Staine Hundred
“WWI In Cambridge” was an appropriate subject for the November Meeting. Chris
Jakes of the Cambridgeshire Collection had slides of many old photographs to
show us and included information about his own family. His grandfather who was
a regular soldier said “The only good thing about the War was it got him out of
Ireland”!
There was a County Militia wearing red uniforms up to 1908, and this became the Territorials in the more familiar khaki by 1912, with a force of under 1,000 and a waiting list to join. Cambridge schools, such as the Perse and Leys, and colleges had their OTC units. In 1910, a book called “The invasion of England” caused an uproar, in 1912 large manoeuvres were held, attended by George V, but even so the outbreak of WWI came as a surprise.
Announcements were given over megaphones at the Mammoth Show in Cambridge
ordering Territorials to make their way to their Depot. Because of its good
rail links, Cambridge was a Mobilization centre. Photos of ambulances in Hills
Road and guns on Grantchester Meadows showed how reliant the army was on
horsepower to pull them. The Cambs Regiment went immediately to the East Coast
but when there was no invasion, they came back and then went to Bury until sent
to France in 1915. Lines of volunteers outside the Corn Exchange were often
turned down for the more popular regiments and many went into the Suffolk
Regiment, while older ones guarded railways and other vulnerable sites
(equivalent of the Home Guard). Territorials only had to serve in this country
and had to sign to say they were willing to be sent abroad. When the university
city of Louvain was attacked in Belgium and their library burned down and other
atrocities carried out, it struck an immediate chord with Cambridge which had
an influx of Belgian refugees. In 1914, the General Eastern Military Hospital
was set up in Cambridge in Trinity College with the hospital beds under the
cloisters — fresh air was considered important as part of the treatment! Wooden
huts were put up where the University Library now stands. Many local doctors
helped out at the hospitals, nurses were billeted in College premises, some
6,000 passed through the wards including Commonwealth soldiers, and a number
are buried in a special section of the Newmarket Road Cemetery. Fragile
aeroplanes arrived in Ely by barge; being able to land in grass fields, it was
not unknown for a pilot to land to ask where he was! A motorised Unit from a
Naval Battalion toured East Anglia; people formed long queues when potatoes
were in short supply; war shrines were set up giving the names of those serving
in the war; canteens sprung up in church halls and reading rooms; business with
German sounding names had to say how long they had lived in this country; 600
naked soldiers dived into the Cam; details in the background of these photos
were of great interest.