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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Civil crimes by soldiers in UK late 1914


Moonraker

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Yesterday I spent a couple of hours reading the Maidenhead Advertiser for August 1914 to March 1915 to dig out some info on the Canadian hospital established at Cliveden when the First Canadian Contingent was concentrated on Salisbury Plain. It was interesting to compare how the early weeks of the war affected Berkshire and Wiltshire, and naturally there were many common factors. But what did strike me was the large number of cases involving soldiers that were brought before civilian magistrates in Berkshire - one poor chap got a month inside for stealing a kiss from a girl. There can't have been that many troops in the Maidenhead area, though a few did train locally and others guarding the Great Western Railway were billeted there.

In contrast, Wiltshire was swarming with troops, not least 31,000 hastily-recruited Canadians whose discipline was not good (though it did improve when habitual trouble-makers were sent home). But relatively few cases appeared before the local courts, with some miscreants being let off because they were deemed useful to the war effort.

I guess that Wiltshire was more used to high-spirited soldiery than staid Maidenhead.

Have other Pals who have researched the first months of the war in a given locality noticed any particular attitude by the courts to soldiers based locally?

Another item that caught my eye in the Advertiser (which in those days carried some national and international news) was that women in South Wales were being court-martialled for breaking the curfew in part of a city subject to military regulations.

Moonraker

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Hi Moonraker,

In my area all the records/newspaper reports and council meeting reports seem to indicate the increase of drunkeness. We had a large proportion of pubs for such a small population( in 1911 :8616) and the influx of so many men seems to have overwhelmed us. The publicans tried to bar the men, and the military police were called in especially after the change to licensing hours in November 1914.

The local paper was a conservative rag and seems to have avoided any other kind of naming and shaming. Our paper did also carry international news, but with other papers also covering the area it never went into much depth. It is unfortunate that the other paper that was available has not survived, so whether they recorded the tittle-tattle I cannot confirm.

JPG

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... The local paper was a conservative rag and seems to have avoided any other kind of naming and shaming...

JPG

I've wondered whether no-naming-and-shaming was a policy of some Wiltshire papers; even before the war there aren't many reports of lesser court cases, despiten there being thousands of soldiers based locally. I wonder if there was a policy (official or unofficial) for cases of minor crime by soldiers to be left to their units to deal with. I've detected some differences in the way that courts to the north of Salisbury Plain (ie in Devizes) and to the south (Salisbury) dealt with misbehaving Canadians. And in 1919 the Warminster Journal (perhaps trying to attract back its readers after a period of non-publication because its staff had been called up) weekly reported on court appearances by immoral women caught frequenting the local camps, whereas other papers covering the Plain only bothered to report on brothels - but their local camps must also have had prostitutes hanging around.

Moonraker

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I have wondered if the patriotic months from 1914-1915 did stop the editors and journalists reporting anything of a none positive manner. Even though the inhabitants of the city were well aware and knew the "goings on" it was could be deemed unhelpful to the war effort.

I have read the whole war in my local newspaper and found the unsavoury incidents recorded without reference to actual people. As we had a weekly paper, the 7th August 1914 issue named two people charged with indecent conduct. Now, maybe it was of interest and the European crisis had only just begun, but from then onwards nothing of that matter at all.

Yet, I have contemporary evidence of a knocking shop run by a unamed Belgian refugee. This is from a reputable source so I believe it to be true. The area of the alleged building would also be right.

Furthermore, I have also read through the Hereford Times(not my area)for interest and that did record an awful lot. It gave the names and trades of men before the Military tribunals which was surprising and fascinating and a great source for a local war history. However the Lichfield Mercury did not. Again I believe there was an agreement to discourage the use of names in this way.

JPG

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've just had a quick look at the first 3 months of 1915 - not quite late 1914 I admit - in Aldershot. Attitudes seemed to vary depending on what you got up to. A couple of court cases saw soldiers cleared of stealing horses and carts from local people despite being caught riding around in them - in one case the judge somehow concluded they had no illegal intent despite the fact they were nicked half way to London. Attitudes were harsher towards those brawling with the local police - one soldier got sent down with the judge specifically stating it was very serious as there were so many soldiers and not many police in the area. Likewise nicking food from the camp - presumably for the black market - didn't go down too well but appears to have been quite profitable with one prosecutor commenting a soldier had a few shillings in the bank when he enlisted but has somehow got upto £53 when found walking off with a lot of beef shortly afterwards.

There are a few hints about drunken soldiers being a problem but not much detail. A report by the local officials stated that problems revolving around drink had increased in the past year however this was largely due to the increase in local population and the early closing of pubs was working well in the area. There were also hints at prostitution around the camp but not much in detail.

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