Harrogate Herald - 21st March 1917
To Our Boys on Service
Dear Chaps,
I fancy I see you opening your eyes in wonderment,
trying to see more paper than was actually employed in the Herald
last week. It was quite a surprise for everybody. We were trying an
experiment. It failed. We found that we could not do justice to the
town, to the Herald, nor to the many objects which need our support,
so you will see we have gone back to the usual size, and we are
trusting in Providence to send us paper in the future. I never had a
more anxious or unpleasant hour than last Tuesday night. I was sent
for to go over to the works to cut down news that had already been
set. We had far more than could be got into the paper. As luck would
have it, advertisements were more numerous than usual, and that cut
down our available space. We shall still have to condense matter,
but I hope you will get as much that it will satisfy our supporters
at home.
A sailor has written me as follows, but he does not
sign his name : "Sir, I receive your paper every week, which I
appreciate very much. I am a sailor myself, and I have a little
grievance to make against your paper - that is, all the things you
publish are concerning soldiers. Even in your letter to the boys on
service, it is very seldom I see anything concerning the sailors. I
do not see any reason why we should be put in the background. Hoping
to see something shortly, I remain, yours truly, A Sailor".
To the sailor in question : My dear lad, you have
disclosed the skeleton in my cupboard. I have felt throughout the
war much regret that I could not include in my letter more items of
interest to sailors. But you see, my dear boy, the navy is the
silent arm of the service, and we at home know little about it.
Harrogate is an inland town, and we have not many district boys in
the Navy, so I seldom get letters from that branch of the service. I
am, therefore, a little out of touch with you except on rare
occasions. I will endeavour in the future to see if I can find
something to interest you tars particularly. You get the Herald, and
you will notice that the letters are nearly all from soldiers.
Many of you will know Mr W Lewis, of Grove House,
who has been attached to the family of the late Mr Samson Fox for
thirty years. Well, his son, Private J W Lewis, of New Zealand, came
in to see me with his father. He was an old Volunteer before he went
out, and only landed in this country on the 3rd of March. He had a
splendid trip of little over nine weeks, and all arrived in good
form, with the exception of one man, who had to be put ashore with
appendicitis. Lewis has a wife and two boys in New Zealand, and was
in the plumbing business. When the time came that he thought he
ought to enlist he closed his place of business and joined. Lewis
served his time with Mr Bellerby, plumber, Harrogate, and when quite
a boy for Armstrong's, the printer. His younger brother, Walter
Lewis,
also enlisted in New Zealand. Lewis has the alert manner, quick
brain, and geniality of our Colonial boys. It is well to have such
men of spirit fighting for the Mother Country.
I had a visit from a young soldier, who looked to me
about 20 or 21. his name was Private H W Paley. He belonged to one
of the Kent regiments, and has been in hospital in France. He is in
Harrogate now with one of the regiments training here. When he
called to see me the other day he was but 16 years, 7 months, and
had been out some time. He will probably not be sent back to the
Front, for the war will surely be over before he is 19.
Private R Oram wants the address of Bob
Jackson, of
the West Yorks. Perhaps someone will let me know.
Where all are so kind and generous, I don't like
making anything like invidious distinctions, but I ought to tell you
that Mr Bland, bookseller, Station Square, has sent a nice parcel of
books for boys at the Front. Mr Bland has been very helpful to me in
other ways. You will remember, perhaps, the business of Raworth
Brothers. Well, to that Mr Bland succeeded.
Private M Powell, who many of you will know, having
been invalided home with trench fever, has been in hospital three
months at St Annes-on-Sea. He was in Harrogate on ten days' leave.
He called in to see me. He is the son of Mr and Mrs Powell, of
Fairfield, Skipton Road. By the time you read this he will be back
in hospital at Blackpool or St Annes. He has been nineteen months in
France Sergeant Tinsley and Private Sabin were pals of his at the
Front. Powell still has a bit of a limp.
I am sorry to learn that Sapper Enderby is still in
hospital with pleurisy and other complications. He is too ill to
write, and his communications to his wife are penned by a nurse.
Of course, you all know or have seen Mr Fred
Carr,
the Editor of the Advertiser. He has three boys in the Army, and
they are wonderfully cheerful lads. In a letter home, Harold
Carr wrote
to say that he had joined the Machine Gun Corps. They put it rather
differently at home : "Joined the suicide club". Of
course, that is only a soldier's joke. Bless you, the boy likes it,
for he is full of the spirit of adventure. Another lad (Fred Carr) wrote
to say that he found a pal in the trenches who wouldn't leave him.
It was a black cat. That means luck, doesn't it? The eldest son, who
is also in the Army, is a clever musician. He was organist of Kirkby
Overblow Parish Church before he joined up. He, too, likes his
experience in the Army, and writes very cheerful letters. He was
with Mr E Raworth's, solicitor.
Like most of us, you boys will have looked upon the
Russian revolution with alarm at first, but when you consider the
whole business you will find that it has been for the salvation of
the country and the furtherance of the Allies' cause. You have read
of the peasant Rasputin, who posed as a monk. He was supposed to
have mystic powers by his dupes. He was a power behind the throne.
The Emperor of Russia has a good heart and many virtues, but is
superstitious, and under the influence of his wife, who was more so.
She seems to have been swayed by that rascal Rasputin, who was in
the pay of Germany. Men with strong German leanings were able to
obtain power which they used to the advantage of Germany. We can
understand, now, that through their machinations the Russians lost
Poland, and had that great set-back - the retreat. The pro-Germans
engineered the shortage of food. Their object was to make the people
discontented and demand peace. It has had the very opposite effect.
Immediately after the revolution provisions have come down with a
rattle. An almost bloodless revolution has followed which makes
Russia free and more war-like than ever. Rasputin had been put out
of the way by nobles, and that was the beginning of the reformation.
We could not understand Russia being short of food when wheat
supplies had so long been retained in the country through
difficulties of transport. Now, not only are the people paramount
and free from the domination of the old gang, but the army is free,
free to do what we all know it can do, without let or hindrance.
The Allies' Commission, which went to Russia,
endeavoured to convince the Czar what was needed to escape the
threatened revolution. He would not listen, and revolution followed
soon after the Commission left the country. German diplomacy had
once more proved a boomerang. Yes, the revolution was good. It has
accomplished what seemed well-nigh impossible. A new Government will
make a clean sweep of the pro Germans. The revolutionists are all
for war.
I told you at the time that Stephen Hill had been
called up. I said that he was not fit, and I quite expected we
should have him back. It seems he has now got his discharge. He has
been a long time in hospital. We shall welcome him back to our
business. When at home Stephen lives at Spofforth, and comes up
to work on his bicycle.
On Friday we had rain. It was the prelude of milder
conditions. On Saturday it was dull, but more spring-like than ever.
There was a balmy feeling in the air, quite inspiriting, for it told
us of pleasant days to come.
Last week I was asked to request Harrogate
professional singers and entertainers who were wishful to join a
Harrogate concert party, to go to amuse the boys at the front, to
send their names in to me. I have already received a number, and
amongst them are clever people. I believe the scheme will mature,
and so it is quite possible that you may see and hear some talented
people from Harrogate whom you know by reputation or by sight, if
not personally.
To Gordon Topham : We haven't a Christmas Annual
left.
You boys of Harrogate who have been associated with
the local YMCA will know Mr J H Halstead, who has been fourteen
years highway surveyor to the Knaresborough Rural District Council.
Since Mr J S Rowntree left Harrogate, Mr Halstead has occupied the
chair, and he was vice-chairman for several years before that. Well,
he has accepted the temporary position of lieutenant, combining that
of technical officer to the regimental labour unit attached to the
Durham Light Infantry. His son, Reginald Halstead, is a despatch rider
connected with the heavy artillery, motor transport section. Mr
Halstead is an able man, and you will recognise the importance of
his appointment from the military point of view.
I was having a little rest in the music room
upstairs on Saturday afternoon, when a lady and a little child were
shown into me. This little girl is aged four years. She has set her
heart on saving her pennies in her little money box, so that she
should send something to the soldiers. Her idea was so fixed that
she could not be turned aside, and so she was here today to hand her
little heavy box over to me, asking me to send something to the
soldiers. I turned it over in my mind, and somewhat reluctantly
accepted the commission. I am going to buy something to send to a
particular soldier who does not receive letters and never gets a
parcel. The lady was Mrs Holdsworth, wife of Private Fred
Holdsworth, who joined up two years ago, and is now with the
Imperial Yeomanry in Egypt. The little girl is his only daughter.
She is a fine specimen of four years. Her mother has wisely decreed
that she shall be outdoors in all sorts of weather, and the bairn is
a picture of health. I hope the parents will not let the little girl
forget this kindly act when she grows up, because it will prompt her
always to think of others.
Mrs Holdsworth told me that she was working in the
daytime at the gasworks. I was much surprised. I gathered, however,
that there are a number of women working there also. It seems the
company is pulling out the retorts and putting in new ones. The
labours these brave, patriotic women have undertaken include
chipping boilers, painting, dressing bricks, minding horses that
pull up the weight of heavy material, turning oxide. Mrs Holdsworth
is happy and contented, because she knows she is doing useful work
that has relieved men for the Front.
We received a wire at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of
Saturday, announcing that Bapaume had been taken. On Sunday morning
we had further information that fifteen villages had been captured
in the process. On Sunday afternoon at 3 we had a wire saying
British troops had entered Peronne. As the news was exclusively ours
I sent it flying through the telephone, and crowds gathered to read
it in the office window. The town was all smiles. I am afraid that
you have had some hard fighting and there will be many casualties.
Mr H A Fricker, the city organist of Leeds, and
conductor of the Leeds Philharmonic Society, is going to Toronto,
Canada, as conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of that city. He has
also received an important Church appointment there. I had a letter
from the editor of "Musical Canada" yesterday informing me
that Dr Voght had resigned the conductorship of the Mendelssohn
Choir. Dr Voght is of German extraction, and I presume he has felt
his position a delicate one. I know Dr Voght very well, and have
great admiration for him. I believe that he is a thorough Canadian
at heart. Such instances are rather distressing to old friends. The
editor of "Musical Canada" is desirous of information
about Mr Fricker, and has written to ask my help. I need hardly say
that I shall be glad to do it for the sake of Canadian friends as
well as for the editor and Mr Fricker himself.
Private C Taylor, of the West Yorks, and of
Knaresborough, is the son of Mr W J Taylor, The Hermitage,
Knaresborough. The boy was wounded on October 24th, 1916, in the
chest, and the missile went through his arm, causing a
"dropped" wrist. He has been in hospital four months, but
was lucky enough to get to a Harrogate establishment part of that
time. He has also been at Beckett's Park and the Chatham hospitals.
He is so much better that on Monday he went to an Army Pay Corps in
the South. He could not tell me much about the original boys, for
his lot have been scattered. He is very well in himself, and quite
cheerful. He hopes eventually to recover the use of his wrist and
hand.
To Max Stanton Linder : Send us your address, and we
will forward you the Herald.
Mr Pike, a superintendent of the Baptist School and
President of the Harrogate Sunday School Union, and an enthusiastic
member of the VTC, who joined the colours shortly after Whitsuntide,
was reported missing in November, ands has not been heard of since.
Can any of you boys let me have any information respecting him? I
want to relieve the anxiety of Mrs Pike.
The nephew of Trooper George Parker, whose name is
Crawford Wright, has been called up, and joined the Yorkshire
Hussars who are in England. The youth who was helping the nephew to
carry on Parker's window cleaning business, has now the assistance
of a very suitable man.
I have just heard that Stephen Hill has arrived
home, discharged. He has had three weeks of training and eight weeks
in hospital.
W H Breare
