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At the September 2019 meeting of Hoole History and Heritage Society, Phil Cook described how intertwined the railways and the war effort became during the First World War. He described the contribution which railways and the railway men made to the war effort; the railway industry during the war; and how the industry kept the country functioning whilst the network was stretched to the limit. He also highlighted the special honour bestowed on the railwaymen of Great Britain and Ireland at the end of the Great War.▼
[[Category:Railways]]
[[Category:War]]
▲At the September 2019 meeting of Hoole History and Heritage Society, Phil Cook described how intertwined the railways and the war effort became during the First World War. He described the contribution which railways and the railway men made to the war effort; the railway industry during the war; and how the industry kept the country functioning whilst the network was stretched to the limit. He also highlighted the special honour bestowed on the railwaymen of Great Britain and Ireland at the end of the Great War.<ref>''<small>Article researched and written by Phil Cook and Linda Webb, November 2019, Hoole History & Heritage Society</small>''</ref>
=== 1911 “Railway Manual (War)” ===
In 1911 His Majesty’s Stationary Office published a pocket-sized booklet called '''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112068908653&view=1up&seq=13 “Railway Manual (War)”]'''. This booklet gave the military all the information they needed to take control of the railways in the event of war. It gave tips on planning the movement of supplies, including the amount of wagon space needed for a given tonnage of various items.
The main message of the booklet was that running the railways was too complicated for the military to manage alone. Being such a complex matter, railway management that would ensure the efficient operation of railways could only be ensured by “the cordial cooperation of railwaymen, combined with the strictest obedience of regulations by the troops.”
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Before mid-summer 1914, thoughts of war were far from the minds of most people.
On
They arrived by Royal Train and the band of the
In May, Chester Races attracted large crowds. The Hooton Park Steeplechase meeting saw special trains running from Chester to the local station.
On
=== 1914 War declared ===
War was declared on
On
On Sunday
It was in this movement of troops and equipment that cooperation between the railways and the military worked beyond expectation. At Southampton, a troop train arrived, on average, every 12 minutes and within 15 minutes men, horses, weapons and supplies had been unloaded. Within 40 minutes of arriving at the docks the empty train was ready to depart.
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Before August was out, many hundreds of men from all over the county had converged on Chester to enlist.
[[File:10HRA1 Soldiers Chester.jpg|center|thumb|449x449px|''Soldiers being seen off at Chester 1914'']]
On
On
In 1915, Eric Geddies, the deputy General Manager of the North Eastern Railway, was asked by David Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions, to help to co-ordinate the whole rail network, along with the docks and canals, to enable a more efficient and faster transit of essential war materials.
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==== Port Sunlight ====
On
Before leaving Port Sunlight they had been given a stirring speech by General Sir Henry Mackinnon, who had sanctioned the raising of this PALS Battalion. This was the largest number of volunteers from any factory or works to volunteer to serve King and Country.
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Huge crowds were reported at both Port Sunlight and Chester to see them depart, some never to return. At the time, the workers were told that time spent serving King and Country would be counted as part of their employment service at the company with regard to benefits and years of service.
On Sunday
=== Ambulance Trains ===
In 1912, when the British government was secretly preparing for war and the Railway Executive Committee was formed to run the railways during the anticipated conflict, plans for 12 ambulance trains to be used in Britain were draw up. They were constructed in railway workshops. When war was finally declared, the trains were ready to transport casualties away from the channel ports.
{| class="wikitable"
|''On
''In one corner of the turntable building was a coach, built in 1907, for the London and South Western Railway. It was of a type that would have been converted for use in ambulance trains, in which a ward, pharmacy and nurses’ mess room had been recreated.''
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''The museum’s interpretation developer said the display shed some insight into what historians have usually overlooked - the crucial role that ambulance trains played in the First World War. The mass casualties of this conflict called for evacuation of the injured on a scale never seen before.''
|}
By the outbreak of war, the Royal Army Medical Corps had been founded and they became trained stretcher bearers. Triage was devised at this time so that the seriously wounded could be separated from the “Walking Wounded” and those in most need of treatment received it first.[[File:10HRA2 Ambulance Train.png|center|thumb|437x437px]]
During the course of WW1, many ambulance trains were operated, both at home and on the continent, by the railways. When abroad they were hauled by British locomotives driven by British crews. The Great Western Railway (GWR) operated 62 such special trains to Chester and 134 to Birkenhead. A total of 160 ambulance trains were dealt with at Chester during the war, and, in addition to the Birkenhead trains, many others may well have passed through the station. In the two months after the end of hostilities, a further 10 such trains were dealt with at Chester.
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General Sir William Henry Mackinnon was General Officer Commanding at Western Command (in Watergate Street) from 1910-1916 and his official residence was Government House, the former Dee Hills House. He became involved in the transport of wounded soldiers from the ambulance trains to various hospitals in the area and he also carried out nursing duties.
In 1915 the railways were carrying nearly 15% more traffic than before the war, and ambulance trains formed a significant part of the wartime traffic. In total 1,234,248 wounded soldiers came home through Southampton alone, carried on 7,822 trains to 196 different receiving stations. In one week, ending
Several Chester-based London & North Western Railway (LNWR) men who had enlisted were killed in action. Nine members of the GWR based at Chester were also killed whilst on active service. There were Chester area men in the Railway Operating Division (ROD) including, it has been reported, some from the Hoole area.
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As the war went on, government demands of the railways grew continuously. Overstretched and under attack, the French railways struggled to cope with the movement of injured soldiers. As a result, Britain built Continental Ambulance Trains for use in France. These trains were organised by the Royal Army Medical Corps and were used to evacuate more than 100,000 British casualties from the battlefield of Flanders in just one month in 1914.
===
The first trains used on the Western Front were simply empty French wagons with straw laid on the floor. Twelve trains of converted French stock were soon in use and this situation improved a little with the arrival of the first purpose-built ambulance trains in November 1914.
[[File:10HRA3 Ambulance Train.jpg|thumb|377x377px]]
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Trains bringing the wounded home were often packed with men scarred by both their wounds and their memories. The men were cared for by a small army of doctors and nurses who worked long hours under intense pressure. In France, the situation became so bad that even horse boxes were used to convey the wounded.
The Advisory Committee on Ambulance Trains on
Three tiered bunks had to be introduced to cope with the ever-increasing number of injured and extra medical equipment was carried to treat injuries not previously experienced.
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Faced with many horrific sights and a heavy workload any free time between journeys was precious. Staff would use this time to try and bring a little normality and light-hearted relief back into their lives, albeit temporarily. They were overworked and were unable to give more than basic attention to any one man.
One nurse wrote:
A journey on one of these trains was relief or a nightmare. Most soldiers were pleased to be away from the battlefield and closer to safety. Often filled with men straight from battle or the trenches trains soon became smelly and filthy. The small bunks were claustrophobic and men with broken bones felt every jolt. On joining a train, patients were separated into lying down cases, who would take the bunks, and the walking wounded who were given seats. A soldier recorded:
Staff produced magazines that poked fun at the terrible conditions on some trains. However, they found ways to make even the most basic trains feel homely. One nurse had Harrods cake sent over by her family and one train even acquired a gramophone.
An orderly wrote that
On ambulance trains the war was also ‘put on hold’ at times. Wounded German Prisoners of War travelled alongside allied troops. As soldiers shared their experiences, animosity was put to one side. For non-English speaking patients being on a British ambulance train was just as foreign as fighting in France. They were far from home and language differences often made effective treatment challenging.
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In the 1920s the railway historian Edwin Pratt wrote that Dover and Southampton between them dealt with almost 2½ million casualties on some 14,000 ambulance trains over the course of the war.
At its best the system was very efficient. For example, on
Richmond House, in Boughton, was used as a hospital for wounded Belgian soldiers at the start of the war. This facility was later moved to Hoole House. The Ursuline Convent in Union Street was also used for the same purpose.
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At the start of the war, every letter sent back home was opened and read by a junior officer and then opened again in London, to ensure it contained no reference to casualties or troop movements. Later in the war, men could opt for an “Honour Envelope” which meant that the letter would only be read in London, saving the embarrassment of having personal endearments read by a censor they knew.
[[File:10HRA7 Christmas card.jpg|left|frameless|366x366px]]
[[File:10HRA8 Christmas card.jpg|right|frameless|352x352px]]
For Christmas 1914 the Princess Mary’s Fund supplied gifts, usually a pipe, tin box of tobacco and cigarettes to every man in the armed forces. This was an additional workload on the railways and postal service. By the next Christmas, many battalions had made their own cards for sending home.
[[File:10HRA9 Christmas card.jpg|center|frameless|363x363px]]
At its peak, this operation was delivering 12 million letters and 1 million parcels a week. It took just two days for a letter to travel from London to the Front Line. A letter from home or from a loved one was a vital morale booster. For many, reading and rereading a letter could be a welcome distraction from the horrors of the trenches.
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=== Local Industry and the War Effort ===
The railway sidings at Dundas, a little west of Sandycroft, were substantially expanded during WW1 to cater for increased traffic from the Admiral Dundas colliery, the local chemical works and the HM Munitions factory at Queensferry which was built in 1915, some 300 yards east of Dundas Sidings Signal Box, and at that time it was called the Royal Navy Guncotton Factory by the War Office.
[[File:10HRA10 Queensferry.jpg|center|thumb|459x459px|''Royal Navy Guncotton Factory, Queensferry'']]
This was on the site of the former engineering works of Williams & Robinson, boilermakers, between the railway and the river. At the beginning of the war, there had originally been a detention camp here for Germans who had been living in this country.
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Due to the proximity of the munition’s factory, the station became one of the first to be lit by electricity, to avoid any possible explosions from the gas that was still the usual form of lighting. One fear was that any explosion here could have a devastating effect on the area.
At least 108 men and boys were killed when fire broke out in a wooden shed and ignited 15 tons of TNT and 150 tons of ammonium nitrate at an explosives loading centre near Faversham in Kent on
Another concern was the sulphurous fumes that could be smelt over a wide area, depending on wind direction. The smell that emanated from Cluttons Manure Works on the Saltney Estate in the late 1960s early 1970s, which could reach the Curzon Park & Lache areas with the wind in the right (or wrong) direction, was a strong reminder of these fumes during the first world war.
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In May 1917, the King and Queen were again in the Chester area, this time without the pomp. They visited the munitions plant and Mancot and then went on to Henry Woods Chain Factory in Saltney, where many anchor chains for naval vessels were manufactured. Then a visit was made to the Chester Castle before calling at the Hydraulic Engineering Works. After Chester, they travelled on to Birkenhead, continuing a tour of the North West in order to help bolster morale.
[[File:10HRA11 1917 King & Queen in Chester.jpg|center|thumb|449x449px|''The King and Queen in Chester 1917. Inspecting Henry Woods Chain Factory'']]
In mid-1915 the authorities went cap-in-hand to the railway companies asking them to cease all but essential repair and construction work and to turn their facilities over to war work. By the end of the year the main railway works were turning out almost 5,000 six-inch shells every week.
The Chester Shell Factory, located in part of the Electricity Works in New Crane Street, made nearly 100,000 shells between August 1916 and November 1918. It operated 24 hours a day, until a shortage of steel early in 1918 led to the night shift being discontinued.
Almost all the work at The Hydraulic Engineering Company on Egerton Street was war-
Following the end of the war, Dundas Sidings, near Queensferry, were used to store approximately 190 ROD 2-8-0 locomotives, some of which had seen service in France. These had been designed by George John Robinson, born Bristol 1856, but educated at Chester Grammar School. He spent a short time working for the GWR at Chester. He is best remembered for being the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Central Railway and these locomotives were probably one of his finest designs. They would have passed through Chester to reach and leave Dundas Sidings.
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The infrastructure at most of the collieries and ports prohibited the introduction of more modern rolling stock, a situation that lingered on well after the war was over. By 1918 fifteen trains were being run every day of the week. They had priority over most other traffic.
From
The Chester Station Coffee Tavern was a popular refreshment stop, and, during 1918, a ¼ million cups of tea and coffee were served, as well as 400,000 cakes and pies, to, on average, 500 soldiers passing through the station each day. Thanks to the generosity of staff and public donations most of these were free or just a nominal sum was requested from them. Groups of volunteers set up free or low-price buffets at many stations up and down the country, serving tea, sandwiches and cakes at any hour of the day or night.
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=== Railway Employees ===
[[File:10HRA12 Over by Christmas.jpg|thumb|379x379px|''Poster for 'Over by Christmas' performance at Chester Station 2014'']]
Railway employees were initially treated as having a Reserved Occupation. Despite this, 100,000 out of a total of over 700,000 employees signed up for military service. By the end of the war 20,000 of these volunteers had lost their lives.
The railway industry became one of the first in the country to allow women to work in almost all departments. This was necessary to replace the men who had voluntarily enlisted.
Many people thought that the war would be over by Christmas. On
==== Railway Service Badges ====
A Railway Service Badge was introduced in 1915, to be worn by employees who had every intention to enlist, but who were not given permission to, because they were needed to work the railways.
[[File:10HRA13 Railway Services Badge.jpg|left|frameless]]
It was a blue and white enamel badge with gold lettering, denoting the Railway Company the employee was working for, along with a crown. This badge went some way in preventing men doing an essential job of work from being attacked by ill-informed people who thought they were ‘dodging their responsibilities’. These badges are now very scarce.
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Although not fighting at ‘The Front’ railway workers were proud that they were ‘doing their bit’ for the war effort. As well as building the trains, the railways also built stretchers, guns, shells and vehicles.
=== The Railway Men of Great Britain and Ireland are honoured –
Without the railways, the movement of troops, supplies, food and equipment from Britain to North East France, would have been much more difficult and protracted. The railways also allowed the injured to be removed from the Front Line and brought back home far more easily. Horses, many thousands of them, and early road vehicles supplemented the railways, but both quickly became defeated by the mud and numerous craters in the vicinity of the front lines. It is doubtful if this war could have continued for so long without the use that both the British and the Germans made of railways as the main means of supplying their Front Lines, and in the use of light railways in getting close to the troops in the trenches. It has been called the first true Railway War.
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The first Armistice Day commemorations in Britain took place in November 1919. Before this, in May, however, the railwaymen of Great Britain and Ireland were honoured.
Their own memorial service was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral on
Each member of the congregation was presented with an Order of Service that contained the details of the ceremony and a complete alphabetical list of the 18,957 men known to have been killed in the line of duty along with brief details of their pre-war railway grade and their military rank.
The following account of this service was published in the South Western Railway Magazine in June 1919.
== References ==
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