Author: cheltenhamremembers

The Gloucestershire Society in London held a Bohemian Concert in the Holborn Restaurant, London.  The proceeds paid for 400 Christmas parcels to be sent to the boys of the 1^st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment on duty at the Front.  The parcels contained a briar pipe, tobacco pouch, 2 oz tobacco, 50 cigarettes and matches.  There were also 280 one pound tins of Fry’s chocolate with 24 bars per tin and 300 tins of 6 ounces of peppermints in each tin.

On Saturday 12^th December 1914 at Whaddon Lane Football Ground a match took place between 9^th vs 10^th Battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment.  Admission was 3d, (Military 1d) with proceeds to Gillsmith’s Motor Ambulance Fund for the Front.

There were many Cheltenham boys in the Territorial Force’s 5^th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment.  In fact, their commanding officer was Frederick Tarrant, Bursar at Cheltenham Ladies College and among their officers was Cyril Winterbotham, brother of Councillor Percy Winterbotham, who himself later became an officer in the same battalion.  Their sister Clara was Cheltenham’s first woman councillor and became the first female Mayor in 1921.

The Battalion was posted to Chelmsford for training during Christmas 1914 and few of the houses in which the boys were billeted had baths.  The appeal went out from the YMCA to householders to please let the soldiers have a bath now and then.  A system whereby bath tickets were issued allowed the troops to keep clean.

Miss Edith Skillicorne, the Lady Mayoress and sister of the Mayor, appealed for mittens for every one of the soldiers billeted in Cheltenham to be sent to her house at 9 Queen’s Parade.  The knitters will need to be fast – her request  in appeared in the paper of 11th December and she wanted the mittens knitted by 19^th December!

On 5^th December 1914, The Rector of Cheltenham Rev Dwelly asked for Christmas puddings from the townspeople for the soldiers. People were asked to “Kindly put your name on the bowl so that we may return them after use.”

The Soldiers’ Welcome held a Plum Pudding Supper on New Year’s Eve and expected 1,200 soldiers to attend!

Monday 11^th November 1918  At 10.40 a.m news reached the Echo office by telephone that The Armistice had been signed at 5 a.m. that morning and came into force at 11 a.m.  The discussion between the German delegates and those of the Allies had lasted all night.  A special edition of the newspaper was immediately printed and distributed.

Discover how Cheltenham celebrated an end to fighting.

Stop Press in the Echo “From all parts of the country reports arrive of almost indescribable enthusiasm and public rejoicing.” 

Continue reading “The End? Part 2 : Armistice 1918” →

“In war, truth is the first casualty”, so said Aeschylus.  It is not surprising, therefore, that the news of the impending end of the war was greeted, as Cheltenham’s Rector of the Parish Church Rev H.A. Wilson said, “…with dazzling suddenness”.  Who knew what to believe from newspaper reports in the Echo?  Local and national news was heavily censored to keep up morale on the home front of those who were heartily tired of the war and its effects.  But townspeople knew that, having heard stories from the soldiers home on leave, contradicting what they read in the papers. 

Continue reading “The End? The final days before Armistice 1918” →