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HERITAGE The Quarterly Journal of Sittingbourne Heritage Museum |
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| A Town at War - Sittingbourne 1916 | A shortened version of an article which has appeared in our Journal. Click here to see other journal items. | |
| Our Journal is distributed free to members and includes articles, pictures and comment on life in Sittingbourne across the centuries. We welcome contributions for publication. It can be some research you have done, a personal memory of life in Sittingbourne or simply an anecdote about our town. Do please contact us. We will be happy to discuss your contribution with you. From time to time we will publish extracts from our Journal on this website page. |
Zeppelin Raid on Sittingbourne July 1916 |
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Gore Court Military Hospital |
"A lovely morning" was how Sergeant Cook described the morning of 1st. July 1916 as he and his men waited for the Battle of The Somme to begin at 7.30 . “We were all looking forward to it and it looked like a cakewalk. The men were in excellent spirits. After so many months in the trenches and taking everything coming our way we would have our chance of revenge for our many lost pals”. |
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were sentiments which were shared in Sittingbourne where morale seemed to
be at a rather low ebb. Almost two years of war and sacrifice had resulted
in stalemate and it looked as if the conflict might drift on
indefinitely.. In February 1916, The East Kent Gazette advised its
readers: “ The 18th month of the War was completed this week. This is
exactly one half of the period said to have been the estimate of Lord
Kitchener of the possible duration of the War. The end is not yet in sight
and still greater sacrifices have to be made.Those who talk of peace, and
claim that the war could have been avoided, ignore the fact that German
policy is world domination” Referring to a shortage of those prepared to
undertake voluntary service on the home front, the paper said: “There
are undoubtedly some citizens who utterly fail to realise that there is a
public service to be performed or that they have any obligation to
undertake such service”.
Alex Fairweather of Newington wrote in a letter “Most people take their politics from the platform as they take their religion from the pulpit , without indulging in that most unaccustomed exercise of thinking. They allow themselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter. I have a son, daughter, 10 nephews and a son-in law all engaged in this hell, but we must all go on with it, whatever it costs”. |
Private Gorely. 5.7.1916. Age 27 |
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| Some corner of a foreign field | A Garrison Town | |
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the days before modern media communication, people at home might have been
thought to be somewhat insulated from the hell referred to by Mr.
Fairweather. This does not appear to have been the case. A not untypical
letter from the front was one from the Rev. J.C. Bohn former pastor of
Sittingbourne Congregational Church and now an army Chaplain. He writes to
a friend describing Christmas 1915. “I spent Christmas Day in the
trenches which in places were knee deep in muddy water. I could see
fragments of Germans – blown to pieces by our bombs. The mud, wet and
general discomfort are indescribable. Later I came down to the hospital
with an ambulance full of sick and wounded. Firing was going on all
Christmas Day and there were no friendly exchanges between the British and
Germans”.
Advising his parents of the death of their son, Private Gorely of Sittingbourne High St., his C.O. wrote “I am happy to be able to inform you that his death was in no way marred by pain as it was instantaneous, the result of a high explosive shell bursting practically beside him.
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Sittingbourne
and district was a holding area for troops moving to and from France, many
of whom would have had a story to tell while billeted locally. Billeting
brought its own problems. The allowances had been reduced and were felt to
be inadequate (2/9d. per day for one soldier). Most houses did not have
enough bed space. It was stated that houses in and around Park Rd. with
nine and ten in family had three soldiers put into them. The men were
issued with straw mattresses to lay on the floor but both housewives and
men objected. In consequence, men were sleeping two or three to a bed
which encouraged the spread of infectious illnesses.
Troop numbers would have varied but some idea can be gathered from the number of admissions for hot baths in the old swimming pool building. This was an important facility. Most houses in Sittingbourne did not have a bathroom. In one week in October 1916, 2098 baths were taken, compared with a weekly average of 272 in 1913. In the 4 years of war the military accounted for 185,333 hot baths. Sittingbourne also provided military hospitals. There was the Red Cross hospital at Whitehall in Bell Road, the Hospital of St. John at Glovers, a temporary building on the corner of Bell Rd and Highsted Rd and the Army hospital at Gore Court. There was also a Hospital Supply Depot at The Cedars off Highsted Rd. described by its President Mrs. Edith Leigh Pemberton. “Since opening on 18th October 1915 £270 has been expended in helping to supply necessaries and comforts for the wounded.” At the end of August 1916 Whitehall had 60 wounded men and Glovers 34. Sittingbourne was also liable to air attack from planes and Zeppelins. Bombs fell in Unity St in July 1916 but there were no reports of casualties
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We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go ! |
Are we downhearted ? NO ! | |
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In January 1916 compulsory military service was applied to unmarried men between 18 and 41 and there is no doubt that the major issue in Sittingbourne throughout 1916 was manpower for industry, commerce and agriculture, and the liability for military service. Single men could apply to a Tribunal for deferment or exemption.
Your King and your Country They need you so. The Sittingbourne Tribunal heard several hundred applications in the first half of 1916 mostly from firms and farms seeking to retain men and from self employed individuals. R & W Crofts, Pawnbrokers, 94 High St. Sittingbourne, said they had only one assistant left and women were useless to them as they did not understand the value of property. The average number of pledges was between 3000 and 4000 per month. Those thought to be “draft dodgers” came under constant attack. It was claimed that a very large number of young men had managed to get into a reserved occupation in a munitions factory in Faversham. “They would rather earn inflated wages than defend their country.” Increasingly local industry and agriculture was turning, albeit reluctantly, to employing women.. A Rodmersham farmer said he could not employ his 18 year old daughter as she could not milk cows and he thought she would take a long time to learn. Despite increasing employment for women it was reckoned that three quarters of adult women were not employed in any industrial capacity. The housewife was faced with shortages and rising prices. To conserve sugar it was suggested that adults did not need it. The absence of the man of the house created problems. The NSPCC said that since the outbreak of war they had taken action in respect of 16000 children of soldiers. The main problem was women drinking to excess and neglecting their homes while the husband was away. Many, it was said, were addicted to drink before the war and would drink after the war if they got the chance. In addition the Society had issued 54000 informal warnings about child neglect.
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July 1916 East Kent Gazette: “News from the Western Front continues to
be good. The restraint which seemed to have repressed the people through
long waiting has given place to a more cheerful feeling.”
19th July 1916 Gunner Gibson of Burley Rd. writing home: “Fritz has got to go and he is going too. This war cannot last many more weeks.” Keep right on to the end of the road ! The end of the year saw a change of Government and Lloyd George as Prime Minister but no early prospect of victory. Christmas was celebrated in the Milton Workhouse, “the men receiving tobacco, minus the clay pipes which could not be procured this year owing to the War.”
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