Avenue Hall, Southampton - Soldiers' and Sailors' recreation r

[seaJane]

"Three ladies are said to have been walking along the road when they saw some forlorn-looking soldiers on Southampton Common writing letters in the pouring rain, using each other's backs to lean on.

[...]

The women were prompted to ask the nearby United Reformed Church, now known as Avenue St Andrews, to open up a hall [...] It began a charitable effort by the church members, volunteers, businesses and townspeople to provide shelter, food and supplies for tens of thousands [...] The scale of their efforts had been all-but-forgotten until a recent reorganisation of the church archive unearthed a report documenting what was provided when the hall threw open its doors."

More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-29933576

[David Porter]

I've just spent a happy afternoon browsing the one surviving visitors book. It revealed two new members of Somerset RHA with their numbers and a third who's number was in doubt. This is a fantastic resource for any soldier who may have passed through Southampton (in particular the Rest Camp on the Common) in the Autumn of 1915. Over 3000 men left their mark, most with details of current unit and home address.

 

The numbered pages, in PDF form, have been uploaded to - http://asaurc.org.uk/soldiers-book/ - but only the first 40 pages have been transcribed.