At 11.00am on 11 November 1918 the First World War was over. The fighting was over but life would never be the same again. In towns and villages across the country public memorials were erected to commemorate their men and women who died in the First Word War. As our thoughts turn to Armistice day, Susanne Young, a historian from the Wharfedale Family History Society has shared her research with us about the names on the Burley in Wharfedale memorial.
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The Medical Front in WW1
The commemoration in October of one of WW1’s heroines, Nurse Edith Cavell, also highlights the pioneering work carried out in other hospitals at home and on the Front during the First World War.
One of the innovations was the use of Sphagnum moss, or Bog moss, as an effective dressing for wounds. As hundreds of thousands of dressings were required, sufficient gauze and cotton wool became difficult to obtain. An Edinburgh surgeon, Dr Cathcart, revived the use of this soft moss which can absorb up to ten times its own weight in water. Dr Cathcart established a centre for the preparation of dressings from the moss, in order to supplement medical supplies at home and on the Front. Other such centres were established.
The moss grows abundantly on wet moorland and mountains in colours: white, yellow, crimson, green and brown and, under the direction of the moorland keeper, local working parties were organised to collect it. In the BK 10, Brigg collection in Keighley Library, there is a dried sample with a note attached which says “Rombalds Moor – very good, Keighley Moor – good”, as well as the letter and note shown (BK10/683/9/2).
Keighley Library also holds the publication, Recollections of the War Hospital Keighley and its Auxiliaries 1916-1919. Keighley’s War Hospital was the former Keighley and Bingley Fever Hospital at Morton Banks and included local auxiliary hospitals: Spencer Street, Fell Lane, and Victoria. The brochure gives an excellent account of Keighley’s own contribution to medical advancement during the war, as the following extract shows from page 44:
The selection of Keighley War Hospital as a centre for American Surgeons to see the latest developments in Military Surgery proved interesting interludes in the daily routine. To some 30 American Red Cross Surgeons a series of lectures on modern methods of treating wounds, gas gangrene, gas poisoning, &c., was delivered by Major Brander, while in the wards demonstrations and clinical discourses on methods of dealing with the more interesting and obscure results of modern warfare were given by Majors Dobie and Brander.
Up to June 1919 – 13, 214 soldiers were admitted to Keighley hospitals, they included mostly medical or surgical cases but also 105 German POWs and 156 soldiers suffering from gas poisoning. The Keighley Surgical Supply Depot, employing local women, produced over 108,700 swabs and bandages.
Keighley’s Great War Poets
On Saturday 10th October at Keighley Local Studies Library at 11.00am there will be a talk about Keighley’s Great War Poets by Andy Wade from Keighley’s Men of Worth project and regular writer in Keighley News.
The two definitive poets from Keighley wrote of their very different experiences of war.
Clara Jane Terry was born locally and was head dressmaker at Keighley Co-operative Society. Her poems were published under the pen name of Jean Clare.
This copy of her book called ‘Verses by Jean Clare – Songs of Peace and War’ is kept in Keighley library. The book was published in 1915 and includes a poem about refugees from Belgium, a tribute to British troops killed in action and a poem praising the actions of nurse Edith Cavell. Proceeds from the sale of the book were sent to the red Cross.
Clement Bartrim served in the army with the 3rd Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment.
Clement Bartrim
He married Ruth Baraclough in 1940 and ran W. Brooks, a gentleman’s outfitters in Cavendish Street, Keighley. He was an amateur violinist. He wrote more than 100 poems during the First World War but as poets often do, he threw most of them away in 1929. Ian Dewhirst, historian and former Keighley Reference Librarian edited and published some of Clement’s remaining poems under the title ‘The Awkward Squad and Other Verses’ in 1976. Here is the first poem in the book.
Joining Up
The world today is very sad,
And eyes are dim with tears,
My life today is all askew,
I feel full twenty years.
To Mother, Dad and brothers too,
This morn I said goodbye,
And laughingly I said to them,
I was not born to die.
But now I am upon my way
A soldier soon to be,
To Halifax, the sergeant said,
And then, to Gay Paree.
‘Bout thirty I should say, or more,
For sure we ride in state
In carriages all to ourselves,
Oh yes, we must be great.
But what a silent throng we are,
A silence still and deep.
With thoughts of home we go to war
And wish that men would weep.
The poem below was written in about April 1917. Bartrim writes: ‘At this period we were working on the Somme battlefield, where the terrible fighting of July, 1916, had taken place, and some of our men were burying soldiers who had been lying there since then – there were some awful sights’
France
Oh land of horror, land of death,
We speak of thee with fearful breath,
But yet we hearken to thy call,
And for thy sake our manhood fall.
Our British blood
The test has stood,
And ever for our friendship’s sake
An English mother’s heart shall break.
Thy rivers red with blood shall run,
With British blood till set of sun,
And in the heaven’s gleaming fires
Shall light the way for soul that tires.
Never forget,
Oh France, the debt,
And e’en though doubt shall come with years,
Remember all our bitter tears.
Nurse Edith Cavell
As 2015 sees the commemoration of Nurse Edith Cavell’s life and work, Keighley Local Studies can look again at contemporary correspondence regarding the Cavell Memorial Fund and a report for the Edith Cavell Homes of Rest for Nurses. These original documents are part of the large WW1 archive in Keighley’s Brigg collection, ref: BK 10/683/7/9.
Edith Cavell was born in Norfolk and trained as a nurse eventually moving to Belgium where she became matron of the first Nursing School as well as a reforming manager of hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. When war broke out she began serving on the front line in Belgium. Despite some criticism, Edith made it her mission to care for all soldiers at the Red Cross hospital, including German and Austrian. Furthermore, in order to prevent her Allied patients being shot, she very bravely became involved in the Belgian underground. In fact Edith helped to successfully smuggle over 200 soldiers out of hospital and into neutral Holland. Unfortunately, in 1915, the Germans discovered the network. Edith was arrested and tried for treason. On 19th October, despite international protest, and still wearing her nurse’s uniform, Edith was shot by firing squad. She was just 49 years’ old.
In 1917, an appeal was launched, to provide homes of rest for nurses in need of temporary mental or physical respite. It became the Cavell Nurses’ Trust. Recently, Edith Cavell’s dedication and heroism has been acknowledged with a new commemorative £5 coin, issued by the Royal Mint to mark the WW1 anniversary years.
Harvest time and “Digging for Victory”
Harvest Festival time is upon us, as the local crops are gathered in and Churches, Chapels and many schools give thanks for the bountiful food that we enjoy today in this country. Particularly in more recent years, schools have been encouraged to teach practical food production and many schools now have their own garden plots, however, widespread and fervent participation by everyone was especially important during the years of both wars.
“Dig for Victory” or “Victory Gardens” were encouraged during both World Wars, and were vital to counteract the depletion of food supplies due to the closure of normal supply routes from abroad, as British ships increasingly came under attack.
These photographs are from a recently acquired archive collection at Keighley Library, Keighley Boys’ Grammar School, BK 609, and show pupils planting and harvesting their own produce.
Please give 24 hours’ notice to view the collection.
