Download PDF, 1.13MB

REMEMBERING LINTON AND DISTRICT:
In 1908, when sites for a cross country network of Territorial Force General
Hospitals were selected, one of these was the 1st Eastern General Hospital, in
Cambridge. Then in 1909, the War Office in England was wrestling with how would
the sick and wounded be cared for in the event of war. The War Office’s solution
was the ‘Scheme for the Organisation of Voluntary Aid in England and Wales.’
This was to be set up as part of the Territorial Force but to operate under the British
Red Cross Society with the help of the St John’s Ambulance Service. Locally
sites were identified with Linton VAD Linton Division 16
Cambs founded in 1912 and Balsham VAD Linton
Division 32 Cambs in 1913.
In 1909, the Linton Church Choir was ecstatic
because they had been allowed to view “HMS
Superb”, one of only three Dreadnought battleships
in the British Fleet. Over 150 warships were present
at the review of the fleet off Southend.
Manor House, Linton VAD Linton Division 16 Cambs and House on the Green, Balsham VAD Linton Division 32 Cambs
Linton and the surrounding villages were very
used to having their every green space full of
troops; as in September 1912 they had been
host to Army Manoeuvres, which were the
last large scale exercise of its kind conducted
by the British Army before the outbreak of the
First World War.
King George V broke his Balmoral holiday to
come and spend the week with his army. In
the manoeuvres, Sir James Grierson
decisively beat Douglas Haig, calling into
question Haig's abilities as a field
commander. Offically it was declared a draw
to save Haig’s blushes, but due to the
Manoeuvres finishing a day early King
George V drove round the local villages.
This photograph featured in the Daily Mirror
sets the scene of the King meeting Robert
Linsdell of Linton, Robert was an old soldier from 80th foot a veteran of the Indian
Mutinies.
Linton being a large market town in South
Cambridge, it was naturally the main centre
of administration for the surrounding
villages and hence where there would be
sited both a recruitment office first in 1914
and again in March 1916 under the Military
Service Act, men were conscripted into the
armed services. It was also where men in
early 1916 attended Tribunals, to see if they
could be granted an exemption to
conscription. The local GP was Dr William Mortlock
Sept 1914: PATRIOTIC ACTION Palmer; he was the medical officer in charge of Linton VAD Ex-Sgt. Major S. Hillyard, of
Hospital and was also the medical officer in charge of the High Street, Linton, has
enrolled 80 recruits in three
medical part of the Linton Recruitment Office.
weeks.
The Cambridgeshire Regiment was officially formed in 1860
as the Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. The Cambridgeshire Regiment's
long association with The Suffolk Regiment began in 1887, when the 1st
Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps became the 3rd (Cambridgeshire)
Volunteer Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment.
During WW1, the two main local regiments
that men joined were the firstly the 1st/1st
Battalion
of
the
Cambridgeshire
Regiment, a Territorial Battalion It landed
in France on 15 February 1915 & served
continuously in France and Flanders until
1919
and
secondly, the
11th (Service) Battalion, the Suffolk Regiment, which
was the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Pals
Battalion, part of Kitchener’s Army. Their first major
battle took place on the 1st July 1916 on the first day of
the Battle of the Somme when over 30 men from the
local villages were killed.
The first local man to be killed was Rifleman George
Flack from West Wickham who was killed with the
British Expeditionary Force at the Battle of Cateau on
26th August 1914. The 2nd Battalion, the Suffolk
Regiment, a regular local Army unit suffered great
losses at the same battle.
SHIRTS FOR THE WOUNDED - Several ladies in the
village of Linton are making shirts for the wounded
Belgian soldiers. A collection was made last week,
and with the sum raised a quantity of material was
bought. A working party is held at the house of
Mrs. H. P. Chalk, whilst those who are unable to
attend the party do the work at home.
August 1914 the above:
In the first few weeks of WW1 the
Belgians fought very bravely and very
quickly wounded Belgian soldiers and
refugees arrived right across Britain.
Many arrived in Cambridgeshire. The
Cambridge papers reported on 21st
RED CROSS SOCIETY: The Linton Union has
been approved as a temporary hospital
and the necessary arrangements are
being made. The second lecture in
connection with the above Society was
delivered by Dr. Palmer on "First Aid to
the Wounded" on Tuesday afternoon.
The Ladies' Working Party is still
meeting and doing good work.
On the 15th November 1914, Dr
William Mortlock Palmer & the
Linton V.A.D. Detachment started
work in the north wing of the old Linton Union Workhouse, as they welcomed the
arrival off 22 wounded Belgian soldiers. The
soldiers arrived in just the remnants of their
uniforms and the Linton Rector; Rev C
Brocklebank provided some Linton church
funds to help replace the soldiers’ scanty
wardrobe.
The Linton VAD hospital at the Union
Workhouse was closed in March 1915; Dr W.
M. Palmer had insisted that it wasn’t right to
treat wounded British Heroes like ‘Tommy
Atkins’ in a Union Workhouse & all the connotation's that might bring. Between
March 1915 & June 1915 the wounded were treated in tents while the VAD hospital
at the Manor House was being prepared, this open on the 5th June 1915
In May 1917 the Linton Workhouse reopened
& was used to house POWs. There 65
German prisoners, which later increased to
100, guarded by 35 armed guards
Kitchener’s 1914 call for volunteers under the
Derby scheme had proved extremely
successful, but had to be abandoned in
December 1915, because in spite of the fact
that the execution of Nurse Edith Cavell by
the Germans, on 12 October 1915 was used
in recruitment rallies by Lord Derby, the stream of over 2.5 million volunteers had
almost dried up. It was superseded by the Military Service Act which was passed on
27 January 1916; this introduced Conscription and the concept of total war. When
every unmarried man between the age of 18 & 41 was deemed to have enlisted in
the Army for general service. They were given until Thursday March 2nd 1916 to
apply to a local Tribunal for an exemption certificate. The most common request for
exemption was on the grounds of: ‘Men more useful to the Nation in their
present employments’. By May 1916, another change to the Military Service Act
was passed to included Married men and then in 1918 during the last months of the
war, another change to the Military Service Act raised the age limit to 51.
At the end of the war, these records were ordered to be destroyed, but some
examples can be found in the local newspapers. The most poignant local story
relates to two Linton bakeries who wanted to keep back their ‘bakers boy’ who both
Bakers deemed was essential.
In early 1916, the Linton Tribunal sat to consider
the case of the Linton Bakers, they tried all sorts of
ways of determining which one of the bakers boys
should go and which one should stay at home, as
they could not justify giving them both an
exemption. In the end it came down to how much
flour each Baker used each week, with one using
1lb more than the other. It was decided that the
baker’s boy from the bakery that used the least
flour should be conscripted and the other baker’s
boy granted an exemption. The Bakers Boy that went was tragically killed in Action
On July 1st 1916, three Linton men were killed near Albert in the first wave of the
Battle of the Somme. Rowland Clarke aged 25 years, George Fitch aged 28
years and George Shore of Horseheath Lodge. Telegrams informing parents of
their deaths reached the village within three weeks.
John Kemp who lived in the High Street was badly wounded on that day and lay in
no-man’s land until it was dark before crawling back to the British trenches. John
survived; another lucky escape was that of Arthur Pettitt who on August 18th was
hit by a shell which exploded the ammunition he was carrying. His shoulder was
very badly wounded and he had fifteen bullets removed from his body. Arthur also
survived, before the war he had been a coach builder for his adoptive father,
Frederick Suckling.
The Battle of the Somme dragged on until 18th November and a further 6 Linton
boys were to die.
One very sad case is that of two brothers, they were the sons of the ex-Linton police
superintendent, Edward Dyson and were born at the police station in Symonds
Lane. They both joined the Coldstream Guards in August 1914. Herbert Dyson
was 26 years of age and died in an attack on German trenches near Pozieres on
September 15th. His younger brother Arthur Dyson was aged 23 years and was
mortally wounded the very next day on September 16th close to the trench where his
brother had fallen.
Many of the above are commemorated on
the Thiepval Memorial opened in 1932 at
the very spot named as the British army’s
first day objective on July 1st, 1916.
In 1920 a German field gun was placed by
the Swan Bridge on a raised plinth, a
symbol of the allied victory.
The Linton war memorial was unveiled in
the Linton cemetery on the 13th March
1921