Boy Scouts and telegraph wires

[chris basey]

This is an extract from a Blofield (Norfolk) Deanery Magazine of August 1914:

"The Boy Scouts were called upon by the Government to watch telegraph wires and were in the place assigned to them within twenty four hours. They were on service for five days and received the thanks of the Post Office for their prompt assistance."

Can anyone suggest just what the Boy Scouts would have been watching for?

[andigger]

I assume this was domestic (in the UK) service rather than a quick dispatch to France.

They were probably on the look out for sabotage. Since during the pre-war hysteria the Germans working in the UK as well as people of German ancestory were immediately suspected as traitors.

Andy

[healdav]

They also took over a lot of coast guard duties and patrolled a lot of the coast line right throughout the war.

I came across an account of it somewhere - possibly the Scout website, but I can't remember details.

[Moonraker]

When war was declared various installations deemed to be sensitive were guarded against sabotage - there seems to have been a well-prepared plan. Reservoirs and railway structures were guarded (with soldiers' unfamiliarity with the dangers of walking along rail tracks leading to a number of deaths). Woe betide anyone seen acting in the least bit suspiciously, especially if they had a camera or notebook and pencil. Dunno how long this went on for through the war.

Hysteria is the right word. There were lots of reports of lights being flashed out to sea and anyone with a funny accent or name was suspect. The NA file HO 45/11522/287235 records how in Hertfordshire an angry mob gathered around a public house threatening to kill two men said to be Germans; in fact they were rat-catchers from Wiltshire whose accents were unfamiliar! One Kitchener recruit at Codford Camp in Wiltshire got into trouble when he tried to visit a friend with another battalion in the same camp (and I have a postcard stating "we arrested three more spies today".)Yet at this early stage in the war local newspapers, though not giving details of their local Regular units' movements to France, did print much detail about units camped in their locality. This was stopped one side or other of Christmas 1914 (I would appreciate being told the exact date the regulations, presumably part of the Defence of the Realm Act came in.)

People's fears don't change much. One English West Country paper reported that in the days after 9/11 the local police were rung up several times because aircraft were flying overhead.