Harrogate Herald - 14th November 1917

To Our Boys on Service

Dear Chaps,

The extension of leave to fourteen days and the promise that as many men will be spared to come home to see their friends as possible, has made the wives and mothers and relatives of soldiers serving abroad very keen on seeing their beloved ones home soon. I have had a letter this morning from the wife of a soldier, who is in Egypt, asking if I think her husband is likely to obtain leave. I can only give my opinion because I have no facts. I think it hardly likely that men in foreign countries far away will be granted leave. There is the difficulty of transport and other considerations. This morning, also, I have had a letter from a soldier who is very philosophical and reasonable. He is not in the most inviting of places and of course longs to see his home and friends once again; but he candidly tells me that he thinks it better that men situated as he is, far from home, should stay where they are until they can come home for good. To come home on leave and have to return would be a far greater trial than sticking it where they are until the moment comes when they may come west for good. There is just one ray of encouragement for the friends and soldiers far away, and that is we frequently hear of detachments being transferred from these trying localities to France and other places, nearer home, where they could obtain leave. As I will tell you I have no facts, but I do know that the authorities have the comfort and interest of the men at heart and will show them every consideration. I cannot hold out hope of leave, but there is a good chance of detachments being transferred from the distant fronts to the West. I hope this thought will be comforting to your women friends at home and that thus their wishes may eventually be realised.

If your mothers and wives now and then write to you in a despondent spirit I hope you will not be cast down, but remember that our dear ladies are very impressionable and subject to temporary moods. They are, on the other hand, brave and self-sacrificing, and this condition they maintain resolutely subject only to these little temporary lapses which may find expression in their letters to you. Write to them as often as you can and write cheerfully. You will then help them to maintain the mental strain to which we are all subject at home. If any of you happen to be troubled with liver don't write at that moment, but do so when the sun is shining within and without. To the younger chaps who have been accustomed to go to their mothers with all their troubles I would say, "Hoe your own row". Don't trouble mother with anything that will make her suspect that you are not happy. Do nor forget that the female heart is so sensitive and the brain so alert that your dear mother, bless her! is apt, now and then, to read into your letters something more than is intended. It is all because of maternal love for her dear boy. Just as the hen-mother of chickens spread forth her wing at the first sign of danger, so does your mother hasten to protect her lad, however grown-up he may be. You remember the old rhyme, "Who ran to help me when I fell?". Well, there it is. The same today as yesterday and the same, I hope, it will ever be.

The story goes that a military lady-motor-driver, who was ordered to pick up an American colonel at the door of the Savoy Hotel, arrived three minutes late. There stood the American colonel waiting, watch in hand. When she arrived, said the colonel : "I say Miss, you are three minutes late". "Yes", said the lady driver, "but you are three years late".

I am feeling very sad, boys, just this minute, for I have but now received information that Lieutenant Norman Beech was killed on the 9th of October - that date, if you remember, when the 1/5th had such a trying time. The gloom we feel, however, is partially brightened by the intelligence of the wonderful courage of the lad and how deeply he was loved and admired by his comrades, officers and men. You will see in the Herald letters from his fellow-officers which you will peruse with the same glow of pride that warms us all. We are so sorry for the parents and family, but try to console ourselves with the fact that he was not the only son, for Norman Beech has a brother in the Army who is likewise an officer. Our lamented friend had been out three years and gone through many severe engagements. Instead of taking his leave, which was overdue, he courageously went up the line, only to meet his death. His friends were looking forward expecting him home any day. If he had come out of that battle he would have had a long leave such as men who have been out a great time are now getting as "war-worn soldiers". It is difficult to imagine a boy of 22 being a war-worn soldier, but, alas! it is so. You who are his comrades will have pride and satisfaction in keeping his name alive. Leaving such a personality and such a record, he will never be forgotten. Lieutenant Beech was engaged to Miss Katie Fortune, second daughter of Riley Fortune. I know that your generous heartfelt sympathies will be with her as well as with the dear parents and friends.

For the first time in something like 60 years the shadow of a strike is hovering over the Herald Buildings. Masters and workmen during all that time have been like a happy family, sharing anxieties and troubles mutually. A short time ago the printers of Yorkshire, and I doubt not other parts of the country, presented demands to the master printers, all of which the latter could not accept. The masters are not avers to still further war bonuses being added to those already granted; but this demand is for a fixed uniform rate of pay (not a war bonus) on a dead level. The matter in dispute is, so far as I can make out, that the men want all districts to stand on the same footing as to pay, or, perhaps, I should say, treated alike. Heretofore the counties have been mapped out into districts and one scale of wages stood for one, another for another. You see rents and rates and living are dearer in some places than in others. The old arrangement left each district free to negotiate to the satisfaction of those who were in the same district. By the plan proposed in the printers' demands we should not reach equality, for printers in certain towns would be living cheaper and deriving advantages not possessed by those of other parts where the costs of rent and living were higher. It is this inequality to which the masters object. They want to be free to meet the demands of their own districts and the conditions which prevail therein. Most of our men belong to a Union, and that Union has ordered them to send in notices and down tools if the terms are not accepted within a fortnight. It is not the first time the society has forced our men to certain actions. Nevertheless, we have always tried to be sympathetic, fair, even liberal. What is going to happen, for the moment, I cannot tell you, for I do not know. We have men who have been with us over 50 years, over 40, and plenty over 30. Amongst them are those not likely to find employment elsewhere; yet they are forced to come out with the others by the iron will of the Union.

My thoughts when the shadow came upon the horizon was of you boys an what you would do without your Herald. That, my dear lads, was my first consideration, and it troubles me more than anything else. I hope it may not come to this; but we cannot tell. I believe in workmen having good homes and wages by which they can live comfortably. There is one thing that I cannot understand, and it has struck me forcibly of late, and that is why any man should consent to be placed in such a position that he himself cannot decide between right and wrong without being penalised. Neither can I understand why the innocent should suffer with the guilty.

There is another thing which troubles me and came to my mind soon after I thought about you boys and your Herald - the workpeople here who are not in the Union and those who are not qualified to join and their dependents. What is to become of them if we are forced to close down? I have told you of this shadow, yet I hope the story will have no effect upon your excellent spirits. The motto for us all still is "Keep smiling" and cling to hope. It is Friday whilst I am speaking to you, an I understand that our men will hand in their notice tonight. The weather is appropriate : it is dull, damp, and rain is falling.

Later

I received our men's notices at 5.40 tonight (Friday).

Corporal G C Sawbridge called Monday when on last leave. He has quite recovered from his wound that brought him to St George's, by a fortunate transfer, and is looking really well. He hopes to get back to his old unit amongst his good comrades. In the camp at home where he has been lately were Noddings and Mickey Dawson. Noddings has been in hospital with nephritis and will not be going out yet. It will be Dawson's first trip out when he goes. Sawbridge sends his remembrances to his friends at the Front.

To W Goodridge : Will you forward us your latest address? The assumption if you are not receiving the Herald is that the address is wrong. We have no wristlet watches in stock, yet have many applications. If we get some you will receive one in your turn.

Private D A Fowler, HAC, son of Mr & Mrs W H Fowler, York Place, Harrogate (of Messrs John Fowler & Sons, coachbuilders), has been posted as missing on October 8th. The parents would be glad of any information regarding their son.

I have just learnt that Private Arnold Douglas Kershaw (York and Lancs Regt) has been missing since October 9th, and his wife at 13 Grey Street, Oatlands Mount, Harrogate, would be glad if any of you boys could give her any information. He was employed at Mr Allen's, clothier, Market Hall, Harrogate, before enlisting, and joined the Army two years ago. Before going to France on December 28th last he was transferred from the Yorks Dragoons.

It is Sunday and a nice sharp, clear day. The new Mayor's procession to the Baptist Church (Councillor Johnson) has just passed the Herald Buildings. Usually we have had one military band, often two. Today the Volunteers' Drum and Fife Band is doing excellent duty and winning approval by their good tone and excellent four-part playing. A squad of wounded headed the procession, if I may except the small boy scout who shows the way. There was a large contingent of special constables besides the regular police, Magistrates and a goodly array of citizens, boy and girl scouts, Fire Brigade, Volunteers and representatives of other Harrogate organisations. I hope the fine weather is a prophetic sign of a pleasant year of office for the Mayor and Mayoress, and much benefit to the town.

I have to ask you to send any news you can of the following missing soldier : Lance Corporal D K Morris, of the 1/5th, has been missing six weeks up to today. He was a Beechwood Boy and formerly with Mr Carter-Squire, with whom he joined up at the outbreak of war. Letters and parcels addressed to him have not been returned and no tidings are here. His mother is anxious for news. Her address is 38 Dawson Terrace, King's Road, Harrogate. I trust we shall be able to hear that he is a prisoner or strayed to another unit.

I have received further information respecting the late Lieutenant Beech. He joined as a Volunteer in September, 1914, and went out to France early in April, 1915. There he won his DCM and card of merit on December 19th, 1916, and was given his commission on the field on October 8th, 1916, so that practically he was killed on the anniversary of receiving his commission.

On Saturday I had a visit from my friend Second Lieutenant Laurie Shipman. I was pleased to hear that two weeks ago he was presented with the Meritorious Service Medal in London. He is now in the Furness Hospital, Harrogate, which you will remember best by its old title - the Grand Hotel. He came last Wednesday. His wound was dangerously near his eye. If he had happened to turn his head it might have penetrated deeper and been his end. The same bullet also hit his Platoon Sergeant. Shipman, you will remember, has had long service in the regular Army. You may imagine then with what pride I heard from him expressions of the greatest admiration for those citizen-soldiers who had fought with him. Their bravery was a marvellous revelation. They were as cool and confident as they could be, and although they had not before been under fire they went forward with cigarettes between their lips, smiling and determined. He could not believe that men who had not been under fire could have advanced and fought so courageously. Shipman's manner is calm and quiet. But if you could only have heard the convincing tone of his voice those words of his would have carried further significance to you.

I have not seen Wireless Officer C Potts, son of Mr & Mrs H Potts, since Easter. He looked in on Saturday whilst home on only three days leave. He has been at sea all the time and in perfect health. He is immensely pleased with his work, and his bearing is that of a man of geniality, good humour and determination. He has been on long voyages, and on one occasion whilst in Canada met a Harrogate lady named Mrs Fred Smith, deriving much pleasure from the meeting. It brought him so near home. He had missed his Herald very much, but then he was unable to give me an address, so we could not follow him. We hope to be in better touch with him in the future.

We are inclined to grumble at mistakes, but there are some which we can forgive with all our hearts. Here is an example : Mrs Dobby, of Starbeck, received a letter from an officer stating her husband had been killed. She then got a postcard from Limburg saying he was a prisoner in Germany. I have had a number of people to see me, in great trouble, because their dear boys were missing. I hope this instance I have now given will encourage them to still hope in the absence of the most direct evidence. I know instances where friends at home have just lately received conflicting rumours about their husbands and sons. It has been difficult to reassure them and to stimulate hope, but I have tried hard and perhaps this case will calm their minds.

Yesterday Private B Hollins, who is in the Army Pay Office at the base, and whom you will remember as son of Mr & Mrs J T Hollins, 4 Franklin Mount, looked in to see me accompanied by his wife. It seems when he first went out he had to go to hospital with illness, but has since been well and looked so yesterday. He occasionally sees a Harrogate boy and had met Wilkinson, the cricketer, two months ago, when Wilkinson was in hospital at Wimereaux. Hollins has been out eighteen months, and this is his first leave. Horace Rymer was buried in his village, and he often takes flowers to the grave. Miss Tomlinson, of Tanfield, is a VAD, in a hospital there.

It is not often that I have a visit from one of our jolly tars, so I was all the more pleased to see Seaman H Calver, of HMS Royalist. He is a son of Sergeant and Mrs Calver. I was sorry to hear from the boy that the father had been gassed and was now in hospital at Boulogne. It was the "mustard" gas he got, and his eye-sight more than anything has been affected. Seaman Calver I identified at once. Before me stood a fine , strong, stout fellow with beaming round face, rosy cheeks and hair clinging close to his head in ringlets of that rich red, the possession of which is the glory of some fair women. I had not seen him since he was a chubby boy, with a butcher's basket on his arm, arrayed in a smock. But I noted him then and made up my mind that here was a lad who would make good, very good. Lots of you chaps who know Harrogate will have seen him. I want to tell you a remarkable incident, which, by the way, is by no means uncommon. Providence is very good to you lads in the matter of those things which make up the sum of your comforts. Early on Monday morning a mother of a soldier came to ask if she could get a razor for her boy. It so happened I had not one in stock. A few minutes after, by post, came quite a large parcel from Dan Godfrey, conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. This contained a fine collection of razors - two beauties with white handles and other serviceable ones. The good mother got her razor. My friend Calver happened to let slip that he had lost his, and so I was able to give him, too, one of Dan Godfrey's. Now don't you think this remarkable? Yet it is continually happening. That is why I say Providence is very good to you.

W H Breare