Summer when the war began

Summer 1914.

Life was simpler then,  most groceries were bought at the corner store, and the ‘milkman’ would ladle you jugful while you waited on the doorstep. That summer was an excellent one, and as many railway companies were competing for customers you could go on a day’s excursion as far as a hundred miles and back again for two shilling and nine pence (about thirty cents in today’s money). The seaside was a popular holiday destination and many a pleasant afternoon was spent on a deckchair, enjoying the performance of the resident troop of open air performers.    

Though there was talk of war with Germany most though it unlikely. Nevertheless, by the end  of July,  reservists had been called up to supplement  Britain’s small ‘regular’ army.  Then, on a state visit to Bosnia, The Austrian Archduke and his wife were assassinated.  Austria accused Serbia, then, encouraged by Germany, Austria quarreled with Serbia and declared itself at war with them on July 28. When Russia came to Serbia’s aid Germany  also declared  war on them on August first, and on France two days later. Subsequently, Invaded by Germany, Belgium appealed to Britain for help, and by midnight of August 4th 1914 Britain was also at war.

Only six weeks later, on September 21^st, aged 24, my paternal grandfather  enlisted in the Essex Regiment and most likely became a member of the 13th  (West Ham) Battalion, raised in December 1914. Lord Kitcheners’ plea,  ‘Your Country Needs You’ influenced many thousands to enlist. The demand for khaki fabric outstripped supply and as a result many recruits, Granddad among them, were outfitted in “Kitchiner Blue”. 

 This  navy blue uniform, so similar to that of a convict, was very unpopular.. The photograph of him in “Kitchiner Blue” would have been taken outside civilian billets in Brighton. where bad weather had forced the units out of their tented camp at Shoreham. It was to be another eight months before he would disembarked in France on August 30th 1915. He was wounded in  December of that year, and again, in January 1917. On May 30 of the same year he was  invalided out of the army

I remember Mum telling me that he had nasty  permanent wound on his ankle. This was very likely and ulcer, created when a wound exacerbated by poor circulation refuses to heal. In his latter years Dad was also troubled with poor circulation, suffering from intermittent claudication.

Officially` wounded World War I soldiers were entitled to wear a ‘Wound Stripe’ on the right cuff, a brass bar about one and a half inches long worn vertically. Granddad  would have also received the ‘Silver War Badge’ , a circular medal about two inches across inscribed with the king’s cipher and the words  ‘For King and Country’

The first World War ended on November 11 1919.