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This Week in World War One, 31 December 1915

08/03/201801/01/2016 by Northumberland Archives

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 31 DECEMBER 1915

BERWICK POST OFFICE

The amount of Christmas work dealt with at Berwick Post Office was very much the same as last year, but being spread over a longer period the pressure was not so much felt in consequence. Although the staff has been greatly depleted during the past year everyone put their shoulder to the wheel and the work went through expeditiously. Extra hours were, of course, worked, and the praiseworthy arrangement of supplying refreshment to the workers on the premises was once more in operation.

WW1 Xmas postcard 1915.

Extra help was brought in for rural deliveries in the shape of motor and other vehicles, while the Oddfellows’ Hall again proved a useful clearing house. Parcels delivered during the Christmas week amounted to about 6000, but there was not the usual postings of Christmas cards. A special and most noticeable feature was the large number of parcels posted for soldiers at the front, causing at times very great pressure, out-going mails being very heavy. For the first time at Christmas women were employed to do delivery and collection duty in place of the men on active service and officials speak in glowing terms of the way they discharged their duties. There is still a considerable amount of parcel and other postings passing through, but it is not anticipated that the staff will be heavily taxed at New Year.

CAROL CONCERT AND LECTURE

Interesting Notes on Christmas Carols

An attractive carol concert on behalf of the National Institute for the Blind was given in the Queen’s Rooms, Berwick, on Thursday evening by a number of local talented ladies and gentlemen. The principal object was to assist in raising funds to assist those soldiers and sailors who have lost their sight during the war and for their maintenance in a hostel for the purpose of teaching them some useful trade.

Blinded by tear gas in World War One, 55th (West Lancashire) Division troops await treatment at an advanced dressing station.

The soloists were Mrs Shepherd, Miss E. Elder, and Messrs Abbott and Riddell, while a duet was rendered by Miss Harbottle and Mr Riddell. Messrs R. Stott and Smith also took part in the programme of carols. The conductor was Mr Geo. Ballantyne, and the accompanist, Miss Skeldon. The programme was ably sustained the whole of the pieces being feelingly and tunefully interpreted, the efforts meeting with the cordial approval of the audience. A feature in the programme was a lecture on carols by Dr Gauntlett, organist and choirmaster in the Parish Church.

LOCAL NEWS

Corner Accident– An accident which might have been attended by serious results took place on Friday last at the foot of Hide Hill. It appears that a tub trap driven by a young lady named Miss Brown, of Tweedmouth, was taking the corner when a collision occurred with a motor car belong to Messrs McBain, Tweedmouth. The tub trap was upset and the young lady received a severe shaking. Happily she suffered no injury, although the pony was slightly cut by the collision. This is only one of many accidents which have taken place at the corners of Hide Hill from time to time, and each succeeding accident accentuates that fact that these sharp turnings are entirely out of date in coping with modern vehicular traffic.

THE PASSING AND APPROACHING YEAR

Again we have reached the closing days of another year. Too well we realise the terrible experiences we have come through during the past twelve months, for there are few homes that have not had their full share of the awful miseries of the Great War. To the bereaved and the maimed ordinary sympathy seems utterly inadequate, and a quiet and subdued silence often speaks more eloquently than any human words can utter. Time is the great healer and consoler in affliction, and it will only be the soothing influence of the ever-revolving seasons that will adequately supply the balm and needed comfort to so many aching hearts which are so utterly bereft. As we approach the end of the year it is natural that many should raise conjectures as to the position the country will be in by another year. Will the war be over? Who can tell. At the same time it seems highly improbable that its duration will extend so long. The material and national resources of Germany will be exhausted ere that time, and there may be an internal upheaval of the Teutonic empire that will hasten the close of the awful devastation.

Picture of Serbian infantry on Ada Ciganlija during the First World War. Wikimedia Commons

Already the national credit of Germany is steadily diminishing in the exchanges of neutral countries, and this must have a very important bearing on events in the opening periods of the new year. As we make a brief and general survey of the year that is nearly finished we have – great and acute as our sorrows are – reason to feel grateful that we have escaped the general holocaust that has overtaken Belgium, the North of France, and Serbia. And when we think of the recent awful massacres of the Armenian people it makes us realise this more fully. For had the brutal enemy been enabled to land on these shores we would have experienced this to the full. A small sample of it was shown a year ago in the bombardment of defenceless east coast towns where no discrimination or humanity was shown.

Notwithstanding the serious nature of the times we are passing through we desire to wish all our readers

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS

NEW YEAR

This Week in World War One, 3rd December 1915

08/03/201804/12/2015 by Northumberland Archives

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 3RD DECEMBER 1915

APPEAL FOR WINTER COMFORTS FOR LOCAL MEN

Hopeville, Castle Terrace,

Berwick-on-Tweed,

November 27^th, 1915

Sir, – May I venture through your columns, to make an appeal on behalf of the fifty men from our Borough who are serving with the Northern Cyclists in Lincolnshire? The Captain of their company writes that mufflers, mitts, and gloves would be most useful to them, and the Committee of the Guild of Aid have requested me, as their President, to ask you to kindly make this known. They would be very grateful if friends could let them have, as soon as possible, 50 mufflers and 50 pairs of mitts or gloves. They can be sent, either to

me, or to the Townhall, and will be forwarded at once. May I state for the information of any who may not know the working of our Guild of Aid, that, although we are now affiliated to the War Office scheme, which will send us word, from time to time, of its special requirements, that we also gladly receive any Tuesday afternoon from 3 to 3.30. at the Townhall, any comforts, socks, mitts, gloves, mufflers, etc., and these are distributed as the need arises, or requests are made.

This month we have sent 50 pairs of socks to the Tyneside Scottish through Mrs Crosbie; 30 pairs of socks to the 1^st Garrison Battalion, the Royal Scots, through Miss Wilkie-Lalyell; and 25 shirts and 25 pairs socks to the Belgian soldiers in the trenches.

Through the kindness of Mrs Leyland, in giving us a donation of £2 for the purchase of material, a parcel is being made up and will be sent shortly to the Serbian refugees.

To carry on this work all sorts of woollen comforts, material, and money are required, and for these we make an urgent appeal to the public. The smallest donation of money will be gratefully received by Miss Miller, Longstone View.

Money is needed for the material, and the carriage of all parcels not connected with the Government scheme, so, for this we earnestly ask the men of our town and district, whose women are so nobly giving of their time in making the various garments.

Trusting that I have not taken up too much of your space, and thanking you for your courtesy in inserting this letter.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

ISABELLA H. PLENDERLEITH

Mayoress

BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS

THURSDAY

Before the Mayor (Ald. J.W.Plenderleith), H. G. McCreath, Esq., A. J. Dodds, Esq., Thos. Purves, Esq., D. W. H. Askew, Esq., Robt. Boston, Esq., and Alex. Darling, Esq.

THEFT OF HOUSEHOLD GOODS

Mary Ann Weatherburn, married woman, Berwick, was charged with the larceny of a quantity of household goods the property of Robert Grieve, on the 30^th October, 1915.

Chief Constable said this woman was apprehended on warrant the night previously. Grieve, the prosecutor, lived near this woman, and was absent frequently, being a salmon fisher and rabbit catcher. He had been missing things from his house, and suspected the accused. A warrant was taken out, and her house was searched. Grieve would speak to the articles being his. He would ask for a remand to next Thursday so that they might attempt to recover other goods.

Robert Grieve gave evidence of having missed certain articles from his house in Hatter’s Lane. He was frequently away from his house having been employed first as a salmon fisher and later as a rabbit catcher. Mrs Weatherburn lived next to him in Hatter’s Lane. He identified the forks produced as his; they were over one hundred years old. The plates produced were also his, he having purchased them in 1873 from the late Mr Andrew Thompson.

Sergeant Wilson spoke to having received a warrant for the search of the house of the accused, and the recovery of one of the articles produced in Court. He later went round the pawnshops and recovered the two plates at Mrs Macmillan’s.

This being all the evidence proposed to be led to justify a remand, the Chief Constable moved accordingly.

The Mayor – have you anything to say against your being remanded?

Accused – yes, your worship. I am quite innocent of having taken them.

The Chief Constable asked that the accused be allowed out on bail. In the ordinary course she would have to go to Newcastle, but as she had a young infant, he would ask their worships to liberate her on bail.

Bail was fixed at five pounds, the accused entering into it on her own recognisance.

LOCAL NEWS

The N.E.R. Women Clerks – Not to be Withdrawn after War. – As the result of a deputation representing the clerical staff on the North Eastern Railway to the railway directors, it is stated that Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth had promised to reply in writing with regard to the application for an advance of 25 percent in wages. Sir Alexander also undertook to inquire into the question of allowances to dependants of enlisted men and the proposal to grant them a war bonus. He declined to give an undertaking that women clerks would be dispensed with after the war, but said that male clerks would be reinstated, and that the necessity now imposed upon the company of employing women would not be exploited.

Pictured right women worked in many occupations on the railway in WW1. This photograph shows them as carriage cleaners.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A SHOP KEEPER’S COMPLAINT REGARDING LIGHTING

Sir,- The local administration of the regulations for the lighting of shops has at last become intolerable. Since the end of summer we have been worried and bullied and threatened by the police. Some have even been fined. So great has become this tyranny that the faintest glimmer of light at times, even the opening of a door results in a visit from a policeman.

Early 1900s photograph of the High Street, from the Scotsgate Arch. © Berwick Record Office BRO 1636-2-9

With this state of affairs prevailing in my neighbourhood you can imagine my amazement the other night when I came across a shop in the middle of High Street ablaze with light. Both windows, and they are exceptionally high ones, were illuminated from ceiling to floor. No action would appear to have been taken in the case, for the offence has been repeated nightly. And the firm to which this special privilege has been granted is a multiple one, strangers who have not yet contributed a penny to our rates.

Are the police granting favours to some shops to the disadvantage of others? Are they discriminate as to which shops shall be lighted? If so then there is an end to the respect due to those who keep the peace.

SHOPKEEPER.

This Week in World War One, 26 November 1915

08/03/201827/11/2015 by Northumberland Archives

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 26 NOVEMBER 1915

SEAHOUSES

Coble in Peril

What might have proved a serious accident occurred to a coble named The Jeannies, owned by Mr George Fawcus, Seahouses, and others. While returning from the fishing ground under sail at about five miles per hour, the coble suddenly struck some submerged wreckage. The wreckage went through two planks, causing the coble to fill in about five minutes. The coble had about 50 stones of fish on board, and but for the fact that it was “air-boxed,” the occupants would probably have been drowned. The accident was witnessed by the coble Briton’s Pride, owned by William Rutter, who at once proceeded to give assistance. Fawcus’ crew of four were taken on board the Briton’s Pride, and they and the damaged coble were safely brought to North Sunderland Harbour. The two crews managed between them to save 20 stones of fish.

Entrance to North Sunderland Harbour, Seahouses. Phil Champion, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

“NORTHUMBRIANS’ OWN DAY.”

LOCAL SOLDIERS AND SAILORS TO BENEFIT

Alan Ian Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland (1880-1930), in a Grenadier Guards uniform, photographed by Alexander Bassano before 1913 (Date of Bassano’s death). Licensed under Wikimedia Commons, National Portrait gallery – PD-US (over 100 years old).

“Northumbrians’ Own Day,” is to be celebrated on Saturday throughout the county of

Northumberland, and only the generosity of the public is needed to make the undertaking a complete success. The emblem on this occasion will be an artistic medallion, on which is figured in relief one of the Fusiliers advancing with a fixed bayonet, and bearing the inscription, “Strike hard, Northumbrians.” and the date “1915.” The medallion, neatly cased in plush, is to be presented as a souvenir to the helpers who assist with the sale of these mementoes. “Northumbrians’ Own Day” is under the patronage of His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., Earl Grey, Viscount Allendale, Viscount Ridley, Lord Armstrong, and Lord Joicey, and a host of other notable and distinguished gentlemen of the North Country. The committee earnestly appeal for subscriptions, however small, knowing that this special Christmas effort on behalf of our soldiers and sailors can only be the great success hoped for through the generosity of all. A number of subscriptions have been received, including a cheque for £200, from His Grace the Duke of Northumberland. Cheques and postal orders should be crossed “Northumbrians’ Own Day” Barclay’s Bank, Collingwood Street, Newcastle. Mr Leonard Dalrymple is the chief organiser, Mr Fred Sutcliffe the hon. Treasurer, and Mr George Harcourt the hon. secretary, the central headquarters being at the Westgate Picture House, Newcastle.

HOLY ISLAND AND THE WAR

Holy Island is doing its share of work during the present time of anxiety and stress. Although the population is small, nearly all the eligible men are engaged in working for the country, either as mine sweepers or in the Army. Amongst others who have left is the schoolmaster, Lieut. Hollingsworth. He departed from the island with the best wishes of all for his welfare, accompanied by a rousing cheer from the Scouts and school children assembling to wish him good luck and a safe return after the war is over.

GRACE DARLING’S CENTENARY

There seems to be some conflict of evidence regarding the birth of Grace Horsley Darling, if one is to depend upon the veracity of the official guide to Holy Island. It is there stated that she was born on December 17th, 1815, and that she was one of a family of seven.

Darling Family Grave, St Aidan's Churchyard — Darling Family Grave, St Aidan’s Churchyard.

The grave is the resting place of Grace and several of her family members. The headstone is a copy of the original which has been preserved and is on display in the nearby Grace Darling museum.

On the other hand it would appear from more authoritative sources that the birth of the heroine is recorded as 24th November, 1815, and it would be interesting to learn how this discrepancy has occurred. It is unnecessary to enter into any lengthened story regarding the devotion and heroism of the famous daughter of the lighthouse keeper of the Longstone. It is familiar to all from their childhood days, and more particularly so in this part of Northumberland. Suffice it say that the recue from the S.S. Forfarshire which left Hull for Dundee on 5th September, 1838, took place on the morning of the 7th of that month. With the assistance of her father, Grace Darling in a frail coble, succeeded in rescuing five of the crew and four passengers. As is well known the heroine is buried at Bamburgh, where a handsome monument surmounts the grave.

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