Herts Regiment Casualties from Tring - Commander of 21st Division Steps down

Tring in War Time, 1914-1919

News reached Tring of casualties among local soldiers from the Hertfordshire Regiment.  Four (Marcham, Rodwell, Bruce and Barber) had been in a stable which was hit by a shell. Frank Marsham was killed and Fred Rodwell was badly injured and is now in a military hospital in Camberwell. Elsewhere on the Front Archibald Bishop had been wounded. Lieut.-General Sir Edward Hutton,commander of the 21st Division, based in Tring, has stepped down, and soldiers billeted in the town attended a Sunday parade on Easter Day, athletic sports, and yet more concerts. The coroner heard of the sad death of Miss Eliza Barber, who used to scavenge in dustbins, and who died of starvation. She was found to have cash and a bank balance totalling over £200. G. Stratford had take over Goodson's blacksmiths in the High Street while clover seed could be purchased from Church Farm, Little Gaddesden. I have also included an advert picturing one of Lord Rothschild's shire horses. I have not included the full texts referring to Lord Rothschild's funeral and a further obituary, or the account of the Conservative Club's AGM, but have extracted the long list of people from Tring (including many estate employees) who caught a train to attend the funeral but who, due to delays on the railway, only arrived at the end of the ceremony. I have also extracted the names of the Conservative Club committee. Edited from British Newspaper Archive Previous week ~~~~ Tring News Index

Old Tring News - POW returns to England - Soldiers die in road accident - more urinals requried

    Extracts from the Bucks Herald of 27th February, 1915

Military

Compared with previous weeks there is more news about individual soldiers. Captain Edmund S. W. Tidswell, son of the previous vicar of Tring, has been mentioned in dispatches. Private F. Birch (Herts Regiment) of Wigginton, has been wounded. Private W. G. Mustill (1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers), of the Cow Roast Lock, Tring, had been earlier wounded and captured by the Germans, but he was part of a prisoner exchange, which he describes, and is now in a London Hospital. Also from Wigginton Harold Gurney is still in hospital at Oxford, while Albert Baker has returned to duty after coming home on sick leave.

Among the forces stationed locally the 15th Platoon, D Company, 8th Lincolnshire Regiment sent a wreath to the funeral of their late officer, Lieut. Wm. Crabtree, who was killed in a taxi-cab near Tring a fortnight ago. An Inquest is to be held on Private White and Thomas of the 12th Northumberland Fusiliers who were found dying by the side of the road at Aston Clinton - a matter which makes Captain's Icke's letter about who had done the fastest route march seem rather insignificant.

The number of troops in the area affects the provision of public services, and in nearby Wendover there was a discussion about the provision of public urinals. The Ruri-Decanal Conference at Berkhamsted (attended by many Church of England ministers and lay members) discussed the provision on intersession services, while the people of Tring were warned that the street lighting might have to be turned off because of the shortage of coal  (in part because so many former miners were now training at Tring?)

On the home front Tring was getting ready for a council by-election following the death of Dr Brown and William Smith, builder, and Edward Wright wrote letter to the paper addressing the electorate.Jack Grange, the son of Herbert Grange, the farmer at Grove Farm, was found to have advanced cancer while James Clark, a Post Office pensioner,  had a successful operation at the West Herts Hospital, at Hemel Hempstead. Both Lord Rothschild, of Tring Park, and J G Williams, of Pendley, won top awards at the Shire Horse Show at Islington. On a more mundane level Percy Mead, farmer of Gubblecote had mangolds for sale.

Surnames this week: Bagnall, Baker, Beal, Bedford, Beech, Birch, Boswall, Brackley, Brown, Bull, Cartwright, Cattell, Clark, Cockburn, Crabtree, Craufurd, Dale, Eccles, Evetts, Ewing, Farran, Field, Finch, Francis, French, Gaussen, Gilbert, Grange, Greey, Gurney, Halsey, Hart-Davies, Hastings, Hilderley, Hodgson, Holland, Houchen, Houseman, Hutton, Icke, Lea-Wilson, Lendrum, Ling, Moore, Lowe, Mead, Muntz, Mustill , Norris, North, Penny, Pope, Ridley, Rolfe, Rothschild, Smith, Smith-Dorrien, Spark, Thomas, Thring, Tidswell, Ward, Weston, White, Williams, Wood, Wright.