1. Arrival at Harpenden - Men of the 6th Battalion marching down Station Road, near Calton Bank, August 1914. Note the horse and cart going up the hill.
Michael Briggs - SF5-MB
2. Arrival of 1st of the 5th or 1st of the 6th Battalion, Notts & Derby Regiment, August 1914, Station Road, Harpenden
LHS archives, SF scan 0018
3. 1st of the 6th Battalion, N Staffordshire Regiment, marching along Leyton Road, Harpenden, probably autumn 1914
LHS archives - SF scan0013
4. 6th Battalion - marching along St Albans Road, Harpenden,1914
Michael Briggs - SF6-MB
5. 1/6 battalion, N Staffordshire Regiment, marching out of Rothamsted Park, Harpenden, probably autumn 1914
LHS archives - SF scan 0014
6. "The Staffords" surrounding the regimental postman, High Street, Harpenden, probably late 1914.
LHS archives, copy of Skillman postcard
7. Kings Retreat, Harpenden High St, winter 1914, possibly Territorials of 46th Division.
LHS archives - SF scan 0009
8. Probably Territorials of 46th Division, marching along High Street, near the Cock Pond, Harpenden, August 1914 - NOT on Harpenden Common as the postcard indicates.
LHS archives - SF scan 0016
9. Church parade on Harpenden Common, opposite 'The Director's House', West Common.
LHS archives - SF 0026
10. Military funeral, High Street, Harpenden, Winter 1914-15
LHS archives - SF 0028
11. Burial of a soldier in St Nicholas Parish Church graveyard, during the 1914-18 war.
Reproduced from 'Truly Thankful' by Betty Walthew.
12. Soldiers with bicycles, at the corner of Sun Lane and High Street, Harpenden - unidentified regiment.
LHS archives, SF scan 0015
13. Territorials exercising with Lee-Enfield rifles, Harpenden Common, Aug 1914 - note the cows strolling past!
LHS archives, SF scan 0017
14. Soldiers on Harpenden Common, resting? What is going on behind the bushes?
LHS archives - SF 0027
15. 2 - 6th Battalion - in Harpenden, or possibly Watford, 1914
Michael Briggs - SF2-MB
16. Machine gun section, unidentified regiment, on Harpenden Common.
LHS archives - SF 0027
17. 6th Battalion - transport lines on Harpenden Common, 1914
Michael Briggs - SF10-MB
18. Officers riding on Harpenden Common - c.1914
LHS archives - SF 0030
19. Basil Derbyshire on Topsy, possibly on Leyton Green, Harpenden, 1914
Michael Briggs - SF13-MB
20. 6th Battalion, on Harpenden Common ('Rosemary', Milton Road, in background) 1914
Michael Briggs - SF9-MB
21. Bread delivery cart in Lower High Street, Harpenden - men of N Staffordshire regiment and scout volunteers
LHS archives - SF 0020
22. North Staffordshire men distributing bread, Church Green, Harpenden, 1914.
LHS archives, SF scan 0018
23. Nurses and medics in Rothamsted Park, 1914. Mrs Violet Kelynack is in the centre of this and the following two pictures.
LHS archives
24. Staff and medics (?) outside The Institute, Harpenden, 1914
LHS archives
25. Staff and patients, outside The Institute, Harpenden, 1914.
LHS archives
26. YMCA volunteers and clergy, Harpenden c.1914
LHS archives
27. 7th Battalion, YMCA volunteers, possibly in Harpenden, 1914
Michael Briggs - SF12-MB
28. Men of the 5th Battalion, on the terrace of 'Rosemary', the house Henry Tylston Hodgson had built in 1908, and made available for billeting - 1914-15. It became a hospital from October 1915 to May 1916 when the troops left Harpenden, and again from March 1917 until February 1919, it was an outpost of Napsbury Hospital.
Michael Briggs - SF4 MB
29. 6th Battalion, B company, outside Jubilee Cottage, Tennyson Road, 1914
Michael Briggs - SF7-MB
30. Men from 1_4 or 1_5 bttn Lincolnshire Reg, poss. Cravells Road, Harpenden
LHS archives - SF 0002
31. Territorials with Imperial Services badges, 46th Division, in Cravells Road, (or more probably in Vaughan Road) Harpenden, c.1914.
LHS archives - SF 0004
32. Soldier from Notts & Derby Regiment, possibly in Cravells Road, Harpenden, 1914
LHS archives - SF 0007
33. Men of the 1/4th or 1/5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, possibly in Cravells Road, Harpenden, c.1914
LHS archives - SF 0023
34. Charlie Knight of 11 Cravells Road, Harpenden, who served in the New Zealand army, during the 1914-18 war.
LHS archive - SF 0032
35. Two territorial men, billeted in Cravells Road, Harpenden, c.1914
LHS archive - SF 0033
36. Soldier from 1/4th or 1/5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment - in a formal garden?
LHS archives - SF 0006
37. Private Charles Robert Gunn, 1/5th N Staffordshire Regiment, c.1914
LHS archive - SF 0031
38. Territorial men with young girl - perhaps a family studio portrait?
LHS archives
39. North Staffordshire men, manning the Searchlight battery on Harpenden Common, 1917-18.
LHS archives - SF 0021
40. Possibly Rifle Corps or men of Searchlight battery on Harpenden Common, 1917-18
LHS archive - SF 0010
41. Searchlight battery on Harpenden Common - 1917-18.
LHS archives - SF scan 0025
42. Probably a school training unit.
LHS archives - SF 0003
43. Perhaps a studio portrait of a school cadet?
LHS archives - SF 0005
44. 6th Battalion officers, at Braintree, February 1915. They had possibly moved from billets in Harpenden.
Michael Briggs - SF17-MB
45 Officers of 1/8 in Harpenden, November 1914.
Michael Briggs - SF18-MB
46. 2 - 6th Battalion - in Harpenden, or Watford? 1914
Michael Briggs - SF1-MB
47. 2 - 6th Battalion, NCOs in Casiobury Park, Watford, 1915
Michael Briggs - SF3-MB
48. 6th Battalion - probably camped in Watford, 1915
Michael Briggs - SF8-MB
49. Robin Hood Rifles, location unidentified
Michael Briggs - SF14-MB
50. 2_6th-Derby-scheme-men - Territorials, probably in Watford 1915
Michael Briggs - SF15-MB
51. Men of the 8th Battalion, probably at Westoning, near Luton, summer 1915
Michael Briggs - SF16-MB
52 - Notts & Derby Territorial, showing Imperial Service Badge
Michael Briggs - re SF16-MB -
“Harpenden is further revolutionised by having been made into a military depot during the past six weeks. 5000 territorials have been billeted on the inhabitants to the great excitement and considerable inconvenience of housewives.” (TJ p.135 – 26 September 1914)
This is one of several references in Theodora’s Journals (TJ)- extracts from the diaries of Theodora Wilson who lived in Rivers Lodge, overlooking Harpenden Common. “There is continual marching and drilling on the common. The club-rooms are occupied and tents arranged for recreation and the whole parish is in a ferment.” (TJ, p.135). She reports that “A field hospital has been rigged up in the Park – for which Violet Kelynack and another nurse are responsible,” (TJ, p.135) and she writes a year later of her sister Rhoda having “just had a fortnight’s training at the St Albans Red Cross Hospital for the troops billeted in the neighbourhood and she hopes during the winter to help in our Harpenden St John’s Ambulance Brigade in the hospital in the old Institute which all last winter was worked … by Violet Kelynack” (TJ, Sept 1915, p.141) – see pictures 23-25 below.
Later in the war she reports that “At Harpenden we now have a searchlight on the common and one anti-aircraft gun. … I must confess the concentration of searchlights when there is a raid is a very magnificent spectacle and all through the winter [1917-18] we were constantly calling each other to watch the beams of light sweep the heavens.” (TJ, p.155) – see pictures 39-41 below.
The collection of photographs in the Gallery below has been drawn together from postcards and other prints in the Society’s archives, and from images collected by Michael Briggs, who has spent many years researching the Sherwood Foresters. He has helped identify some of the units to which the men belonged, as they passed through Harpenden during the early years of the war. He has published his ongoing work on the various battalions known as the Sherwood Foresters at http://derbyshireterritorials.wordpress.com/. This traces the fate of the many young men – some of whom posed for photos outside their billets and took part in training exercises on the Common – who had little understanding of what lay in store for them.
The Gallery follows a sequence:
- 1-8 Arrival and marching through Harpenden
- 9-11 Regimental services, funerals
- 12-20 Exercises in and around Harpenden
- 21-22 Provisioning – particularly bread
- 23-25 Nursing and medical services
- 26-27 YMCA
- 28-38 Individual portraits, men outside their billets
- 39-41 Searchlight on Harpenden Common (1917-18)
- 42-51 Groups, some in Cassiobury Park, Watford.
Much research work remains to be done: on how the billeting was organised; provisions for such a large increase in population; how the officers and men were accommodated; the support of volunteers, as mentioned by Theodora Wilson – “All through the winter we were asked to knit socks and mufflers for our men at the front, and there were constant demands for help in all sorts of new ways.” (TJ, Sept 1915, p.141)
Other pages describe the medical and nursing services and the use of Henry Tylston Hodgson‘s house, Rosemary, as a hospital, after having earlier been offered for billeting (see 28.) Many local organisations were involved in the war effort, including the Rifle Club.
We hope this gallery and our exhibitions will encourage people to make links with family and other stories.
To view the Gallery, click on the first (or selected) picture and then move to next image, or return to the ‘menu’. You can add comments or further information about any of the images – or about the whole page at the end of the Gallery.
Author
Rosemary RossPage last edited
19/07/2021Page created
18/05/2014Page created by
Rosemary Ross
Comments about this page
Writing her memories during the 1970s, Doris Annie Pigott (1905-1994), daughter of Edwin Richard Billingham, who ran a music shop at 12 Station Road, described the “troops, from the Sherwood Foresters, Middlesex Regiment and others, all billeted in houses in the village and fed in local halls, to which they went with their billy cans. They had khaki uniforms with brass buttons which were polished each morning before Parade, and puttees. The platoons marched through the streets and held Church Parades on Sundays.” (LHS ref. BF 20.19)
I believe that photo 45 is the officers of the 1/8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters. Seated 4th from the right is Captain John Pickard Becher, died 1st January 1916 following being wounded at Hohenzollern Redoubt. He was then a Major.
By Mike Kirton (25/11/2014)[Edit]
Mike is obviously right about J P Becher.
Picture 51 (at the end of this series of photos) is very interesting. It was taken by ‘Kay Photo’ who was/were based near Luton; thereby placing the location somewhere in Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire. But I don’t know anything more about the photographer.
The men are definitely Notts & Derby Territorials – you can tell that from the cap badge and 3-tier shoulder badge T-?-Notts&Derby. They are also wearing Imperial Service Badges (see attached image). This means that they can only be the 7th (Robin Hoods) or 8th Battalions (The 5th and 6th Battalions had 5-tier shoulder badges). The cap badge rules out the Robin Hoods (they had a distinct Rifle Corp Badge) – so the picture must be of the 1/8th or 2/8th Battalions.
Mike is right that the 1/8th went to France with the 139th Bde/46th Division in February 1915 – so if it is the 1/8th Battalion the picture must have been taken in August-September-October? 1914 (its definitely summer time). The 2/8th Battalion moved to Luton-Dunstable in January 1915 and moved into canvas camp (Cassiobury Park) in June. They went back into billets in October 1915 and then to Ireland in April 1916.
So my guess is that this is a picture of the 2/8th Battalion between June and October 1915. There is some detail of it here :- https://derbyshireterritorials.wordpress.com/26th-battalion/.
(There is of course the very slim chance that it was a Pre-War Summer Camp – but I have never seen a Kay Photo from those camps of that period 1908-1913)
By Mike Briggs (29/12/2014)[Edit]
The history of the 1/8th Sherwood Foresters is fascinating, as following their deployment to France in February/March 1915 they remained in the front line for the duration. Some did not return until 1919 as they had been left in France to help clear up the battlefields. Interestingly, the coal miners were demobbed soon after the armistice.
I have done a lot of work on the ‘Southwell’ men of the 1/8th as 115 of them (‘H’ Company) left for training within a couple of days of the outbreak of war. They suffered higher than average casualties throughout the war, very much on a par with the French casualty rate. Earlier this year, along with two others, I edited and published a book Southwell at War 1914-1919 on behalf of Southwell and District Local History Society - http://www.southwellhistorysociety.co.uk/page4.html.
Whilst we listed all (we think) the men who were from Southwell, around 650, we did concentrate on the 1/8th who we regarded as the ‘Southwell Pals’.
You may be interested to know that there is one VC amongst the line-up in 1914, that was Acting Lt Col. H. Vann, a C of E Priest, who was a combatant. He died on 29th September 1918 at Bellenglise whilst leading an attack. At that time he was commanding the 1/6th Notts and Derbys, having not long transferred from the 1/8th.
Citation
An extract from “The London Gazette,” No. 31067, dated 14th Dec., 1918, records the following:-“For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty and fine leadership during the attack at Bellenglise and Lehaucourt, on September 29th, 1918. He led his battalion with great skill across the Canal du Nord through a very thick fog and under heavy fire from field and machine guns. On reaching the high ground above Bellenglise the whole attack was held up by fire of all descriptions from the front and right flank. Realising that everything depended on the advance going forward with the barrage, Col. Vann rushed up to the firing line and with the greatest gallantry led the line forward. By his prompt action and absolute contempt for danger the whole situation was changed, the men were encouraged and the line swept forward. Later, he rushed a field-gun single-handed and knocked out three of the detachment. The success of the day was in no small degree due to the splendid gallantry and fine leadership displayed by this officer. Lt. Col. Vann, who had on all occasions set the highest example of valour, was killed near Ramicourt on 3rd October, 1918, when leading his battalion in attack.”
Ed: It is fascinating to speculate whether any of these men may have been among the 5000 billeted in Harpenden from August 1914 onwards. Unfortunately no billeting records have survived, as far as we know.
By Mike Kirton (29/12/2014)[Edit]
I can confirm that the photograph is of the 8th Battalion i.e. 1/8th.
I am just finishing a biography of 2nd Lt the Rev Bernard Vann, at the time of the photo a subaltern in the 8th but who later became the C.O. of the 6th. He won the M.C and bar and the Victoria Cross – the only Anglican clergyman to win this highest award as a combatant in the Great War.
I am in touch with the son of one of the other soldiers in the picture, 2nd Lt. Egbert Melville Hacking, whose brother is standing next to him. Both survived the war.
It would be interesting to know a little more about this photograph. The bulk of the 1/8th had gone to France in February/March 1915. These could, of course, been later recruits.
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