Gloucester Preparations
Incredible as it may seem in 1915 Gloucester had two ice rinks. Why do I mention them? Because one moved from India Road to Brunswick Square (along by St Michael’s church). In October 1910 it was a drill hall training volunteers for the war. It stayed in commission in that role until 1919. The building has since been demolished.
Continuing the Gloucester theme the County Regiment were the main force at the battle of the Aisne. Tragically they suffered very heavy casualties in the early months of the war.
The war had yet to have serious effect on rural life. The exodus of men from the country had not gathered momentum. Similarly the food shortages that characterised life from late 1915 onwards had not arrived. Even so there is evidence of women from the county moving into industry.
County Cricket was abandoned and the Gloucester Rugby Club played its last match at the beginning of the month. Games did not resume until December 1919. Many of the players enlisted as did the cricketers, encouraged to do so by a letter from that famous Gloucester lad W G grace, written in August 1914.
Even the racing set got in on the act when on 28 October Cheltenham Racecourse became home to a voluntary aid detachment (hospital) which opened there. With some 13 Belgian and 2 English patients. By the end of the war some 3169 casualties had been treated there. The racing, however, was not disrupted.
Perhaps, as this diary page is devoted to Gloucestershire we should record the sad history of one of its casualties. A history that reflects the fate of so many young lives. Herbert Knollys Foster was born in Cirencester in October 1895. He went to Marlborough College and enlisted in the County Regiment in August 1914. On the 18th October he joined his battalion in Belgium. On the 21st he was involved in a successful action to take a farm just north of Ypres. The engagement was marked by a message from Lord Kitchener on the 28th congratulating the men on their splendid “courage and boldness”. Sadly Herbert never got to read the citation as he was killed in action. He was awarded the 1914 Star and clasp.
Back then you could get a tram in Tuffley to take you to Barnwood or the city centre. Trams ran from Leckhampton into Cheltenham. They were frequent and reliable. You could get a train from Dymock, connecting at Gloucester to get you to London in a little over 3 hours. Try and beat that today!
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