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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