Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Here's a photo from the summer of 1918. The location is Royal Naval Air Station Padstow, a small airfield just outside the town at the hamlet of Crugmeer. We don't know the identity of the RAF officer resting on his cane, but the aircraft behind is a de Havilland DH.6 biplane.

Padstow’s DH.6's were as much a burden as a fighting force. The DH.6 was a depressing aeroplane, its engine puny and reticent; many examples also suffered from structural problems. Carrying bombs was a great burden but a load of 100 lb was just about manageable, provided the pilot flew alone. Sometimes DH.6s patrolled merely as unarmed signalling aircraft, the observer using an Aldis lamp to commune with those below.

Patrols off Cornwall's north coast usually lasted around two hours, back and forth over an inshore area say 40 miles across. To help spot the enemy, flights were low-level; in any case the DH.6’s ability to climb while lugging bombs was feeble. If aircraft returned to Padstow still carrying their bombload, often they couldn’t make enough height to clear the cliffs and reach the landing-ground. That meant a turbulent flight along the nearby valley south of Gunver Head, followed by a drop onto the airfield. Numerous airmen flying from RNAS stations across Britain had previously suffered war injuries deeming them unfit for service overseas, but Padstow’s DH.6 patrols would have taxed those in sparkling health.
   
My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War. 

Today's guest post is kindly provided by @PoltairHistory, the History Department at Poltair School in St Austell.

How did Cornish people know how the war was progressing? Television and radio were still a long way off and few people were sufficiently literate to read newspapers. Therefore it was the responsibility of the educated to spread the news. In St Austell,  headmaster of the County School Arthur Jenkinson led the way. On 11th December 1914 in the Public Rooms on Truro Road, he gave a lecture entitled “The War”. 

From the school magazine of the time we learn that, with slides and diagrams, he explained the significance of the Battles of Mons and the Marne before examining the stalemate caused by “modern methods of warfare, entrenchments, dug outs etc”.  He then illustrated the progress that the Russians were making on the Eastern Front. Next he analysed the naval campaign, describing the loss of HMS Amphion before talking about the sinking of four German cruisers in the Atlantic.

Learned and well-read, Jenkinson had a thorough grasp of the situation and one that would favourably compare to a modern textbook. Feeling better informed, the audience ended the evening by singing of “God Save the King” and a making a collection for the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance. 

A week later Arthur Jenkinson volunteered for the Royal Fusiliers as a private soldier. Later he held a commission in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, from which he was discharged in March 1919 with the rank of Major.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

From 1916 the Royal Navy posted armed motor launches at Falmouth and Mount's Bay, tasked with hunting German submarines in the waters off Cornwalll's long coastline. To keep them supplied, the Navy co-opted the Dreel Castle, an drifter of 97 tons originally registered at Kirkcaldy.   

Converted into a depot vessel and based at Falmouth, Dreel Castle plodded a monotonous route to Penzance and the small naval outpost at St Mary’s, ensuring the launches and naval auxiliary craft were replenished with fuel, arms, equipment and rations. Here's a painting of the unsung boat by the sculptor George Wade, who was also a self-taught artist.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

In August 1914, just as war broke out and with deeply unlucky timing, two German liners sailing for America put in at Falmouth. The Hamburg America vessel Prince Adalbert (Captain Schonfeldt) arrived on 4 August, closely followed by Kronprinzessin Cecilie, seen above anchored off Falmouth. Their crews and several hundred passengers were transferred to Custom House Quay by Falmouth’s tug Victor and detained, some briefly held in stinking quayside fish-houses.

Both vessels were seized by the Admiralty; the aliens, harmless and by no means all Germans (some were Americans), were taken under armed guard to the workhouses at Falmouth, Helston, Penzance, Redruth, St Columb Major and Truro. American citizen Theodore Cuyler Patterson of Philadelphia protested loudly, claiming he was a personal friend of President Wilson; it made no difference. With neutrals weeded out and released though, by the autumn’s end the German nationals had been interned up-country.    

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Here is General Sam Hughes, Canadian War Minister, inspecting a guard of Royal Fusliiers of the Falmouth Garrison during his visit in March 1916. The men were from the 16th (Reserve) Battalion which had formed at Falmouth in October 1914.

 My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Here is a section of female employees who worked for the famous old Camborne firm of Holman Brothers Ltd. Before the war Holmans made mining machinery for use worldwide, but during hostilities turned to munitions manufacture. These ladies are 'shell-girls', sometimes known as munitionettes, who produced 18-pounder ammunition and high-explosive howitzer bombs for the British Army and Navy. 

The women worked round the clock in three shifts; above is Section 1. Holman's rather patronising post-war literature records: "We are proud to say that these girls tackled unfamiliar tasks with willingness and enthusiasm ... girl labour proved excellent in every way." 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Here is Corporal William Harmer, who served with the 10th (Service) Battalion (Cornwall Pioneers), Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. 

The 10th Battalion was raised at Truro in March 1915 by the Mayor and the City, and trained at Penzance before moving to Hayle in October. In June 1916 they landed at Le Havre, fighting on the Western Front until the end of the war. 

We don't know a great deal about William but he came from the Penryn area. During the conflict he was awarded the Military Medal.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm 

Cornwall in the First World War

 

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

In 1914 these men were mobilised to Falmouth.  They're gunners from the Royal Artillery, posing proudly on Pendennis Head with their 6 inch field gun. Many gunners trained there in the use of such weapons, before being sent to the Western Front.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Today I've selected a 'mystery photo'. It was taken in the Helston area, possibly during 1914. Beyond that, we know nothing about what's going on. A couple of points: firstly the soldiers' trousers are of darker material than their jackets, which is unusual. Secondly their cap badges are round, so we can exclude them being Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. 

They may be members of Cornwall's Volunteer Training Corps, but these part-time soldiers usually wore identifying armbands displaying the initials GR: no armbands here. It's more likely they're part of the later Volunteer Force, but in that case the photo's date would be at least summer 1916. 

Any thoughts or information on these gentlemen would be most appreciated.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here is the 3rd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on a route march during 1917. The soldiers are out of step and rifles are being carried on different shoulders, which suggests they've been travelling some distance.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm