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world War one

The Royal Scots Badge

WW1 Medals & Badges

By Collections blog

In the Museums store we have many different kinds of medals and badges from different regiments and wars. These three badges and medals are all from WW1. These include a badge from The Royal Scots, a WW1 Allied Victory Medal and the 1914-15 Star.

 

The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles 1 of Scotland. The regiment existed continuously until 2006, when it amalgamated with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers to become the Royal Scots Borderers, which merged with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret’s Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment), the Black Watch, the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The WW1 Allied Victory Medal as awarded to all those who received the 1914 Star or the 1914-15 Star, and to most of those who were awarded the British War Medal. It was not awarded singly. To qualify, recipients need to have served in the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom or the British Empire, or with certain recognised voluntary organisations, and to have entered any theatre of war between 5 August 1915 and 11 November 1918. While home service did not count, United Kingdom based members of the RAF  who were actively engaged in the air against the enemy did qualify, as did those who flew planes to France. Women qualified for this and other First World War campaign medals while serving in nursing and auxiliary forces in a theatre of war. It was also awarded for mine clearance in the North Sea between 11 November 1918 and 30 November 1919 and for participation in the Allied intervention of the Russian Civil War up to 1st July 1920.

The 1914-15 Star is a campaign medal of the British Empire which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces who served in any theatre of the First World War against the Central European Powers during 1914 and 1915. The medal was never awarded singly and recipients also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The 1914-15 Star was instituted in December 1918 and was awarded to officers and men who served between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915, provided they had not already received the 1914 star. The period of eligibility was prior to the Military Service Act 1916, which introduced conscription in Britain.

 

Illustration of Vickers F.B. 5 plane.

Caudron G4 & Vickers F.B. 5 WW1 Plane Postcards

By Collections blog

Caudron G4

The Caudron G4 came into service during the spring of 1915 as a bombing reconnaissance airplane with a good useful load of about 220lbs, an extraordinary rate of climb and even equipped with a wireless set. G4s were assigned to 38 escadrilles of the French Air force and used extensively throughout the war. At first they operated on reconnaissance duties then, in November 1915, they undertook daytime bombing sorties attacking targets beyond the Rhine. By the autumn of 1916 they were withdrawn from this duty because of the greatly improved German fighter defences. The RNAS used the Caudron G4. 43 were imported from France and 12 were built in the British Caudron plant. They were used to raid the German Zeppelin, submarine and seaplane bases along the Belgian coast. The G4 was also built in Italy and used by the Italian Air Force while 10, acquired by the American Army Air Force, were used as training aircraft.

Vickers F.B 5

Vickers Ltd were one of the first companies to design fighter aircraft. Their Type 18 ‘Destroyer’ was featured at the 1913 Aero show at Olympia armed with a belt-fed Maxim gun. The production aircraft, the FB 5, was bought by the RFC armed with a drum-fed Lewis Gun. No.11 Squadron RFC was the first specialised fighter Squadron to be formed with FB 5s in February 1915 and was soon in action with its ‘Gunbus’ used as a fighter, ground-strafer and sometimes a bomber. On 7th November 1915, 2nd Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of No.11 Squadron RFC won the Victoria Cross for an action in a Vickers FB 5. This slow airplane, with a meagre performance, remained in service until July 1916, by then being no match at all for the German Fokker monoplanes.

Some bullets.

WW1 Items

By Collections blog

These two objects are being kept in the Museums store so I thought I would do a bit of research on them. One of the items are .303 British shell casings from WW1 and the other is an officers side arm holster also from WW1.

 

The .303 British bullets were first developed in Britain as a black-powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee-Metford rifle. In 1891 the cartridge was adapted to use smokeless powder. It was the standard British and Commonwealth military cartridge from 1889 until the 1950’s when it was replaced by the 7.62x51mm NATO. During a service life of over 70 years with the British Commonwealth armed forces the .303-inch cartridge in its ball pattern progressed through ten marks which eventually extended to a total of about 26 variations. The bolt thrust of the .303 British is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in the early 20th Century. During World War One British factories alone produced 7 billion rounds of .303 ammunition. Factories in other countries greatly added to this total.

 

 

The other item is a leather WW1 British Officers sidearm holster which we believe used to hold a Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver which was used by British Army officers as their side arm. The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was designed in 1895 and was produced from 1901-1924, the revolver is easily recognisable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder. Though Webley viewed this weapon as an ideal sidearm for cavalry troops, the Webley-Fosbery was never adopted as an official government sidearm. Several models of the Webley-Fosbery revolvers were produced, and the type saw limited action in the Boer Wars as well as World War One, where some privately purchased examples were carried by British Officers in the .455 service bearing. Reports from the field suggested that the Webley-Fosbery, with its precisely machined recoil surfaces, was more susceptible to jamming in wartime conditions of mud and rain than comparable sidearms of the period.

 

 

An illustration of Morane-Saulnier L plane.

WW1 Plane Postcards

By Collections blog

Lloyd C1

The Lloyd C1 produced by the Ungarishe Lloyd Flugzueg and Motorenfabrik immediately before the outbreak of the Great War achieved instant fame by reaching an altitude of 20,243 feet at Aspern near Vienna. The aeroplane was already in service when the war started and between four and five hundred of the Lloyd C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 were built and used extensively by the Austro-Hungarian Air Services during the first half of the war. No armament was first carried but the observer later had a schwarzlose machine gun. Some we fitted with a second machine gun mounted on the top wing. With its good rate of climb the Lloyd was a popular aircraft in the mountainous Italian front. It was stable and easy to fly even in the roughest weather. It then served well as a trainer after its operational life had ended.

Morane-Saulnier L

The Morane-Saulnier L was developed from the Type G which appeared together with three other excellent Morane designs at the Salon Aeronautique in Paris in 1911. The Type L, powered with either a Gnome or Le Rhone rotary was ordered in large numbers at the outbreak of war as a reconnaissance machine but, as it was found to be appreciably faster than German two-seaters, pilots were encouraged to arm their aircraft with pistols, cavalry carbines and other small arms. Nearly 600 Type L’s were built and used by Escadrilles MS3, 12 and 23 whose pilots and observers were successful in brining down many German aircraft during the first half of 1915. It was also used by No.3 Squadron RAF and No.1 Wing RNAS which accounted for the destruction of Zeppelin LZ37 on 7th June 1915. In the reconnaissance role it was operated by 8 French escadrilles and the Russians.

 

A WW1 bayonet.

WW1 M1917 Bayonet

By Collections blog

This First World War bayonet was recently brought into the Museum by one of our volunteers and is an American M1917 bayonet which was used in World War One, World War Two, Korean War and in the Vietnam War.

 

It was first used by American soldiers in WW1 on the Western Front. A sword bayonet design, the M1917 bayonet design was based on the British pattern 1913 bayonet. While designed specifically for the M1917 rifle, the bayonet was fitted for use on all the ‘trench’ shotguns at the time. The US continued to use the WW1-made M1917 bayonets during World War Two because of large stockpiles left over. The new trench guns being procured and issued were still designed to use the old M1917 bayonet.

The bayonet was then called upon again during the Korean war for issue due to the various trench guns still being in use. In 1966 procurement orders were let for brand new production M1917 bayonets. Stockpiles had finally run out, and new Winchester 1200 trench shotguns were being issued. These were issued in limited quantities during the Vietnam War. It was not until towards the end of the Vietnam War that new military shotguns were designed to use the newer knife bayonets.

 

 

M1917 bayonets were still used by the US Army as late as the early 2000’s for use with the M1200 shotgun.

Postcard of a ship, HMS Neptune.

HMS Indomitable & HMS Neptune

By Collections blog

In the Museums store we have postcards with images of these two WW1 Warships and thought we would do some research about them to see what impact they had in the First World War.

HMS Indomitable was one of three invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy before World War One and had and active career during the war. She tried to hunt down the German ships Goeben and Breslau in the Mediterranean when war broke out and bombarded Turkish fortifications protecting the Dardenelles even before the British declared war on Turkey. She helped sink the German armoured battlecruiser Blücher during the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 and towed the damaged HMS Lion to safety after the battle. She damaged the German battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger during the Battle of Jutland in mid 1916 and watched her sister ship HMS Invincible explode. She was then deemed obsolete after the war and was sold for scrap in 1921.

HMS Neptune was a dreadnaught Battleship built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the twentieth century, the sole ship of her class. She was the first British Battleship to be built with superfiring guns. Shortly after her completion in 1911, she carried out trials of an experimental fire control director and then became flagship of the Home Fleet. Neptune became a private ship in 1914 and was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron.

 

The ship became part of the Grand Fleet when it was formed shortly after the beginning of the First World War in August 1914. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Neptune was deemed obsolete after the war and was reduced to reserve before being sold for scrap in 1922 and subsequently broken up.

Postcard of a ship HMS Lion.

HMS Lion Postcard

By Collections blog

HMS Lion was a Battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy in 1910. She was the lead ship of her class, which was nicknamed the ‘Splendid Cats’. They were significant improvements over their predecessors of the indefatigable class in terms of speed, armament and armour. This was in response to the first battlecruisers, the Moltke class, which were very much larger and more powerful than the first British Battlecruisers, the Invincible class.

 

Lion served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet battlecruisers throughout World War One, except when she was being refitted or under repair. She sank the German light cruiser Cöln during the Battle of Heligoland bight and served as Vice-Admiral Beatty’s flagship at the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland. She was so badly damaged at the first of these battles that she had to be towed back to port and was under repair for more than two months. During the battle of Jutland she suffered a serious propellant fire that could have destroyed the ship if it had not been for the bravery of Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey, the turret commander, who posthumously received the Victoria Cross for having ordered the magazine flooded. The fire destroyed one gun turret which had to be removed for rebuilding while she was under repair for several months. She spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols in the North Sea, although she did provide distant cover during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917. She was put into reserve in 1920 and sold for scrap in 1924 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

The bakery packing room at Gretna. This photo is from The Devil's Porridge Museum's archive.

Feeding the 30,000

By Collections blog

Feeding the 30,000 workers at HM Factory Gretna during World War One must have been a real challenge but they seem to have been well cared for as this page from an autograph book (below), created by a munitions ‘girl’ in 1918 suggests.  It includes a transcription of Robert Burns’s famous ‘Selikirk Grace’ (an integral part of any Burns Supper) with a canteen meal ticket stuck next to it.

The signature at the bottom includes the location, Broomhills Canteen, which is shown in the photograph below.

This autograph book is part of the Museum collection but we also have documents and photographs relating to the catering facilities at the Factory.  The document below gives an idea of the size of the undertaking, some of the food prepared and the normal of people employed in this work.

The following photos show the bakery and related processes as organised by the Factory authorities for the workers.

If you would like to know more about life at HM Factory Gretna in World War One, the following items from the Museum shop may be of interest to you:

Gretna’s Secret War

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

  https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/munition-workers-poems

 

 

Group of workers at H M Factory Gretna.

New photos of World War One workers

By Collections blog

The Museum was recently contacted by someone with family connections to HM Factory Gretna (the greatest factory on earth in World War One and the main focus of much of The Devil’s Porridge Museum).

30,000 people worked in the Factory and 12,000 of them were women.  At present (as far as is known), there is no complete list of all the people who worked there so we are always pleased to know names of workers and see their photographs and hear their stories.  Thanks so much to the donor who shared this information with us.

Agnes Calder at HM Factory Gretna

Agnes Calder (maternal grandmother of donor – worked at HM Factory Gretna)

1895–1931

BIRTH 21 JAN 1895

Grahams Court

Ashley Street

Carlisle

 

DEATH JUNE 1931

Bower Street

Carlisle

Agnes’s daughter was Joyce Sarginson (née Bisland – photographed above).  She became the Mayoress of Carlisle and also served in World War Two in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as  a Radar Operator.

Group photo of female workers from donor’s collection.

Beatrice Calder  (sister of Agnes and great aunt of donor, worked at HM Factory Gretna)

1892–1928

BIRTH 1 MAY 1892

Carlisle

DEATH 1928

Carlisle

Both sisters and their father died of TB

Bertha Sarginson

Bertha Sarginson (great aunt of the donor, worked at HM Factory Gretna)

1899–1990

BIRTH 01 APRIL 1899

Potters, Place

Carlisle

 

                            DEATH 07 JUNE 1990 Carlisle

Bertha worked at HM Factory Gretna.  Here she learned to drive and in 1917 volunteered as a Ambulance driver and was sent to Boulogne in France.  She worked transferring injured soldiers off hospital trains and onto boats back to England.

Photograph of workers at HM Factory Gretna. Interestingly, one young woman is holding a symbol of a swastika. This is an ancient symbol of the sun and was a widely use good luck symbol at the start of the 20th century, nothing to do with the Nazis until later.

In 1920, Bertha married Joe Robson (of the 4th Battalion Border Regiment Reserve) from 6 Melbourne Street, Carlisle.  Joe got a job at Carr’s Biscuit Factory as a fitter, his father worked there as an engineer.  Bertha and Joe got their first home in Brewery Row, Caldewgate. Bertha continued to work in a shop called Sarah Jane’s.

Their first son Joseph was born 22 November 1920. He became an altar boy at St Barnabas Church, Brookside Raffles when the family moved to Brookside. Joe Jr. Joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was a Sergeant in training to become a pilot when he was killed 5th September 1940.

If you would like to know more about HM Factory Gretna in World War One, the following may be of interest to you:

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

Gretna’s Secret War

Munition Workers’ Poems

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

 

Mabel Farrer

Members of the Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna

By Collections blog

12,000 young women were employed to work at HM Factory Gretna during World War One (The Devil’s Porridge Museum tells the story of this amazing factory and the people who worked there).  Over 150 police women were also employed to help supervise the female workforce.

This is the second in a series of blog posts about women police, to read part one see: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/womens-police-service-at-hm-factory-gretna

We don’t always know very much about the women who worked at HM Factory Gretna (sometimes we don’t even know their names) but we do know a little more about the members of the Women’s Police Service (WPS).  They signed a letter/petition to Winston Churchill so we have many of their names (more on this in a future blog), we have some good photographs of them, we know where they stayed and we know a little about their training.

One family member also provided us with this invaluable account of Mabel Farrer, who was born at Braithwaite in Cumbria and was a member of the WPS at Gretna during the War.

“Auntie Mab was one of the first women appointed to the then new Women Police Service in 1916 by Damer Dawson herself. Her training in London under Dawson and Commandant Mary Allen’s direction comprised ‘a small amount of military drill and a few visits to Police Courts, and we were sent in our sweet innocence to improve the moral tone of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square’!  Rules were strict though and education and compassion were guiding aims as the Women Police had very little powers other than those conferred under wartime legislation.

By Margaret Damer Dawson(Life time: 1920) – Original publication: Mary S. Allen ‘Lady in Blue’ 1932Immediate source: Mary S. Allen, ‘Lady in Blue’ 1932, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30515234

After this basic training, Mab was sent to Gretna and became the one of the first female policewomen there starting work in January 1917. Her pay was £2 a week  and she was provided with all uniform. After one year’s service she was given an addition 1/- a week boot allowance, and at some time during this period, she was promoted by Dawson to the rank of sergeant.

Members of the WPS at HM Factory Gretna,

At the time, Gretna had huge munitions factories and included the new townships of Gretna and Dornock, and there was an enormous female population working in the munitions factories for the war effort.  Other women police trainees followed and eventually there were [up to] 170 Women Police there. One group of policewomen had charge of the factory gates and kept up a constant patrol inside the danger areas and in the townships where most of the workers lived. They also escorted the trains full of female workers to and from the factory (mainly from Carlisle) and had to take numbers of sick girls home after their work hours, most of them suffering from ‘the effects of the special nature of their work’. (It was a criminal offence for workers to leave their employment in the munitions factories).

If you look carefully at this photograph of workers at a Factory station, you can see members of the WPS on the platform (they’re wearing long skirts and hats).

The policewomen also searched all workers going in and out of the factory, on entering to ensure they did not take in metal or other articles which could cause an explosion if brought into contact with machinery and on leaving, ‘for any factory property to which they had become attached’!

Women working in the Factory. Like many other observers of these young women during the War, Farrer commented on their cheerfulness.

She notes ‘It is surprising how little one remembers of two busy, happy years but one cannot forget those cold still nights walking alone between the buildings where high explosives were being manufactured at top speed. We rarely spoke to anyone except when we met a truck loaded with cordite, gun cotton etc being pushed quickly by two very young girls from one dangerous building to another. These youngsters usually sang at their work and if we greeted them with ‘it’s a rough night for you’ they would reply ‘it’s worse for the boys and they continued to sing of the ‘little grey home in the west.

Mabel Farrer photographed while working at HM Factory Gretna. She is seated in the centre of the front row.

She reported to three people! Although employed by the Women Police Service, she was sworn in as a ‘Special Constable’ for Dumfrieshire, Cumberland and the City of Carlisle. Part of the time she was in Carlisle itself in charge of a group working there and when there she reported to the Chief Constable. But she also reported to the Women Police Service office in Gretna. However she was paid by the Ministry of Munitions which had been set up by the Munitions of War Act 1915. She continued to be paid by them until the end of the war.

Mabel’s name appears on a valuation roll record from Gretna along with the names of other female police officers.

At the end of the war, British Police were just beginning to appoint women to their ranks and in October 1918, Northampton Police Force appointed its first two female police officers and Auntie Mab became the fourth to be appointed in December 1918 with the rank of ‘Police Constable’ with Powers of Arrest and her name placed on the roll of Court Officers.

Uniform was provided and comprised navy serge tunic and skirt over riding breeches and a military type navy overcoat. No shirts, ties, or gloves were supplied until some years later. Hours of duty were generally 8 and pay was £2 a week and no additional pay given for overtime. Policewomen were employed almost exclusively working with women and children and this included ‘women found wandering, neglected children, suicides, searching female prisoners, attending court, taking statements, indecency complaints, escorting female prisoners to jails etc’ and she also notes taking them to Dover and Holyhead for deportation. She also had to visit cinemas and read the synopses of films reporting to the Watch Committee suggesting a private viewing if considered too explicit.

She served at Northampton for 28½ years retiring in June 1947 with the rank of Sergeant and with a pension of £182 per annum. You no doubt remember she then lived with Auntie Flo and Uncle Maurice at 24 First St, Chelsea. After Uncle Maurice died, they moved to Newcastle.”

Our next article on the Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna in World War One is coming soon.

If you would like to know more about women’s work at HM Factory Gretna in World War One, the following books from our online shop might interest you:

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

 

Gretna’s Secret War

 

Munition Workers’ Poems

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