Men of the 13th (Service) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps marching into Market Square (now Broadway) from Church Street over the winter of 1914-15. Raised at Winchester on 7 October 1914, the battalion was attached to the 21st Division. Initially at Halton Camp, it was then billetted for the winter in Amersham from 14 November 1914 until 16 April 1915, when the division was dispatched to Salisbury Plain. On arrival at Windmill Hill on Salisbury Plain, the battalion was transferred to 37th Division, with which it went to the Western Front in July 1915. [Image: Amersham Museum]

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Transport of the 13th (Service) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps on Friday 16 April 1915, the day the battalion left Amersham for Salisbury Plain. The battalion formed up in Pond Wicks and moved off at 11.30 a.m., marching by way of Church Street to Broadway, London Road, and Station Road to take the train at the Goods Station. A large crowd saw the battalion off. The regimental transport moved by road. The view is west down the High Street with the Market Hall behind the photographer. [Image: Amersham Museum]

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A detachment of 13th (Service) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps parading in front of the Market Hall. Possibly taken on Easter Monday, 5 April 1915 when the battalion offered athletics and other diversions, including a performance by the battalion bugle band, for the public in token of its appreciation at the way in which Amersham had accommodated it since November 1914. The sports took place in Shardeloes Park with over 2,000 people attending. [Image: Amersham Museum]

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On Monday 7 September 1914 a recruiting drive took place in Amersham, organised by Dr J. C. Gardner. A procession was headed by men from the National Reserve (former soldiers usually regarded as too old for active military service), together with Special Constables, Scouts, the Fire Brigade, and the Amersham Band. Scottish pipers were also sent down from London. There was a speech in front of the Town Hall by Major General J. C. Swann, the secretary of the Bucks County Territorial Association. This view is looking east down Market Square from the Market Hall. At least 55 men were enlisted, among them Jack Drake from Shardeloes. [Image: Amersham Museum]

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Taken from the upper window of Ceely House (now the Bucks County Musuem), the original caption suggests this is the 2/1st Bucks Battalion returning from Church Parade at St Mary’s Church in August 1914. While there is no reason to doubt that this is the 2/1st Bucks Battalion, the men appear suspiciously well dressed in uniform for it to be August. Recruiting began immediately but County Territorial Associations were not officially authorised to raise new units until 15 August, the general duplication of the ‘first line’ being ordered on 21 and 31 August. The 2/1st Bucks Battalion was officially recognised on 26 September 1914. It is likely that this photograph was taken in September. The battalion remained in Aylesbury until February 1915. [Image: BCM]

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A parade of the 14th (Service) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry in the Exchange Street Recreation Ground, September 1914. The men are still all in civilian clothes, not yet being issued even with ‘Kitchener Blue’ uniforms. None have weapons. The battalion had arrived in Aylesbury on Monday 21 September 1914 and it is possible that this photograph was taken that same day. The battalion therefore missed the newly designated divisional commander, Lieutenant General Sir Edward Hutton, addressing those elements of the 21st Division already present in the same Recreation Ground two days earlier. The DLI had moved to Halton by 10 October 1914. The 64th Brigade, of which the DLI battalion was part, returned to billets in Aylesbury on 21 November 1914. [Image: CBS]

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It is sometimes suggested that this photograph was taken on 12 September 1914. In fact, it was captured two days later on Monday 14 September 1914 when approximately 1,000 men of the Northumberland Fusiliers arrived at Aylesbury, still wearing civilian clothes. Destined for the 21st Division, the men were billeted in Wendover Road, Walton Street, High Street, and Queens Park before marching off to Tring on 23 September. While seen marching past the LNWR Station in the High Street, the men had actually arrived at the Great Western Station. Fred Longley, whose advertisement is shown, was a draper and furnisher with his large premises further up the High Street: the shop was demolished to make way for Marks & Spencer in 1938. [Image: BCM]

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The 3/1st Bucks Battalion marching past the London and North Western Station at the bottom of the High Street in 1915. It is possible that this was taken on 5 August 1915 when the battalion left for High Wycombe but it is more likely that this was taken earlier during the series of recruiting marches organised around the county in May and June 1915, the march passing through Aylesury on Friday 11 June 1915. It can be noted that only one officer is mounted compared to the photograph taken in August.

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Men from the 21st Division resting outside the yard of Cannon & Ward in Aylesbury High Street on Wednesday 23 June 1915. The “event of the week” was how the Bucks Herald described the march of the entire division that day from Halton through Aylesbury to Thame and beyond. The first troops reached Aylesbury at 9.00 a.m. and continued to move through until after 1 p.m. As so many men had been billeted previously in the town, they received a warm welcome. The blurred image is someone moving past as the photograph was taken. The first floors of the then private houses next to the yard can still be glimpsed behind modern shop fronts. [Image: CBS]

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While it is suggested that this image of the 14th (Service) Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers marching up Aylesbury High Street dates from July 1915, it almost certainly dates from the march through the town by 21st Division on Wednesday 23 June 1915. The column stretched for 11 miles so that the first troops were already in Thame before some entered Aylesbury. The division moved to Witley in early August 1915 and to France in September. [Image: CBS]

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The band of the 10th (Service) Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment passing the LNWR Station at the bottom of the High Street as it leaves Aylesbury for Halton Camp on Saturday 22 May 1915, the battalion having been billeted in the town. The band is followed by the divsional signals detachment and then the 8th (Service) Batalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment The units were also accompanied by the Hazell, Watson & Viney Ltd band Halton now had sufficient huts to accommodate all the infantry of 21st Division. [Image: CBS]

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Part of the ‘Peace Day’ procession down Aylesbury High Street on Saturday 19 July 1919. There was musical entertainment in the Market Square from 11.00 a.m., followed at 1.00 p.m. by dinner for 500 ex-servicemen at the Town Hall and 540 at the George Hotel. The procession began at 3.00 p.m., ending with a sports day at Walton Grange. This part of the parade shows ex-servicemen marching behind the Aylesbury Borough Combined Band. All ex-servicemen received a certificate of thanks for their wartime service, and three Military Medals were also presented during the course of the day. The procession was led by the Mayor and the Sports Committee in a brake, and also included trade representatives and those in fancy dress. The Bucks Herald proclaimed itself disappointed by the parade, which it said had not been advertised sufficiently. [Image: CBS]

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Another image from ‘Peace Day’ in Aylesbury High Street on Saturday 19 July 1919. Caton’s butcher’s shop, which was at 22 High Street, is clearly seen with Eastman & Sons next door. This shows members of the Women’s Land Army, established in March 1917 to provide a skilled and mobile female labour force for work on farms. Open to women of all classes, it replaced voluntary and predominantly socially exclusive organisations such as the Women’s Legion Agricultural Branch that had largely failed to mobilise women for agricultural work. Farmers also proved resistant to employing female labour. There were about 16,000 WLA by 1918. [Image: CBS]

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The 2/1st Bucks Battalion marching down the High Street. While suggested that this is from 1915, evidence of recruits without uniforms in the middle of the battalion and the fully leafed trees suggests autumn 1914, the battalion moving from Aylesbury to Northampton in February 1915. The rather familiar scene of troops marching past the LNWR Station is enlivened on this occasion by the presence of cattle in the street, and the milk cart of Cartwright’s dairy, which was situated in Buckingham Street. [Image: CBS]

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The Aylesbury tank presentation tank pictured in Kingsbury Square in 1925. High Wycombe had also received a tank, which stood outside the Royal Grammar School. Most went for scrap in the Second World War although one remains at Ashford in Kent. The Aylesbury tank, however, blew up when it was being cut up to make way for a new bus station on Tuesday 25 June 1929. Oxyacetylene cutters ignited petrol left in the tank. The tank had been sold by the Borough Council to Messrs. G. R. Jackson of Reading for £22.10s.0d, and two workmen from the firm, George Dore from Reading, and Alfred Hopkins from Caversham, were seriously injured. Hopkins was thrown six feet in the air and 20 yards distant, while Dore was engulfed in flames, passers by rolling him on the ground to douse them. A chisel was thrown over the roof of one of the buildings, a number of which were damaged. The fountain was also relocated to Vale Park [Image: CBS]

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The welcoming ceremony for the arrival of the Aylesbury presentation ‘female’ tank in Kingsbury Square at 4 p.m. on Wednesday 24 March 1920. A total of 262 tanks were presented by the National War Savings Committee to communities that had done especially well in raising sums for the war effort. The tank had been brought to Wendover by rail on Sunday 21 March, and then moved under its own power to Aylesbury with frequent stops to cool down. In fact, crowds had gathered on the Tuesday in the expectation of its arrival. It was crewed by Lieutenant L. B. Meek, Sergeant Prentice, and Privates Alexander, Joy, and King, all of the Tank Corps. The Mayor, Alderman J. Robinson, and the Town Clerk, J. F. Auld, are on top of the tank. [Image: CBS]

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Medical staff outside a building at the Rivet Works in Mandeville Road, Aylesbury that was opened as a hospital on 3 October 1914. Subsequently a store, the building was always known as the ‘Hospital Block’. The factory of the Bifurcated and Tubular Rivet Company was constructed in 1910 and demolished in 1997. [Image: Bucks Herald]

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The 1/1st Bucks Battalion marching past The Bell at the bottom of the Market Square on its way to the Great Western Station in the early evening of Wednesday 5 August 1914. The Battalion had mobilised at 6.30 p.m. on the previous day. It entrained for Cosham and spent the next three days digging trenches on the hills overlooking Portsmouth Harbour. It moved to Swindon on 9 August and, after a series of movements by marching and train, arrived at Chelmsford on 25 August. It remained training at Chelmsford until embarking for France with 48th Division in March 1915. [Image: CBS]

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Men from B (Aylesbury) Squadron, 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars leaving the Market Square in Aylesbury to go down Great Western Street to the station on Wednesday 12 August 1914. The early morning hour accounted for the relatively sparse crowd. Of 132 men in the squadron, about 50 had taken the Imperial Service Obligation indicating their willingness to serve overseas, the question being put to them that morning by the squadron officers, Majors John Grenfell and Lionel de Rothschild. The week since mobilisation had been passed primarily in collecting horses, and it was said these were ‘some of the finest it was possible to secure’. [Image: Lieutenant Colonel Ingram Murray]

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The unveiling of the War Memorial in Aylesbury Market Square on Thursday 15 September 1921 by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire with the dedication by the Rev. V. L. Whitchurch. The commemoration had begun with a procession of ex-servicemen at 1.30 p.m. The Borough, Printing Works, and ‘Comrades’ Bands were all present together with B Company of the Bucks battalion, whose buglers can be seen in front of the memorial, and a reported 1,000 school children. The total cost of the Portland Stone memorial was £2,030.18s.0d, the money being raised by a committee headed by the mayor, Alderman James Robinson, with Thomas Field acting as secretary. The construction was by Messrs. Webster & Cannon, with ironwork by Goslin & Son of Artillery Lane, London, the actual work being entrusted to ex-servicemen under the direction of A. J. Beeby, who had served in the Aylesbury Volunteer Defence Corps. [Image: CBS]

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Captioned only as ‘National Reserve, c. 1916’, the National Reserve (originally The Veteran Reserve) had been established in 1910 as part of the Territorial Force Reserve for those aged over 45, who were capable of filling vacancies in the Territorial Force upon mobilisation, or performing sedentary duties. There were 1,724 officers and men in the National Reserve in Bucks in 1914, many former militiamen or rifle volunteers. The National Reserve formed protection (later supernumerary) companies for local defence in 1914, Bucks being one of the first counties to organise them to guard vulnerable points such as bridges, railway lines, and waterworks. The National Reserve companies were incorporated into the Royal Defence Corps in April 1916. It may well be that the parade in question was to mark the transfer to the RDC. There is no reference, however, to such a parade in Aylesbury in the local press. Consequently, it is possible that it is the earlier parade and inspection of the Mid Bucks Battalion of the Bucks Volunteer Defence Corps (later the 4th Volunteer Battalion, OBLI) on Bank Holiday Monday, 2 May 1915, which was a day of constant rain showers. The volunteers were authorised in November 1914 in response to a feared German invasion. It again consisted of those under or over military age and, later, also those in reserved occupations once conscription was introduced in 1916. [Image: CBS]

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Soldiers posing in front of the statue of John Hampden, the foundations of which had been laid in the Market Square in June 1911. It was unveiled in June 1912 but the statue was moved from its original position in 1988. While the 21st Division was billeted in Aylesbury in 1914, many buildings were commandeered for use by the troops including the Friarage Hall, the Baptist Schoolroom in Walton Street, the Victoria Club in Kingsbury, and the Printing Works Institute. The YMCA tent was in the Cattle Market. [Image: CBS]

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The train carrying the Bucks Battalion of the Territorial Force leaving the Metropolitan Railway Station on the morning of Sunday 2 August 1914 for its annual summer camp to be held at Bovingdon Green near Marlow beginning over the Bank Holiday weekend. The deepening European crisis resulted in the battalion being recalled, and then mobilised anew for war at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday 4 August. The battalion entrained for its war station at Cosham in defence of Portsmouth on the evening of Wednesday 5 August 1914. [Image: BCM]

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Military patients in the yard of Queen’s Park Infants School, which had been taken over as a VAD Hospital in October 1914. The date of the photograph is unknown. The former women’s ward of the Royal Bucks Hospital was the main Auxiliary Hospital for military patients but Queen’s Park and also a site provided by the Bifurcated and Tubular Rivet Company appear to have been for convalescents. Originally both the Royal Bucks Hospital and Queen’s Park were used for the many sick from Halton Camp. The men wear the standard and distinctive ‘Convalescent Blue’ flannel and flannelette uniform with white lining (visible on the turned over lapels) required to be worn by other ranks. A series of four coloured armlets were also worn to denote the stage of recovery and, when worn, there was a red tie. Caps bore an individual’s normal regimental badge. The uniform served to maintain a sense of military discipline and to make patients readily identifiable to the public. [Image: CBS]

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Bucks Battalion cooks carrying rations on 12 August 1914. The 1/1st Bucks Battalion had left for its initial war station at Cosham on 5 August while the 2/1st Bucks battalion was not formally until 26 September. However, some 240 men from the 1/1st Bucks Battalion did not take the Imperial Service Obligation to serve overseas and were returned to Aylesbury to form the nucleus of the 2/1st Battalion. Wartime recruits were also being enlisted. Consequently, there remained a military presence that had to be fed. [Image: CBS]

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A meal break for the predominantly female workforce of James Putnam pictured in Southern Road, Aylesbury in 1917. Putnam, who resided at Haydon Hill, Weedon, manufactured tents, marquees and flags for local shows and events. His works was soon greatly expanded to provide such equipment, as well as officers’ trench kits, for the War Office. Equipment was also provided gratis for local fund raising events for Belgian refugee and organisations such as the British Red Cross. After the war, Putnam invested in the short-lived Cubitt Car Company in Aylesbury but, apparently motivated by concern for his wartime workforce, also acquired a house in Buckingham Street that became a home for unmarried mothers well into the 1950s. Putnam himself – the name was regularised as Putnam in 1935 having often been stated previously as Putman – moved to Devon in 1919. [Image: Diana Hartley]

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The unveiling of the War Memorial in St Mary’s Churchyard, Aylesbury on Sunday 20 March 1921. The memorial was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, and dedicated by the Bishop of Buckingham, Edward Shaw. B Company of the Bucks Battalion was in attendance, as well as over 100 ex-servicemen and the St Mary’s and St John’s Sunday Schools. Two buglers from the battalion can be seen sounding the Last Post at the foot of the cross. Designed by E. Burton of London, the unusual cross featured Christ being supported by St Mary the Virgin and St John, the patron saints of the two Aylesbury churches. St John’s in Cambridge Street was demolished in 1970. [Image: CBS]

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Officers and men of the 3/1st Bucks Battalion outside the recruiting office in Temple Square, Aylesbury, 5 August 1915. The officer on the extreme left with the pipe is Colonel Alfred Gilbey, who raised the battalion. Gilbey was a former commanding officer of the 1st Bucks Rifle Volunteers. The tall officer to the right of the entrance door is 2nd Lieutenant S B Bishop, who later served with the 2/1st Bucks Battalion. The premises had become the headquarters of the Bucks County Territorial Association in 1909. [Image: CBS]

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Recruits outside the Recruiting Office in Temple Square in September 1914. The officer at centre is Captain Sidney R. Vernon, who enlisted 1,728 recruits before leaving for a position as Staff Captain with the 184th (Home Counties) Brigade. The civilian is Dr John Charles Baker of Church Street, who undertook the medical examinations of the recruits. Many of these men would have been enlisted in the 2/1st and 3/1st Bucks Battalions but recruits were also being taken in September for the 8th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. A High Wycombe auctioneer, and former pupil of RGS High Wycombe, Vernon went overseas with the Brigade, which included the 2/1st Bucks Battalion. He was invalided home in July 1916. [Image: CBS]

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The 3/1st Bucks Battalion leaving Aylesbury for High Wycombe on 5 August 1915, led by Colonel Alfred Gilbey. 2nd Lieutenant S. D. Bishop marches behind Gilbey while Lieutenant May rides to Gilbey’s left. The battalion underwent training at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset in 1916. It was renamed the 1st Reserve Bucks Battalion in April 1916. [Image: BCM]

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Men from B (Aylesbury) Squadron of the 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars resting in the courtyard of the King’s Head, Market Square, Aylesbury, between 5 and 11 August 1914. The four squadrons had mobilised at Aylesbury, Buckingham, Chesham and High Wycombe on 5 August. While the regimental headquarters was at Buckingham, a depot and recruiting office was opened at Lucas’s Pawnbrokers in Walton Street, Aylesbury. Medical inspections were held at the King’s Head for new recruits. As well as at the King’s Head, yeomen were also billetted at the Bull’s Head and the Crown. The regiment as a whole left for Reading on 11 and 12 August – the Aylesbury Squadron and its horses by rail from Aylesbury in the early hours of 12 August – where it was reorganised from four into three squadrons, and joined the 2nd Mounted Brigade, 2nd South Midland Mounted Division. Originally credited to A. T. Burr, the photograph was published in the Bucks Advertiser on 15 August 1914. [Image: BMMT]

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A view of recruits being addressed in Vale Park on Saturday 12 September 1914 from the perspective of the recruits. Given that no elements of the 21st Division reach Aylesbury until 19 September, those being addressed were presumably Territorial or other recruits enlisted at the Recruiting Office in Temple Square since the outbreak of war. The two civilians making notes in front of the wagon on which the officer is stood are presumably reporters. [Image: CBS]

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Recruits marching in Vale Park, September 1914. All, apart from the officer and non-commissioned officers, are dressed in civilian clothes but they all carry rifles. That makes it likely that they are Territorial recruits rather than men from the 21st Division since surviving images of the latter show no weapons being carried when they first arrived in Aylesbury. The County Territorial Association was efficient in finding weapons and equipment and the unequal comparison between the 2/1st Bucks Battalion and the plain clothes of the 21st Division was much commented upon. [Image: CBS]

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Recruits marching past the Three Pigeons public house on Wendover Road on Saturday 26 September 1914. The 14th (Service) Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers had moved to Tring on 23 September. Meanwhile the 14th (Service) Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry had arrived in Aylesbury on 21 September and the 9th and 10th (Service) Battalions, The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry two days later. Since they did not move to Halton Camp until 3 October, this is presumably a simple route march for fitness. It is not possible to identify which of these three battalions is pictured. It can be noted that many in the leading group appear in the unpopular temporary ‘Kitchener Blue’ uniforms that men complained made them look like postmen, tram guards or even convicts. The Three Pigeons, which stood at 52 Wendover Road, has been demolished but the houses beyond remain largely unchanged. [Image: CBS]

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Belgian refugees in the courtyard of Beaconsfield Convalescent Home (now housing an interior design firm) in London End, in October 1914. A total of 89 refugees were housed in the Convalescent Home until alternative lodgings could be found, and others were processed there. These particular refugees were from Aarschot in the Brabant province of Flanders, where the Germans had killed 156 civilians on 19 August 1914, and ordered the rest of the 3,000 inhabitants to leave. A number managed to escape through Antwerp and arrived in Beaconsfield in September, being among 200,000 Belgian refugees who came to Britain. Mrs Inglefield, wife of Rear Admiral Edward Inglefield of Burke House, was chairman of the Bucks Committee for Belgian Refugees while Lord Burnham also made a cottage available. Other refugees were housed locally in Marlow, High Wycombe and Wooburn, as well as many towns and villages in North Bucks. This particular group spoke only Flemish but there was a Flemish refugee priest, Father Boelnaerts, at Rayners (Penn), who came over to say Mass for them in a room at the Railway Hotel for the first time on Sunday 27 September 1914. A concert in aid of the refugees was held in the Congregational Schoolroom on 11 November. [Image: Beaconsfield and District Historical Society]

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General Service Wagons coming down West Lane with the Red Lion – now The Lions – in the background. The image is undated and the identity of the troops is unclear. It is likely to date from early 1915 when the 21st Division was still concentrated in the county, The 21st Divisional Train attached from November 1914, which consisted of the 182nd, 183rd, 184th and 185th Companies, Army Service Corps, had been at Dunstable. This suggests that the wagons may more likely belong to the divsional artillery from High Wycombe. The wagons appear to be the GS Wagon Mark XI, introduced in 1905. [Image: Sandy Macfarlane]

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The 3rd Battalion, The Grenadier Guards nears the new tented camp established at Bovingdon Green on Friday 4 June 1915. A firing range was established in Quarry Woods and practice trenches were dug in Pullingshill Wood. The surviving trench complex covers an area of 380m x 90m with a total length of about 1400m. Although the 3rd and 4th Battalions, The Grenadier Guards had moved to the Western Front by August 1915, the trench system was used subsequently by other units including the 2nd Battalion, The Welsh Guards, which was at Bovingdon Green between August and October 1915, and the 26th (Service) Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers (known as the ‘Bankers Battalion’) between August and November 1915 [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries]

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No 3 Company, 4th Battalion, The Grenadier Guards marching to Bovingdon Green Camp on the morning of Saturday 12 June 1915. This was the first contingent of the 4th Battalion to be sent to Marlow, arriving on a special train from London at 10.45 a.m. There were about 350 officers and men in the company. They would be replaced by another company after a fortnight. Apart from training, the men were able to enjoy football and cricket at the camp, and to visit the YMCA Tent, which proved very popular. [Image: Ian Beckett]

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Female workers receiving milk from trucks at the Thew, Hooker & Gilbey milk factory in Chandos Road, Buckingham sometime in 1917. Originally the site of an iron foundry and then a steam-powered corn and cake mill, the Condensed Peptonised Milk Company’s factory opened in 1892. It became Messrs. Thew, Hooker & Gilbey in 1911. J. H. Hooker, who was managing director, was an officer in the Royal Bucks Hussars. The firm produced Bivouac drinking chocolate and Bivouac cocoa and milk blocks. Six photographs were taken at the factory for the official Women’s War Work Collection of the new Imperial War Museum, the others being interior images of women making crates, operating the drying plant, weighing milk, and operating the condensing plant. The museum was founded in March 1917 and its Women’s War Work Collection was begun in April 1917. The factory was taken over by Wilts United Dairies in the 1930s. With an additional storey, it is now part of the University of Buckingham. The brickwork clearly displays the changes. [Image: IWM]

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Recruits for the 2/1st Royal Bucks Hussars parading outside W H Smith in Market Hill, Buckingham, September 1914. Authorised on 14 September, the 2/1st remained in Buckingham until May 1915. This particular image is from a postcard sent to Miss D Paine of Church Farm, Wingrave on 2 November 1914 by an unidentified member of the regiment. [Image: Ian Beckett]

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A Squadron 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars about to leave Buckingham for Reading on 10 August 1914. The squadron had mobilised on 5 August under Captain G. W. Swire and Lieutenant Sir Everard Pauncefort-Duncombe. The squadron was far from fully equipped, and the week was spent in acquiring horses and other equipment: initially, much of the harness was only string. The squadron also acquired two lorries and two farm carts. The men of No 1 and No 4 Troops were mainly from Buckingham, No 2 Troop from Newport Pagnell, and No 3 Troop from Stony Stratford. [Image: BMMT]

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The 3/1st Royal Bucks Hussars in Market Square, Buckingham. Almost certainly taken on the occasion of the inspection of the regiment by Field Marshal Lord Grenfell on Friday 2 July 1915. There was a church service on Sunday 4 July, and Colonel the Hon. Harry Lawson, who had raised the regiment, addressed the men on 5 July. The regiment then left Buckingham for Tidworth to become part of 7th Reserve Cavalry Regiment. [Image: BMMT]

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The 2/1st Royal Bucks Hussars in Market Square, Buckingham, November 1914. It is noticeable that many men are still in civilian clothes. A postcard dated 23 November 1914, it was another of those sent by an unidentified recruit to Miss D Paine of Church Farm, Wingrave. It reads, ‘They are giving us two pairs of boots tomorrow. This is a photo of the whole regiment on parade. I don’t know whether you can see me or not but am opposite Smiths shop.’ [Image: Ian Beckett]

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The last of the three postcards sent to Miss D Paine of Wingrave by a member of 2/1st Royal Bucks Hussars is dated 12 December 1914 but may well have been taken earlier than November given the lack of uniforms. It reads simply, ‘Shall be along tomorrow if fine.’ [Image: Ian Beckett]

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The presentation of the Military Medal to Corporal James Isham, formerly of the 1/5th Royal Berkshire Regiment, as part of the Peace Day festivities in Buckingham Market Square on Saturday 19 July 1919. The day began with a peal of bells at 6.00 a.m. with a church service on the Market Square at 10.30 a.m. With neither the Lord Lieutenant nor the town’s mayor being available, the lady mayoress, Mrs A. C. Rogers, presented the medal. Ex-servicemen were then entertained for lunch in the Town Hall with a further afternoon tea for elderly residents and one for school children in their schools. The children then marched to the Town hall to be given ‘Peace Mugs’ by Mrs Rogers. Rain led to the postponement of planned sports but a decorated cycle and costume parade was held at 7.30 p.m. followed by a concert by a ‘peace choir’ at 8.00 p.m. in the Town Hall and dancing in the Oddfellows Hall. [Image: CBS]

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Taken on the South Terrace in autumn 1915, the group (standing left to right) are listed as Mr Ker, Mr Peebles, Mr Tower, Sister Williams, and Mr Dillon; sitting (left to right) Mr Beazley and Dr Wainwright. The first Belgian patient was received on 27 October 1914 and the first British casualty on the following day, preparations to use the house as a hospital having begun on 4 September 1914. Lord Robert Edward Innes-Ker, 1st Battalion, The Irish Guards (1885-1958) was the third son of the 7th Duke of Roxburghe. He was initially posted as missing at Villiers Cotteret during the retreat from Mons on 1 September 1914. Major Arthur Stansfield Peebles (1872-1933), 2nd Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment, who had won the DSO in the South African War, was also initially posted as missing on 3 September 1914. Lieutenant Kinglake F. B. Tower, 1st Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers was wounded at Veuilly in the advance across the Marne on 10 September. For Stephen Searle-Dillon, see the other Chequers photograph. Second Lieutenant John R. Beazley, 1st Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers was wounded in the same action as Tower. Dr D. Wainwright was commissioned as Temporary Lieutenant in the Army Medical Services on 14 October 1914. Chequers remained a hospital until the autumn of 1916. [Image: Chequers Trust]

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‘The 21st Division attack Chequers’ is the caption from this Chequers album from the spring of 1915. Given that the men are carrying spades and pickaxes, it may be part of an entrenching exercise. Practice trenches associated with the training of the division when it was stationed at nearby Halton have been located inside RAF Halton, and restored. There are also original examples in Whiteleaf Woods, where there are three groups of zig zag trenches survive. Originally probably eight to nine feet deep, the best preserved are now just under three feet deep and just under four feet wide. Having leased Chequers previously, Arthur Lee purchased the freehold in April 1917, the legislation gifting it to the nation as a home for the Prime Minister being brought forward in November 1917. [Image: Chequers Trust]

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‘The 21st Division attack Chequers’ is the caption from this Chequers album from the spring of 1915. Given that the men are carrying spades and pickaxes, it may be part of an entrenching exercise. Practice trenches associated with the training of the division when it was stationed at nearby Halton have been located inside RAF Halton, and restored. There are also original examples in Whiteleaf Woods, where there are three groups of zig zag trenches survive. Originally probably eight to nine feet deep, the best preserved are now just under three feet deep and just under four feet wide. Having leased Chequers previously, Arthur Lee purchased the freehold in April 1917, the legislation gifting it to the nation as a home for the Prime Minister being brought forward in November 1917. [Image: Chequers Trust]

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Horses being inspected for requisitioning on 6 August 1914. Under ‘requisition of emergency’ powers in the Army Act, the Army Remount Department was authorised to require farmers and others to bring horses for selection under justices’ warrants. Horses belonging to ‘public bodies’ and food distribution trades were exempt. Horses had to be between four and seven years old, and between 14 hands 2 inches and 16 hands in height. In all, 115,000 horses were requisitoned in twelve days. Those losing horses were given a ‘fair’ price, requisitioning itself being subject to appeal by owners to the county court. [Image: Ray East Collection]

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The half battalion – two companies – of the 14th (Service) battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers marching behind its band from the Broadway towards the High Street, May 1915. The photograph was probably taken on the evening the companies arrived, namely Tuesday 4 May 1915. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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There are several images of the bridge built by the Royal Engineers of 21st Division at Chesham in early 1915. A number also show men working on it, usually from the 126th Field Company, as here, this postcard being dated Friday 16 April 1915. Royal Engineers from the 85th and 86th Field Companies had been briefly billeted in Chesham in January 1915 but they were then replaced by the 97th and 98th Field Companies in February, with the 126th Field Company arriving in March. The engineers left for Halton Camp in May 1915. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Another view of men from the 126th Field Company, Royal Engineers building their bridge at Chesham. The company was at Chesham from March to May 1915. Two of those who built the bridge and sent postcards were Sapper Greenaway from Heathfield in Sussex and Sapper House from Bromley. The bridge itself is somewhat basic and appears to be something of a hybrid between the so-called Canadian Spar and Belgian Trestle models. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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A further view of the bridge building by the 126th Field Company, Royal Engineers at Chesham in March 1915. In this image, the bridge has yet to be completed and a pontoon is being used in the work. [Image: CBS]

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One version of this image, of which many were clearly taken, is dated 25 March 1915 on a postcard addressed to Miss A Mills of the Astor Estate Office on London’s Victoria Embankment. Sadly, the sender only uses the initials JK but gave the address as 23 Eskdale Avenue. The bridge is as yet incomplete. [Image: CBS]

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One of the events in Chesham Market Square on Tuesday 5 August 1919, the town marking Peace Day somewhat later than most communities in the county. Ex-servicemen erected an improvised cross in memory of fallen comrades by the Market Hall, the latter originally built in 1897 and demolished in 1965. Generally, Peace Day, which had been set nationally for Saturday 19 July 1919, was intended as a celebration but there were was some criticism on the grounds that funds spent on official events in London should have been devoted to the welfare of ex-servicemen. The honour guard and salute given to the improvised memorial in Chesham was clearly intended to add some solemnity to the otherwise celebratory festivities. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Another view of the belated Peace Day events in Chesham Market Square on Tuesday 5 August 1919. There was a ceremonial procession in the morning with tableaux and individuals taking part in fancy dress. Dinner was provided for 800 ex-servicemen and dependants at noon. It was followed, in the afternoon, by sports, and a children’s tea. In the evening there was an open air concert, dancing and fireworks. Two ‘victory oaks’ were also planted in the presence of Lady Chesham, Lionel de Rothschild MP, Mrs W. F. Lowndes and ‘representatives of the allies’. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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A closer view of the temporary memorial to ‘Our Glorious Dead’ erected for Chesham’s belated Peace Day on Tuesday 5 August 1919 . The main war memorial in the Broadway was not unveiled until July 1921. The posters on the wall of the Market Hall are advertising various property auctions by Joseph North, a Berkhamsted auctioneer. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Men from the half battalion of the 14th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers billeted in Chesham march from The Bury to the St George’s Day service in St Mary’s Church on Friday 23 April 1916. The men are wearing red and white roses in their caps. The regiment traditionally did so on this day, the red and white hackle having been granted to the 5th Foot in 1778, with the regimental badge of St George and the Dragon adopted at an early stage although the 5th actually began as an Irish regiment in Dutch service in 1674 before transferring to the English establishment in 1685. The title of Fusiliers was granted on St George’s Day in 1836, with the badge then adopted being a flaming grenade, with St George and the Dragon at its centre. The church service was followed by an evening dance in the (old) town hall in Market Square. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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The arrival of B and D Companies, 14th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers in Chesham at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday 4 May 1915. Part of 21st Division, the battalion had been raised in Newcastle in September 1914. The battalion had spent the autumn of 1914 in billets following the wet weather at the tented Halton Camp, and was now being moved back to the newly constructed wooden huts at Halton. The battalion had been converted to a pioneer role in January 1915. It moved from Halton to Witley on 9 August 1915 and embarked with the rest of the division for France in September. [Image: CBS]

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A drumhead church service for the 14th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers taking place in the garden of The Bury at Chesham in May 1915. Originally built for William Lowndes in 1716, the house was now the residence of William Lowndes-Frith. This postcard version of the image – two slightly different views exist – is inscribed, ‘I thought you would like this photo taken on our lawn of the N. F. before they left us.’ Both versions – one dated 27 May 1916 and the other 10 February 1916 – were posted to a Miss Pikesley at St Albans. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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The Tennis Court wards of the Duchess of Connaught’s Red Cross Hospital at Cliveden. Following negotiations between Waldorf Astor, the War Office and the British Red Cross Society, Cliveden was offered as a hospital site to the Canadian Corps on 11 November 1914. Designated as the Duchess of Connaught’s Red Cross Hospital, work began on 16 December 1914 with the original buildings provided by Astor to be maintained by the War Office, equipped by the Canadian Red Cross, and staffed by the Canadian Army Medical Corps. An appeal by the Canadian Red Cross raised £2,000 towards the costs. The Cliveden Tennis Court complex was the main building, the large indoor tennis court being divided into wards, with the racquets court as the operating room, the fives court as the kitchen, and the bowling alley as a side ward and dispensary. A total of 130 beds were initially provided, with the first patients arriving in April 1915. Eventually, the expanded hospital could house 600 patients, with over 24,000 passing through between 1915 and 1919. [Image: CBS]

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A nurse washing a soldier in Ward D inside the indoor Tennis Court at Cliveden. The administrative offices moved from the Tennis Court to a new building in June 1915 and more new buildings began to be erected from July 1915. There were frequent high profile visitors including King George V and Queen Mary on 20 July 1915. Five auxiliary sites were opened subsequently including locations at High Wycombe, Slough, Maidenhead, and at Hitcham House, Taplow. Renamed as No 15 Canadian General Hospital on 10 September 1917, the hospital closed on 15 September 1919. The hospital produced its own newsletter, Stand Easy, between June 1917 and October 1918. The hospital was used again by the Canadian forces in the Second World War and by the NHS from 1947 to 1985. Remaining hospital buildings were demolished in 2006. [Image: Library and Archives, Canada]

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The unveiling of the Canadian Shrine in the War Memorial Garden at Cliveden by the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, on Friday 4 April 1919. Those patients who died at Cliveden initially were buried in Taplow Churchyard but it was felt the Italian Garden was a more suitable location and a new cemetery was consecrated by the Bishop of Buckingham in the presence of the Duchess of Connaught, with 25 bodies transferred from Taplow. There are 43 graves from the Great War and two from the Second World War. The two clergymen are the Director of Canadian Chaplain Services, Canon Robert Almond, who had also served in the South African War, and Rev. Albert Trench of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who had been awarded the MC in March 1918. The sculpture was by the Australian sculptor, Sir Bertram Mackennal (1863 – 1931), who also sculpted ‘Apollo’, the memorial to Julian and Billy Grenfell at Taplow Court. [Image: Library and Archives, Canada]

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Staple Hall, Bletchley was requisitioned by the War Office on 16 August 1914 and used initially for Territorial units with officers quartered in the hall itself. In January 1915 Royal Engineers moved into Staple Hall and it became a signal training school, with over 50 wooden huts constructed in the grounds. In 1917 it became a Wireless Depot for the Royal Engineers. The huts had been removed by February 1920 and most traces of the depot by August, but it was not until 1925 that Staple Hall was sold off, subsequently being demolished. Given that the image shows a gun carriage, and there also appears to be snow on the ground, it is likely that this is a photograph taken prior to January 1915 when Territorial units were still in residence. [Image: CBS]

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The Flackwell Heath War Memorial was unveiled on Sunday 8 May 1921 by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire. In Portland stone, the memorial, which bore 51 names, was manufactured by Messrs H. T. Dickens of High Wycombe. The ceremony was attended by ex-servicemen and Boy Scouts with the Flackwell Heath Silver Band in attendance. That evening the band went on to give a sacred concert. [Image: Bucks Free Press/Chepping Wycombe Parish Council/SWOP]

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Almost certainly the welcome home ceremony for Herbert Sampson of Great Horwood as recorded by the Buckingham Advertiser on 30 November 1918. Sampson, who had enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1913, was on HMS Britannia, an old pre-Dreadnought battleship, when it was torpedoed by UB-50 off Cape Trafalgar on 9 November 1918. The vessel had just completed escort duty for a convoy from Sierra Leone to Gibraltar. Some 50 lives were lost, with the majority of the crew rescued by HMS Defender. The survivors returned to Chatham on 23 November 1918. Sampson is described as very tall so is presumably the seaman on the left. The other pictured is Harold Wood, who had served on another old pre-dreadnought, HMS Commonwealth. The 1861 National School building is now the school canteen. [Image: CBS]

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On Wednesday 18 November 1914 King George V visited troops of the 21st Division at Halton Camp, and at their billets in Amersham and Great Missenden. At the latter, men from the 13th (Service) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps lined the street. Local school children were also brought out to see the King. Having begun at Halton and then driven to Great Missenden, the King walked the length of the High Street before going on to Amersham by car. It was reported that he spoke to Private James Fergusson, a former railway shunter on the Caledonian Railway, outside the Buckingham Arms Hotel. It is evident in this photograph, looking towards the Cross Keys, that the troops have a mixture of khaki and ‘Kitchener Blue’ uniforms. [Image: BMMT]

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A group from C or D Company of the 13th (Service) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Missenden Abbey in late 1914 or the early spring of 1915. The photograph was taken to the left of the present entrance, the original view now obscured by bushes. Attached as divisional troops to 21st Division, the battalion was billeted in Amersham (A & B Companies) and Great Missenden (C and D Companies) from 14 November 1914 to 15 April 1915 when it transferred to 37th Division on Salisbury Plain. Reaching the Western Front in July 1915, the battalion suffered heavy casualties at Loos in September 1915. [Image: Bucks Free Press/Friends of High Wycombe Library]

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Halton Camp in autumn 1914 before the beginning of hut construction. Having allowed the army to use his estate for manoeuvres in September 1913, including No 3 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, Alfred de Rothschild offered it to the War Office once more in September 1914. The late autumn of 1914 proved exceptionally wet at ‘Halton-on-The-Mud’ with outbreaks of meningitis and the 21st Division sent back into billets in surrounding towns and villages until better hutted accommodation could be provided. Eventually, up to 20,000 men could be accommodated. Following the dispatch of the 21st Division overseas, Halton was used by a number of third line Territorial Force and other reserve units – particularly from East Anglia – from the autumn of 1915. [Image: CBS]

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Ground staff of the Australian Flying Corps in training at Halton Camp in 1918. The Australian Flying Corps was established in September 1912 but did not commence flying training until 1914. One squadron served in the Middle East while three were formed in England between June and September 1917. The School of Technical Training was formed at Halton’s East Camp in September 1917 but the “Old Workshops” shown here were only opened in November 1917. The school then moved to Halefield Camp south of Wendover in June 1918. Around 950 ground staff trained at the school during the war. The “Old Workshops” still stand but were condemned in 2016. [Images: Trenchard Museum (1918) and Aldon Ferguson (modern).]

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A military cortege at the entrance to Station Yard off Amersham Hill on Thursday 30 September 1915. It is that of Driver Reginald Burton of Haverhill, Suffolk. Aged 18 years and 11 months, Burton had enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery and was serving with No 4 Artillery Training School at High Wycombe. On the previous day, he had slipped and fallen down a bank in West End Recreation Ground while leading a horse that had suddenly startled. Burton had attached himself to the halter in such a way that he could not free himself and he was dragged along, fracturing his skull. Accompanied by RFA personnel and the band of the 3/1st Bucks Battalion, the cortege was watched by several hundred spectators on its way from the mortuary to be put on the 9.46 a.m. train, and thence to Haverhill where Burton is buried. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Servicemen from No 4 Royal Field Artillery Training School ‘queuing for puddings’ outside Alfred Johns’ Railway (formerly Temperance) Hotel on the corner of Castle Street and Amersham Hill. The poster is advertising the Grand Cinema in Desborough Road, originally opened in April 1913. The Grand opened from 6.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. every day from Monday to Saturday, prices being 4d and 7d in the stalls and 1s.0d and 1s.2d in the balcony. There was always a main and a supporting feature, with the programme changing on Thursdays. Bicycles could be left at the adjoining garage at the owner’s risk. In this case, the poster is advertising a musical performance of ‘Jonah’, presumably Sibelius’s choral work, the ‘Song of Jonah’ composed in 1918. Further research should provide the actual date. [Image: Bucks Free Press/Wycombe Museum/Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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The County High School for Girls in Benjamin Road was requisitioned as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Hospital in November 1914 for 73 patients, the school moving out on 1 December 1914. Initially, the hospital had been started at Chilworth on 19 November. The school was allowed back in June 1915 but the site was again requisitioned for a VAD Hospital in November 1915, and continued to be used as such until June 1919. Over the course of the war as a whole, approximately 3,500 wounded were treated there. In 1916, for example, there was an average of 63 patients in residence each day, with a total for the year of 834. In 1917 the average daily number of patients was 90 with a yearly total of 1,044. The photograph dates from the first half of 1918 since the large marquee to the right burned down in August 1918. Some of the school’s former pupils became VAD nurses at the hospital while a team of Old Girls played Wounded Soldiers at hockey in February 1917. [Image: CBS]

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Patients and nursing staff in front of the VAD Hospital in the County High School for Girls in Benjamin Road. By 1917 the hospital had 90 beds available. [Image: Lady Verney High School]

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Soldiers posing in front of All Saints Church, the date unknown. All Saints was used regularly for church services for those troops stationed in the town. The church has a significant number of varying individual memorials to the fallen including the three sons of the Bishop of Buckingham, Edward Shaw. Peals of bells were rung for two of those sons, Lieutenant Bernard Shaw on 26 Decembver 1914 and Captain Edward Shaw on 18 October 1916, while a general peal for the town’s fallen was also rung on 31 December 1916. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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The Morris family from Barmoor Farm, Booker with ‘Joey’ the pony collecting funds for the British Red Cross Society in Easton Street, 1916. The group includes Millicent, Gladys and Jack Morris. It is possible that the date is Wednesday 21 June 1916, coinciding with Alexandra Rose Day, first held in 1912 and named for King Edward VII’s consort, Queen Alexandra. Under the War Charities Act 1916 funds could only be raised by registered charities, the Wycombe and Denbigh Division of the British Red Cross Society raising £144.1s.3d in the month as a whole from such efforts as penny collections, boxes, and donations. The Red Cross Institute in High Wycombe also produced 312 different articles including hospital swabs from old shorts and sock wool that month. [Image: High Wycombe Library/Bucks Free Press/SWOP]

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Another image of the Morris family collecting for the Red Cross with ‘Joey’ the pony in Easton Street in June 1916. The photograph was taken in front of the old Royal Grammar School at the site of the former Hospital of St John the Baptist, the school having been moved to Amersham Hill in 1915. [Image: High Wycombe Libraries/Bucks Free Press/SWOP]

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From a postcard dated 25 November 1914 sent by Driver (later Sergeant) Cyril Packe to Mrs A. A. Packe at Sherborne in Dorset showing his Royal Field Artillery Battery in Easton Street just before the junction with Queen Victoria Road. The building and gates at left are those of the long demolished Wheeler’s Brewery. Packe identified himself as the soldier walking away from the group of officers and facing back towards the remainder of the squad. He hoped that they would all receive khaki rather than the existing ‘Kitchener Blue’ uniforms in the following week. He was also hoping to get home before Christmas. The four RFA batteries with 21st Division were the 94th, 95th, 96th and 97th (Howitzer) Batteries. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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It has been suggested that this funeral procession approaching the junction of the High Street with Crendon Street is that of Viscount Wendover, heir to the Third Marquess of Lincolnshire, who died of wounds at Boulogne in May 1915. Wendover’s body, however, was taken directly from London for burial at Moulsoe. In reality, this is the elaborate funeral cortege of Lance Corporal Alfred Hale of the 1/1st Bucks Battalion on Saturday 5 June 1915. Aged 18, and from 41 Totteridge Avenue, High Wycombe, Hale had enlisted in September 1914 and was in one of the first reinforcing drafts to the battalion. He was mortally wounded by a sniper at Ploegsteert on 9 May 1915 and died at Bagthorpe Military Hospital, Nottingham on 1 June. The local press reported that dense crowds, including the relatives of many Wycombe servicemen and men on leave, lined the streets as the cortege, with horse drawn ‘Washington’ hearse, preceded by a firing party and the band from the 2/1st Bucks Battalion at Chelmsford, moved from Totteridge Avenue to the service in the Union Baptist Chapel, and then to the interment in Wycombe Cemetery. The scene is from a postcard sent to Mrs Freeman in Chesham by her son from Wycombe on 10 June 1915. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Through the course of 1917 a number of hockey matches were played on the High Wycombe Cricket Ground in London Road between convalescent patients of the VAD Hospital in Benjamin Road and the girls of the County High School for Girls, which had vacated the hospital premises. This match took place on 3 February 1917. The building in front of which one of the patients’ teams is pictured has long been demolished but the buildings in London Road behind the Cricket Ground remain unchanged. [Image: Lady Verney High School]

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The girls’ team from the County High School that played a hockey match against convalescents from the VAD Hospital at the Wycombe Cricket Ground in London Road on 3 February 1917. At the time the hospital had 86 patients. [Image: Lady Verney High School]

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The scene just before the laying of the foundation stone at the Wycombe and District War Memorial Hospital on Marlow Hill on Wednesday 15 March 1922. The ceremony was performed by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, whose own son, Viscount Wendover, would be one of the 572 men commemorated. Lincolnshire, who used a silver trowel bearing the borough coat of arms, was the Presiding Governor of the Hospital, Major Coningsby Disraeli being the Chairman. The mayor, Councillor G. H. Taylor, was also present together with other corporation officials, staff of the hospital, VAD nurses and the Wycombe Volunteer Fire Brigade. A dedication prayer was offered by the Rev. T. Lloyd Page of the Wycombe Primitive Methodists, and a closing prayer by the vicar of Wycombe, Rev. F. M. Molyneux. The foundation stone and commemorative plaques were moved lower down Marlow Hill in 1971 to the new hospital extension that replaced the original building. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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A view towards Loakes Road from the original site of the Memorial Hospital during the laying of the foundation stone on 15 March 1922. There had been several delays in beginning construction that had aroused criticism in the town. When it opened in 1923, the Memorial Hospital replaced the Cottage Hospital on Amersham Hill, and was initially designed to accommodate 30 patients. A total of £33500 had been raised towards the cost including contributions from the British Red Cross Society and the parish of Hughenden. The new building was designed by Marchment & Cubitt, and was to be built by Biggs & Son of Hughenden. The Bishop of Buckingham, Edward Domett Shaw, contributed £100 towards the cost of equipping the hospital in memory of his three sons killed in the war, Arthur, Bernard and Edward. They are also commemorated by a window and a peal of bells in All Saints, High Wycombe. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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C Squadron, 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars leaving High Wycombe on Tuesday 11 August 1914. The squadron is turning into the High Street from Queen Victoria Road. Commanded by Major Coningsby Disraeli, the squadron mobilised on Wednesday 5 August 1914, its headquarters at the Red Lion Hotel. Men were billeted in the town, and horses obtained and stabled. In common with the other squadrons at Aylesbury, Buckingham and Chesham, the Wycombe Squadron (in which over 90% of the men took the Imperial Service Obligation to serve overseas) moved to Reading on 11 August. Coningsby Disraeli remained to oversee the regiment’s headquarters in Buckingham, and the Wycombe Squadron was led off to war by Captain the Hon. Fred Cripps, later Lord Parmoor. It left town watched by a large crowd. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Men from the Royal Field Artillery on physical exercise in Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, sometime in 1917. With the departure of the 21st Division’s artillery in May 1915, Wycombe became the location of No 4 Reserve Brigade RFA Territorial Force and No 4 Territorial Force Artillery Training School. The reserve brigade and its training element comprised Territorial third line artillery depots from East Anglia, the Home Counties and London. The London units formed No 6 Reserve Brigade and No 6 Training School in October 1915, and moved to Kettering in December 1915. [Image: BFP/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Recruits for the Royal Field Artillery units of 21st Division drawn up in Queen Victoria Road in November 1914. They are mostly dressed in the much derided ‘Kitchener Blue’, some 500,000 blue serge uniforms having been obtained from the General Post Office as an emergency measure before sufficient khaki could be manufactured. Greatcoats and jackets were also ordered from civilian suppliers in Britain, Canada and the United States.[Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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The presence of the bugle band identifies these troops as from the 13th (Service) Battalion, The Rifle Brigade. Attached to the 21st Division, the battalion arrived in High Wycombe on Thursday 19 November 1914, establishing its initial headquarters in the old Printing Works. Officers were quartered in the Red Lion and the Falcon Hotel. Billets for the other ranks included the Town Hall. Battalion headquarters was subsequently transferred to the Saracen’s Head Hotel. The battalion remained in Wycombe until April 1915 when it transferred to Andover, and to 37th Division. [Image: CBS]

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In addition to the 13th Rifle Brigade, the 14th (Service) Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry completed its move from Halton to billets in High Wycombe by Saturday 28 November 1914. With the 13th Rifle Brigade occupying billets in the west of the town, the DLI was accommodated in the east of the town with its headquarters in the King George V public house (the hastily renamed former ‘King of Prussia’) on London Road. The battalion returned to the now improved hutted accommodation at Halton in April 1915. It moved to Witley in July, and to the Western Front with the rest of the division in September 1915. [Image: CBS]

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A funeral cortege about to be unloaded for transfer to a train at High Wycombe Station. It is possible that it is the same funeral pictured entering the station from Amersham Hill, namely that of Driver Reginald Burton on 30 September 1915 in order for the coffin to be put on the 9.46 a.m. train for ultimate transit to Haverhill in Suffolk. Certainly, the escort are all members of the Royal Field Artillery. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Men from the 21st Division’s Royal Field Artillery batteries exercising above their camp inLoakes Park in the spring of 1915. Apart from the four field artillery batteries (including one howitzer battery), the divisonal artillery also included an ammunition column, and a heavy battery. The artillery moved to join the rest of the division at Halton in May 1915, The 21st Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was at Berkhamsted and, separated from the division, left for the Western Front in August 1915. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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A view of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) camp in Loakes Park from Tom Burt’s Hill sometime in 1915. Initially the artillery of the 21st Division, comprising the 94th, 95th, and 96th Brigades RFA, and the 97th (Howitzer) Brigade RFA, was stationed at High Wycombe from September 1914 to May 1915. The 94th, 95th and 97th Field Brigades, RFA, a total of 17 officers and 757 other ranks, had arrived at Wycombe on 19 November 1914 from Berkhamsted. The Chief Constable at once reduced licensing hours from 6.00 a.m., to 11.00 p.m. to between 8.00 a.m., to 9.30 p.m. (later 8.30 p.m.) on weekdays and to 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. on Sundays. Subsequently, closing time came down to 8.30 p.m. on weekdays. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Limbers of the 1/2nd London Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery outside St Mary’s Church, Ivinghoe in February 1915. Its 4.7” guns were of the same type widely used during the South African War. Reputedly, the battery’s guns had been used in the defence of Ladysmith. Originally operated by the Royal Navy, the guns were mounted on ‘Woolwich’ carriages for land use by Territorial Force heavy batteries. The guns were taken for test firing on Salisbury Plain during the unit’s short time at Ivinghoe. On the unit’s arrival in the village, a committee headed by the vicar, the Rev. Treffry Harvey, took over the Salvation Army’s premises to provide refreshments and entertainments for the men from noon to 9 p.m. each day. Temporary acetylene gas lighting was provided as well as a piano and games, the expense being met from local voluntary contributions. The premises were opened formally by the Rev. Harvey on Wednesday 3 February 1915. [Image: CBS]

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Territorials of the 1/2nd London Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery preparing to leave Ivinghoe en route to the Western Front, in March 1915. Originally stationed at Kings Langley in neighbouring Hertfordshire, the battery arrived in Ivinghoe in February 1915. Headquarters were in the King’s Head with the men billeted around Ivinghoe and Pitstone. Within a matter of weeks, several of the men pictured here were dead. Arriving in France on 15 March 1915, the unit was detached from the 47th (2nd London) Division to join the 13th Heavy Artillery Group at Ypres. On 22 April 1915, using gas, the Germans broke through the French front line. The 1/2nd was overwhelmed in hand to hand fighting in ‘Kitchener Wood’ and its four 4.7” guns all captured. The officer at the right foreground, identified as Lieutenant Sydney Sandeman, was among those killed. The officer in the greatcoat is probably the battery commander, Captain H. B. Brown. [Image: CBS/Pitstone LHS.]

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General Sir George Higginson, a long-time Marlow resident and a former Grenadier, inspected the 1,100 men of the 3rd Grenadier Guards at his home, Gyldernscroft on his 89th birthday on Monday 21 June 1915. There are several photographs taken in the grounds on the same day as well as of sports at the camp at Bovingdon Green. The grounds are much changed as is the former entrance through which the troops are marching. All of the extant images wrongly caption his home as Glydernscroft. Sir George similarly inspected men from the 3rd/1st (Eastbourne), 3rd/2nd (Hastings) and 2nd/3rd (Brighton) Field Companies, Royal Engineers on his 90th birthday in 1916. [Image: Marlow Remembers WW1.]

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The arrival of the 3rd Battalion, The Grenadier Guards in Marlow on Friday 4 June 1915. The battalion, commanded by Colonel N A L Corry, was brought down from Chelsea Barracks in two special trains, the first arriving at 10.40 a.m. It is this first contingent headed by its drum and fife band that is pictured here. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Another photograph of the 3rd Battalion, The Grenadier Guards arriving in Marlow on Friday 4 June 1915. The second train arrived at 11.45 a.m. In all, some 1,200 men arrived that day. The 3rd Battalion left Marlow on 27 July to join the 2nd Guards Brigade on the Western Front. The troops proved popular while in Marlow and a source of entertainment. There was a sports day open to public audience on 21 June,which included a cricket match between the battalion and Borlase School, and a river sports day at the end of the month. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Men of ‘A’ Company of the 1/1st Bucks Battalion leaving Marlow Station for Aylesbury on the 8.33 a.m. train on Wednesday 5 August 1914. Territorials had arrived at Marlow for summer camp at Bovingdon Green on the evening of Sunday 2 August. They were immediately sent back to their headquarters early on Monday morning as summer training was cancelled due to the deteriorating situation in Europe. With mobilisation declared, it had been expected that the Marlow Company would leave for Aylesbury late on Tuesday evening but it was postponed until Wednesday morning. The troops were seen off with a speech by the chairman of the Urban District Council, John Langley, and by the town band. Marlow members of the Royal Bucks Hussars left for Wycombe on the 10.07 a.m. train. [Image: Bucks Free Press/Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Territorial Royal Engineers clearing fallen trees near Chiltern Cottages in Oxford Road, Marlow, March 1916. The storm had occurred on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March following earlier floods. Trees had fallen in Spinfield Lane, Mill Road and Cricket Field Road as well as Oxford Road. The engineers were from the 3/1st (Eastbourne) and 3/2nd (Hastings and St Leonards) Home Counties Field Companies. [Image: Mike Eagleton]

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Workers – mainly women – from Wethereds Brewery pose in front of the engineering shop (now long demolished) in Pound Lane, Marlow in December 1918 with Colonel Frank Stevens (centre left), the brewery manager, and Colonel Francis Wethered (centre right), the company’s chairman. Wethered had given up command of the 2/1st Bucks Battalion due to ill health in January 1915 two months before it went overseas. He was then given command of the 1/6th Royal Warwickshire Regiment and took it overseas, only to be invalided home again in July 1917. The notice records the brewery’s wartime production of bombs for 3-inch Stokes Mortars, 10-pounder artillery shells, and 3-inch anti-aircraft shells. Under various contracts, Wethereds produced over 61,000 shells including 7,037 Stokes Mortar bombs, 3,250 trench bombs, and 2,000 target smoke bombs. A total of 81 former male employees served in the armed forces, of whom four were killed and four died on active service. [Image: High Wycombe Libraries/Bucks Free Press/SWOP]

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Territorial Royal Engineers laying pontoons across the Thames at Marlow, spring 1916. Some 2,000 men from the 3/1st (Eastbourne), 3/2nd (Hastings and St Leonards) and 2/3rd (Brighton) Field Companies – all third line Home Counties RE Field Companies – had arrived in Marlow in Christmas week 1915. The 2/3rd left to join 57th Division in February 1916 and, having sent drafts to the Western Front in June, the remainder left on 23 August 1916. The engineers, who were billeted in empty properties such as Spinfield, Sunny Bank, and the Old Cottage Hospital, were of particular help when the Marlow area was hit by severe floods and storms in March 1916. The Bucks Free Press was far more interested in the engineers’ cricket matches and river sports than military activities but did report the arrival of the pontoons on 16 May 1916, which suggests this photograph was probably taken in May or June 1916 [Image: Michael Eagleton]

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Having arrived at Marlow on Friday 4 June 1915, the 3rd Battalion, The Grenadier Guards moved to a tented camp at Bovingdon Green, a small advance party having prepared it on 1 June 1915. Here the battalion is turning from West Street into Oxford Road en route to Bovingdon Green. It was reported that the troops enjoyed the concerts arranged by the YMCA and the evening visits to the town and river. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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No 1 Company of the 4th Battalion, The Grenadier Guards en route to the camp at Bovingdon Green on Saturday 3 July 1915, having arrived by train at 11.00 a.m. It was replacing No 3 Company, which returned to Chelsea Barracks the same day. Detachments of the 4th Battalion had been spending two to three weeks at Bovingdon since 12 June but the whole 4th Battalion then moved to Bovingdon between 14 and 20 July 1915 to complete its training. The battalion left to join 3rd Guards Brigade on the Western Front on 19 August 1915. [Image: Marlow Museum]

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The unveiling of the Monks Risborough War Memorial by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, took place on Sunday 13 November 1921. Also in attendance were the Hon. Rupert Carrington, the High Sheriff Lieutenant Colonel Michael Tighe, and the Rural Dean. Designed by Messrs. J. W. Kilter of Aylesbury, and constructed by Messrs Lacey of Princes Risborough, the funds for the Cornish granite memorial had bene raised by a committee led by W. J. Taylor with the assistance of many ex-servicemen. Ex-servicemen at the ceremony were mustered by Captain and Adjutant A. J. Reeves of the Bucks Battalion with lance Corporal Smith and Privates H. C. Bailey and A. E. Glenister of the Bucks battalion sounding the bugles. The local band, the fire brigade, school children, children from St Agatha’s Home, and the church choir were all present. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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It is suggested that this photograph of a street party in Bridge Street, New Bradwell was taken in November 1918 to mark the signing of the armistice. There appears no record of such a street party and it is far more likely that it dates from Peace Day celebrations on Saturday 19 July 1919. A pageant certainly took place at New Bradwell for Peace Day although marred by rain showers with the celebrations then being completed on 26 July 1919. There were street parties in Wolverton. Interestingly, Old Bradwell had declined to share in the Peace Day events at New Bradwell. The former homes in Bridge Street have been demolished and replaced with newer housing. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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Royal Engineers pictured outside the Newport Pagnell Brewery in February 1916. Newport Pagnell Urban District Council applied to the War Office to billet troops in September 1915. Elements of the 51st Highland Division, which concentrated around Bedford in October 1914, had been briefly billeted in Newport Pagnell in November and December 1914. ‘A’ Squadron of the 2/1st Bedfordshire Yeomanry was also briefly in the town in October 1915. The most lasting presence, however, was that of the Royal Engineers, a signal section of some 650 men arriving in December 1915, Bedford being the headquarters of RE Signal Service recruit, operators, and signalmen and linesmen depots, with other signal service training facilities centred at Woburn and Dunstable. Thereafter, the Royal Engineers featured in much of the public entertainments and sport in the town. The brewery closed in 1920 and the building was demolished in 1994. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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Another image of the Royal Engineers Signal Section outside Newport Pagnell Brewery, the snow on the ground again suggesting early 1916. Various buildings were used by the troops including the old Masonic Hall over the Church Institute in Silver Street, which became a soldiers’ recreation room, and the yard of the March of Intellect public house also in Silver Street, where a bathhouse was constructed. A small hospital for the troops was also established in the High Street from December 1916 until April 1918. It was entirely separate from the VAD Auxiliary Hospital in Tickford Abbey. Summer camps were held for the engineers on Bury Field. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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The Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, addressing the crowd at the Red Cross Sale outsuide Brewery House, Newport Pagnell on Wednesday 24 April 1918. The troops to the left of the photograph are the Newport Pagnell Company of the 3rd (Northern) Bucks Volunteer Regiment while the men to the right with arm bands are from the Newport Pagnell Company of Special Constabulary. Members of the Women’s Land Army can be glimpsed behind the specials. Organised jointly by the local branch of the National Farmers’ Union and the town’s Red Cross Committee, proceeds were donated to the Bucks Branch of the British Red Cross Society, and to the British Farmers Red Cross Fund, which raised money for particular schemes such as providing motor ambulances. Lots included the sale of the celebrated ‘VC Cockerel’, a bantam which was sold over 2,500 times nationwide during the course of the war, and raised £14,570 for the Red Cross. On this occasion, it was sold three times during the course of the day for a combined total of £153.4s.0d. With donations, other collections, the takings from attractions such as swings, skittles and a bran tub, and an evening dance, the day appears to have realised close to its £1,000 target. The marquee bears the name of the local firm, C. Lawman & Son. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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The unveiling of the Old Bletchley and Water Eaton War Memorial on Church Green, Bletchley on Saturday 13 November 1920. The dedication and unveiling was performed by the Bishop of Buckingham, Edward Shaw. Pupils from Bletchley Grammar School were in attendance, together with local members of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers (NFDDSS), and two buglers of the OBLI. Discussion of a suitable memorial had begun in January 1919 but, as with other memorials in Bletchley, there was disagreement over whether a more utilitarian community benefit such as a hall should be provided instead. There were also delays in completing the Portland stone memorial by Messrs. Yirrell of Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard. There are 32 names from the Great War, one of which was added in 1921. [Image: CBS]

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The Olney War Memorial was unveiled on Sunday 1 May 1921 by General Lord Horne, who had commanded the First Army from 1916 to 1918. The unveiling coincided with Hospital Sunday, on which all the churches and chapels in Olney collected funds for Northampton Hospital. The town’s friendly societies as well as the Town Band participated in the combined event as did the combined choirs of the churches and chapels. The memorial contained the names of 66 men from Olney who had lost their lives, from the 550 or so who had served during the war. [Image: Cowper and Newton Museum]

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The unveiling of Stewkley War Memorial, 9 April 1922. The memorial, constructed by Messrs Newman & Harper of Aylesbury, and containing 30 names, was unveiled by Lieutenant Colonel the 7th Earl of Orkney of The Tythe House, Stewkley. Orkney, who had commanded the 3rd Battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry (Royal Bucks King’s Own Militia) from 1898 to 1903, made up the balance on the £178.5s.0d the memorial cost when subscriptions fell short. The vicar, Rev. Archibald Moxon, boycotted the ceremony, having resigned from the memorial committee when it chose an obelisk rather than a cross. The four buglers present were from B Company, The Bucks Battalion. [2014 Image: Stewkley Grapevine; 1922 Image: Stewkley Local History Group]

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The unveiling of the Stokenchurch War Memorial on Sunday 7 June 1925 was attended by a reported 1,500 people. The memorial was unveiled by Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, who had been Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1915 to 1918. The Maltese Cross type memorial had been constructed by Axtell & Son of Oxford at a cost of £230. The sum was raised by public subscription and the land donated by Marens Slade of Mallards Court. Robertson was assisted by the Archdeacon of Oxford, Bishop E. D. Shaw. The Anglican, Primitive Methodist and Congregationalist choire were all present together with the Stokenchurch brass band, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, the mayor of High Wycombe, ex-servicemen, widows and orphans, and buglers of the Bucks Battalion. A total of 289 men from Stokenchurch had served in the war, 40 of them failing to return, and whose names were inscribed on the memorial. The memorial hall, which lies to the left of the modern photograph, was still under construction, while the scene has been much changed by the location of the community library, and also by modern housing in the right background. [Image: Bucks Free Press/High Wycombe Libraries/SWOP]

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Probably taken on Thursday 6 August 1914, horses selected for requisitioning by the army are being inspected by veterinaries in the Market Square at Stony Stratford. The local purchasing officer, Charles Wylie of Stantonbury Park, had begun selecting horses on 5 August, sending them into Stony Stratford for inspection under a warrant issued by local magistrates in compliance with the Army Act. A total of 52 horses – 12 riding and 40 draught – were required for the 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance alone, the unit having been formed at Stony Stratford in 1908 as part of the new Territorial Force. It mobilised at 6 p.m. on 5 August with headquarters in the Cock Hotel. Complete with all its equipment, the unit moved out of Stony Stratford on 11 August to entrain at Wolverton, joining the 2nd (South Midland) Mounted Division at Bury St Edmunds. Note the news vendor with the latest war news in the foreground. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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A group photograph at the then vicarage at The Lee taken on 6 March 1916. Left to right are; Second Lieutenant Charles Phipps, 2/1st Bucks Battalion; Colonel Pownall Phipps, Reserve of Officers; Rev. Constantine Phipps, Honorary Chaplain to the Bucks Battalion; Captain Lionel Crouch, 1/1st Bucks Battalion; Captain Guy Crouch, 1/1st Bucks Battalion; and Captain Ivor Stewart-Liberty, 2/1st Bucks Battalion. Guy Crouch was married to Joan Phipps. Tragedy struck within months. Charles Phipps was killed at Fromelles on 19 July and Ivor Stewart-Liberty lost a leg. Two days later, Lionel Crouch was killed at Pozieres. Another of the Rev. Phipps’s sons died of pneumonia while on active service in February 1919. The house has since been divided into two residences, hence the doorway not apparent in 1916. [Image: CBS]

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Haymaking on the village cricket ground at Waddesdon Manor, probably in 1915 or 1916. It reflects the increasing reliance upon women in agriculture. Few women had been involved in agriculture prior to the war, and there were 20,000 fewer of them by July 1915 as other employment opportunities expanded. The attempts of Women’s War Agricultural Committees to encourage voluntary efforts largely failed, as did the Board of Agriculture’s Women’s National Land Service Corps, despite being supplemented by private – largely socially exclusive – organisations such as the Women’s Legion Agricultural Branch. The Women’s Land Army finally emerged in March 1917. This particular image suggests one of the early voluntary efforts. The cricket pavilion was built in 1907. [Image: Ivor Gurney]

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Led by the Old Prize and Temperance Bands, over 100 ex-servicemen approach the village square for the dedication and unveiling of the Waddesdon War Memorial on Easter Sunday, 27 March 1921. Over £450 had been raised by the Memorial Committee to provide the Celtic Cross in Cornish granite. The memorial was dedicated by the Rector, the Rev. James Farmer, whose own son, Lieutenant Henry Farmer, had been killed at Second Ypres on 10 May 1915 while serving with the 4th Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps. [Image: Ivor Gurney]

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News that an armistice – signed at Compiègne just after 5.00 a.m. – would come into effect did not reach Aylesbury and the surrounding villages less than an hour before 11.00 a.m. on Monday 11 November 1918. In Aylesbury, hooters and sirens were sounded, and all employees were given a half day off. This parade in Waddesdon was presumably held that afternoon. [Image: Ivor Gurney]

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Women assisting in the harvesting of Brussels sprouts at Waddesdon Manor in 1917. Like other great houses, that at Waddesdon suffered increasing shortages of manpower, no less than 142 workers associated with the estate being enlisted during the course of the war. As a conscious example – with growing food shortages resulting from the German unrestricted submarine campaign against allied merchant ships from February 1917 onwards – Alice de Rothschild sacrificed her beloved flower beds to the production of potatoes while other parts of the estate were turned over to vegetables and hay making. [Image: The Rothschild Collection/The Waddesdon Archive at Windmill Hill]

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Another view of the War Memorial unveiling ceremony at Waddesdon on Sunday 27 March 1921, with the still flag draped cross to the right. The memorial, bearing 62 names from the Great War, was unveiled by Major General Sir Robert Fanshawe, who had commanded the 48th (South Midland) Division from June 1915 to June 1918. The 1/1st Bucks Battalion had served with the division throughout the war, and Fanshawe spoke of its services on the Somme and at Passchendaele. Of the Waddesdon fallen, seven had died while serving with the 1/1st Bucks, while a further nine had died while serving with the 2/1st Bucks Battalion. The posts and chains were added around the memorial later. By the time of the unveiling, the village had raised £320 of the £450 cost of the memorial. [Image: Ivor Gurney]

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Troops from Halton camp strolling in Aylesbury Street (now Aylesbury Road) in April 1917. During the course of the war, the YMCA Hut was moved from the school playground to Bryant’s Acre in Aylesbury Road serving more widely as a public hall. It became known to servicemen as ‘the Old Sweat Box’. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Troops from Halton camp outside the premises on the corner of Aylesbury Street (now Road) and Tring Road of Richard Morgan, a baker, who also published photographic postcards of Wendover. Not surprisingly, his shop was much used by soldiers. The George (George and Dragon since 2004) next door was run by Charles Pearson. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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Wendover’s Clock Tower became a convenient meeting place for soldiers stationed at Halton Camp. Refreshment stalls were set up next to the horse trough, while troops also made use of trestle tables to write home. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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The YMCA hut was built in Wendover School playground in 1915 and proved a popular meeting place for soldiers and civilians, becoming a venue for concerts, magic lantern shows and refreshments. The Young Men’s Christian Association, founded in London in 1844, adopted its red triangle emblem during the Great War. Its work carried out entirely by volunteers, the YMCA offered material, educational and spiritual support to servicemen at home and overseas. An astonishing £2.5 million was raised from wartime donations for what constituted the largest civilian welfare organisation to work with the British army during the war. Apart from the provision of rest huts, overnight hostels and other facilities for men on leave, canteens, and cinemas, the YMCA organised concerts, libraries, and sporting activities such as boxing and football. In France and Flanders, it even organised folk dance centres as additional recreation facilities. [Image: Colin Seabright]

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A view of the YMCA Hut at Wendover in the playground of the next the former primary school behind the Clock Tower. Strangely, the YMCA hut in Halton Camp came under the auspices of the YMCA’s East Midland Division whereas the Wendover hut and a tent at Stoke Mandeville came under the South Midland Division. There was also a YMCA tent at Wycombe Marsh. [Image: YMCA/Cadbury Research Library Special Collections of the University of Birmingham]

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Staff and patients outside the VAD Hospital at the Elms, Winslow on Thursday 14 November 1918, the flags reflecting the signing of the armistice three days earlier. The Elms had been built as a residence by a solicitor, Thomas Price Willis, in 1889, incorporating the former Greyhound Inn. In 1914 the Elms was turned over for the use of Belgian refugees by Norman McCorquodale of Winslow Hall, who had purchased it in 1911 after Willis’s death. It became an annexe for the Southern Hospital at Oxford on 29 January 1918, initially for 20 patients. Nursing staff came from the Bucks No 8 VAD Detachment and the St John Ambulance Association No 1340 VAD Detachment. It had handled 274 patients by the time it closed on 5 February 1919. After the war, the Elms housed the Rural District Council Offices: it was demolished to make way for flats. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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The Bishop of Buckingham dedicating the war memorial at Winslow on Sunday 7 November 1920. Constructed from Mansfield stone, 22ft high and some 20 tons in weight, the memorial was unveiled by the wife of the medical officer of health for the district, Dr T. F. Vaisey, who was about to retire and move to Bath after 40 years in the Winslow area. Relatives of the fallen are immediately in front of the bishop backed by the local girl guides’ troop with ex-servicemen to the left and right. Pupils of the Sunday School are in the churchyard together with the united choirs of St Lawrence Church, the Baptist and Congregational churches. Interestingly, in his address the bishop chose to emphasise the importance of the defence of Ypres six years previously as a key moment in the war. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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Men from the Norfolk Territorial Reserve Brigade photographed at the Old Bowling Green at Winslow on Saturday 25 September 1915, the day before the harvest festival was held in the town. The headquarters of the 3rd/4th and 3rd/5th Norfolks moved from Norwich and East Dereham to the Windsor area in August 1915 and to Halton in October 1915. It is clear, however, that some of the Norfolks arrived in Winslow as early as March 1915. Royal Engineers also arrived in August 1915. The 3rd/4th and 3rd/5th Norfolks were re-designated as the 4th and 5th Reserve Battalions in April 1916, the 5th then being absorbed by the 4th in September 1916. The brigade moved to Crowborough from Halton in November 1917. Used until 1922, the Old Bowling Green was given to the Church of St Lawrence as an extension to the churchyard in 1926. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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Peace Day being celebrated in the grounds of The Paddock at Winslow Hall, now Tomkins Park, on Saturday 19 July 1919 despite spells of rain. One of 30 events in the afternoon’s sports programme arranged by Mr Hawley, the tug of war featured eight Canadian soldiers against eight former British soldiers, the contest being won by the British. The programme had begun at 2.30 p.m. with an interval for tea in the two marquees – supplied by Messrs. Garner, Wood & Co. of Leighton Buzzard – at 3.30 p.m. before events were resumed. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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Decorated bicycles being displayed at Winslow’s Peace Day celebration on Saturday 19 July 1919. Due to the rain, most of the sports programme for women was cancelled as the ground was deemed unfit, with other events for men substituted. The ladies’ bicycle parade, however, did take place as scheduled. Some 1,300 people had been expected to attend the afternoon tea but, in the event, about 1,100 did so, the remainder being put off by the rain. According to the Buckingham Advertiser, the whole of the day’s proceedings were carried out in a “Mark Tapley” spirit, the allusion being to the cheerfulness in all adversities of the character in Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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Another of the sports events – a sack race – held for Winslow’s Peace Day on Saturday 19 July 1919. The celebrations had begun with the ringing of a peal of bells from St Lawrence Church at 9.00 a.m. followed by a united service in the Market Square at 11.00 a.m. The Leighton Carriage Works Band played in the Market square at 1.00 p.m. but the performance was interrupted by rain. Later, events included races run with instruments by both the Carriage Works Band and the Winslow Jazz Band. The sports ended at 7.00 p.m., after which there was a dance in the Odd Fellows Hall rather than in the Market Square as intended, and fireworks in Home Close to round off the day. [Image: Winslow History Society]

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German prisoners of war being marched through Woburn Sands en route to work on the Duke of Bedford’s estate at Woburn, probably in September 1917. Woburn was the location of the 125th Canadian Forestry Corps, under whose supervision the prisoners were placed, the Canadians operating there from August 1917 until December 1918 with headquarters in Aspley Heath. The first 105 prisoners arrived in September 1917 to assist with the logging, timber being used for such items as huts and shoring in the trenches. Apart from Woburn, POW Working Camps were established at Westbury House (Newport Pagnell), Turvey, Slough, and Waddesdon, with POW Agricultural Depots at Denham Lodge, Langley Park, and Stoke Green. POWs were also attached to the Canadian Hospital at Cliveden. It is often suggested that German POWs built the water tower at Coleshill. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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The unveiling of the war memorial at Woburn Sands on Saturday 20 December 1919. The first meeting to plan the memorial had been held in January 1919 with an elaborate clock tower one of the proposals, a number of suggestions being for a memorial embracing a community use. In the event, a smaller but still unusual cenotaph memorial with clock faces was agreed, executed in Portland stone by Messrs. Kelly & Co of Marylebone at a cost of £280. The memorial with 43 names was unveiled by the 11th Duke of Bedford with the vicar, the Rev. John Shelton, and the Wesleyan minister, the Rev. James Rees, in attendance. The memorial was relocated subsequently from the Square at the southern end of the High Street outside the Swan to its current location in 1972 due to a number of traffic collisions. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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Another view of the McCorquodales strike procession on Sunday 29 May 1915, showing some of the male supporters of the striking women from the National Union of Railwaymen and the Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers Union. The women returned to work on Tuesday 1 June as a result of undertakings by the management but unrest continued when it appeared not all promises had been kept and they again ceased work. As a result of government arbitration, the women then received a 7½ per cent wage rise as ‘war wages’ ranging from 9d to 1s.3d a week depending upon age. The new wages were paid for the first full week’s work from 3 June 1915, the date on which full work was resumed. A mass meeting to celebrate the success was then held near the old Market Place on Saturday 5 June 1915. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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The procession of striking women from McCorquodales printing works and their supporters making its way around Wolverton on Sunday 29 May 1915. As a result of male clerical workers being paid a 2s.0d war bonus, the predominantly female work force demanded a pay rise and, with many going on strike, McCorquodales responded with a lock-out on Thursday 20 May at the start of the Whitsun weekend affecting over 800 workers. The work force had not been particularly unionised previously but over 500 women now enrolled in the National Union of Printing and Paper Workers. The procession was headed by the Wolverton Town Band and the Bradwell United Band, with supporting workers from the London and North Western Railway Carriage Works and other local trade unionists. The banner is that of the National Federation of Women Workers, which had been founded in 1906 to unionise unorganised women workers. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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Part of the crowd that gathered to watch the departure of the 189 men of the Wolverton Detachment (F and G Companies) of the Bucks Battalion under the command of Captain Lionel Hawkins from the station on Wednesday 5 August 1914. The men had been instructed to report to the Drill Hall (now Millmead Hall Community Centre) in Haversham Road, which had only been formally opened in June 1914, at 0800. The detachment marched to the station led by its band to catch the 1414 train for Aylesbury. The regiment had not been reorganised into the new four-company structure prior to mobilisation but it was then effected with F Company becoming part of the new C Company and G Company part of the new D Company in what was re-designated as 1/1st Bucks Battalion. Hawkins, who was the managing director of McCorqudales, had served with the volunteer service company attached to the 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry in the South African War. He commanded the 1/1st Bucks Battalion on the Western Front from January to June 1916 before being invalided home with serious shoulder injuries after being thrown from his horse. [Image: Living Archive MK]

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The queue waiting to board the newly completed ambulance train at the Wolverton Works, Saturday 5 March 1916. There was some complaint in the Wolverton Express that foremen from the Works and their wives were allowed in an hour before the appointed opening viewing time of 2 p.m. The admission price was 6d and, by the time of closing at 5.30 p.m., a total of £73.9s.10d had been raised for the Wolverton Works War Relief Fund. That implies 2939 visitors, the additional four pence clearly some kind of anomaly although it is entirely possible that there were fewer visitors who contributed more than 6d to a worthy cause. The train itself consisted of 16 carriages including pharmacy, kitchen and stores, with room for 362 patients. The Works manufactured ambulance trains in both world wars and, in the Great War, also undertook disinfection of trains used for the Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front. [Image: Living Archive MK with additional thanks to Messrs. Knorr-Bremse for allowing access to the site.]

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