass tablet in memory of the late Mr Stephen Sanderson. The Elms, and his wife, came up for consideration. It was explained that the brass would be 34 by 24 with a teak frame 36 by 26, and that it was proposed to place it in the north wall of the Church above the tablet in memory of Capt. Forbes, who was a great friend of the late Mr Sanderson. On the motion of the Vicar, seconded by Mr. Forsyth, it was agreed to apply for a faculty from the Chancellor for the erection of the tablet.

Berwick Parish Church. © John Box - Friends of Berwick and District Museum and Archives website.
Berwick Parish Church. © John Box – Friends of Berwick and District Museum and Archives website.

 

Women on Land. – It is estimated that probably 200,000 men have been withdrawn from various agricultural pursuits. This affords some justification for the unwillingness of the Board of Agriculture to consent to any further great depletion of rural labour through enlistment until measures are adopted for securing the maintenance of home-grown food supplies. A great demand exists for women’s labour on the land, and the Women’s National Land Service Corps has been formed to carry on a great recruiting campaign in town and country. It appears that through existing local agencies only 14,000 women have volunteered for what must be regarded as a patriotic service. The Land Service Corps received a send-off from Mr Walter Long and Viscount Milner. The latter is Chairman of the Committee on Home Production of Food. Appeals on the ground of patriotism will be made to women of all classes throughout England and Scotland, and it is confidently anticipated that the call will be answered. Educated women are asked to come forward and undergo a short course of training which will enable them to act as forewomen to places where there is a dearth of competent overseers.

Farm workers posing as a group.
Farm workers posing as a group. © Hampshire and Solent Museums – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

 

BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS

Deserter’s Walkergate Refuge

 

John Brown, private in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, was charged with having been an absentee or deserter from the 3rd Battalion of the KOSB at Portobello.

The Chief Constable explained that the accused was found in the house of a married woman at the above address, where he was apprehended. The accused pleaded guilty.

Sergeant Wm. Glover stated that he received a telegraphic message from Portobello on Monday morning stating that the accused had been an absentee since Tuesday, 15th February, and that he was supposed to be about Berwick. He informed the police.

Police Constable Spiers deponed that he apprehended the accused in a house at 43, Walkergate, belonging to Mrs Mary Ann Foster or Wood. The accused had been there a fortnight, and had been absent from his regiment three weeks altogether,

The bench remanded the accused to await the arrival of a military escort.

 

BERWICK LADIES’ DISTRICT NURSING ASSOCIATION, Q.V.J.I.N

 

L0006733 Nursing: portraits and uniforms
Dame Rosalind Paget, a 1st Queen’s nurse and Inspector. © Welcome Trust – Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

The report of work undertaken by the Queen’s Nurses in connection with the above Association, and of gifts received during the month of February, is as follows; – Commencing on the 1st with 49 cases transferred from January until the 29th February, 45 new patients were registered (Berwick 27, Tweedmouth 9, Spittal 9),making a total of 94 to whom they attended. Of these 37 were removed from the books as convalescent and 3 died, leaving 54 transferred to the present month. During the month nurses paid 1061 visits, and issued on loan amongst the sick 14 nursing appliances and 20 articles of clothing. The following gifts were also received; for all of which the Executive Committee tender their sincere thanks to  the donors; – Miss Pearson, Ava Lodge; bovril and eggs; Miss Willoby, Ravesdowne, bed linen; Wallace Green Girls Auxiliary, cakes; Mr Lyall, Ravensdowne, old linen; Mrs Mackay, Castlegate, clothing. The Committee gratefully acknowlege the following donations to the Funds of the Association: – A Friend, Berwick, 2s 6d; a Grateful Mother, Berwick, 2s 6d; Mr Robert Dudgeon, Walkergate, 10s; A Grateful patient, Tweedmouth, 5s. Gifts of eggs, soup, clothing, etc., will be greatly welcomed, and may be sent to the Head Nurse, Q.V. Nurses’ Home, Quay Walls – all such being acknowledged monthly in the local papers.

 

William Pugmire – Blyth Man who died of self-inflicted gun shot wounds.

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Image supplied by Dinitrios Corcodilos.
Image supplied by Dinitrios Corcodilos.

A few weeks ago we re-tweeted and posted a BBC story on our Twitter and FaceBook feeds the story of  Cpl. Arthur Cecil Rawson from Whittlesey who was the first soldier killed by ‘Friendly Fire’ in the First World World. There was a small list at the end of this story which included the names of 5 other servicemen one of which was Private Pugmire of Blyth.

Further research has located an account of Private Pugmire’s last days running up to his death and the coroners report which was printed in the ‘Evening Chronicle’ Newspaper on Friday 28 August 1914.

SOLDIER SHOT AT – BLYTH

Death from Self-inflicted Wound

Coroner H. T. Rutherford held an inquest at Blyth this morning on the body of William Pugmire, 24, a member of the Northumberland Fusiliers, stationed at Blyth.

Jane Pugmire, of 1, Plummer Street, Newcastle, deceased’s wife said her husband was an engine-fitter and turner. She last saw him on Sunday night at Blyth, and he was then very happy. He asked witness to come back again on Sunday first, as he would have some time off. She had no reason to think that he would take his life. He was quite healthy.

Edward Ratcliff Bowdon, Lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers, said deceased was at Blyth with the Company. They were located at the Skating Rink. Deceased was arrested for a serious military offence, and brought before the commanding officer on August 6. They went to Blyth on the 7th. On the 6th they were stationed at the Central Station, Newcastle, where the deceased was placed on sentry duty.  He was drunk in charge of one of the bridges. He was taken before the commanding officer, and was given the choice of being brought before a court martial or being reduced from sergeant to private. Deceased chose the latter. On Tuesday night last there was another offence against him, and he was brought before witness.The second offence was not so serious as the first. Witness remanded deceased to the commanding officer.

Corporal Joseph Longstaff Porter said he was on the relief guard at Blyth at 9.45 on Wednesday morning. Deceased was in the cell. Shortly afterwards the deceased asked witnessed to take him to the latrine. A posted letter was put into deceased hand. This he put into his pocket without reading it. On returning witness put him into the cell. He asked witness a few minutes later to let him have some exercise. Witness let him out and marched up and down the corridor twice with him. Then they stood at the door of the cell.  Deceased then said he wanted a book out of the guard-room, and witness let him go into the guard-room. He sat on a kit and commenced turning pages over. There was one man in the room writing a letter, with his back to Pugmire. At that time witness was standing at the door of the guard-room watching deceased. Someone asked witness for a match, and while his back was turned for a moment he heard a shot go off. Witness thought the report came from the main hall, and ran there. Everybody was rushing towards the guard-room, and he afterwards went there and found Pugmire had been found shot. The guns belonged to the relief guard, but they were not loaded. Someone had gone to the latrine and had hung his equipment up in the guard-room. It contained 80 cartridges. Several unloaded rifles were hung up a few yards from deceased.

Harry Rutherford said he was writing a letter in the guard-room when the last witness brought the deceased in. Deceased spoke to him, and about half a minute later witness heard the report of a gun, and found deceased lying on the floor. A gun was lying beside him. Deceased was lying face downwards with the rifle at his right side and the muzzle towards his head. There were about six rifles hanging on the pegs and this rifle seemed to be nearest to him. The man’s equipment that was hanging up was one cartridge short.

Dr. Newstead said there was a punctured bullet-wound in the lower part of the front of the abdomen and a similar wound in the back part of him. The bullet had gone right through. Pugmire died on Thursday from shock following the injury.

The jury found that the deceased died from shock consequent upon wounds self-inflicted with a rifle, and that there was no evidence to show the state of his mind.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Maggie Neary for transcribing this article for the Northumberland At War Project.

We would also like to thank Dimitrios Corcodilos for supplying the image used in this post, along with a number of other digital images of military headstones found within the Blyth Links Cemetery, Cowpen Cemetery and Cowpen (Saint Cuthbert’s) Roman Catholic Burial Ground.

 

 

Domestic pigs and dusty feet: the smaller courts of Pannage, Woodmote and Piepowder.

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The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) records documents produced in the honour courts. An honour is an administrative unit based on a number of manors, the tenants of which owed suit to an honour court in addition to, or in place of, the normal manor court. As explained in one of our earlier blogs the two main types of manor court are the Court Baron and the Court Leet. However there were other smaller courts dealing with specific types of business, these are not recorded on the MDR but it is useful to be aware of their function.

Pigs in woodland
Pigs in woodland

The Forest Court had jurisdiction over woodland and was sometimes called the Woodmote or Swainmote Court. The Court of Pannage dealt with the business of releasing domestic pigs into the forests to feed on acorns, beech mast and chestnuts. This was often a right or privilege given to local people or in some places pigs were customarily presented to the lord of the manor. In some areas of the country a unit of administration existed between the shire and parish, this was called a Hundred and had its own court. In Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire the Hundred Court was referred to as the Wapentake Court.

ZHE 2/2, reference to the Piepowder court highlighted.
ZHE 2/2, reference to the Piepowder court highlighted.

The Court of Piepowders was held in a borough on the occasion of a fair or market.

This document from the Allendale papers mentions a Court of Piepowder in 1685. The court had unlimited jurisdiction over events taking place in the market and tended to deal with disputes between merchants, theft, and acts of violence. The court was held in front of the mayor and bailiffs of the borough or the steward, if the market or fair was held by a lord. The jury comprised of three or four men and punishment ranged from a fine to the pillory. Trials were short and informal. If the court ruled against the defendant and the defendant could not pay his property could be seized and sold to cover the costs.

These courts existed to administer speedy justice over people who were not permanent residents of the place where the market was held. The name referred to the dusty feet (in French, pieds poudrés) of travelers and vagabonds, and was only later applied to the courts which dealt with such people. Court members themselves also wandered around the fair rather than sitting on a bench often getting their feet dusty in the process. In modern French, the word pied-poudreux is still occasionally used for travelling beggars.

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