Royal Engineers in Bury St Edmunds, May 1915

[rob carman]

Good afternoon,

On the night of 29/30th April 1915, the LZ38 dropped incendiary and explosive bombs on Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk. On Angel Hill a building destroyed by fire. This was an unexpected baptism of fire for the officers of the 1/5th Norfolks (and possibly the 1/4ths too) who were billted in the Angel Hotel. There were no human deaths though two reports stress the death of a dog.

Over the next few days the Bury Free Press published several anti-German articles containing alusions to a supposedly pro-German local innkeeper, possibly a Mr. Jacobus. On 15th May, the Griffin public house and its landlord, were attacked by locally billeted Royal Engineers.

Please can somebody tell me which Royal Engineer units were in Bury St Edmunds on 14th May 1915 or throw any other light on this incident?

Regards,

Rob.