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In October 1914, police constable Miles was the armed escort when a German named Alfred Jahr, aged about 35, was taken into custody at Castlethorpe, and then transferred to His Majesty’s Concentration Camp at Newbury. Adjoining the grave of her late husband, on the afternoon of Friday, August 6th 1915 the burial took place of Mrs. H. Fletcher, the widow of the late Lynch Fletcher esq., of Leamington. Born at Hanslope, she was the daughter of the late Mr. R. Walpole and half sister of the late Edward Watts, of Hanslope Park, and having spent her early years in the village she was locally remembered for her kindliness. At the funeral her daughter and two sons, who were officers in the Army, were the chief mourners, and amongst others also present were Lady French, Mrs. Watts, of Hanslope Park. In aid of the Red Cross funds, a concert was given at the Castlethorpe Schools on the evening of Saturday, February 19th 1916. Performing were the Magpies, a troupe of artistes from Newport Pagnell, and their act included jokes, choruses, songs, and juggling. Afterwards the party was entertained to refreshments by the ladies of the village. Held under the joint auspices of the Castlethorpe Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Comforts Committee, and the Red Cross Committee, in ideal summer weather a successful garden party was held at Hatton Court on the afternoon of Saturday, July 29th 1916. The object was to raise monies both for Northampton Hospital and the fund to purchase Christmas presents for the village men on active service, and the grounds had kindly been lent by Mrs. Claude Borrett, whose husband was on active service in Egypt. At 2p.m. the gardens were opened, and throughout the afternoon the ladies of the committee performed sterling work as also Mrs. Borrett, who, presiding on the gate for some hours, had not only opened her flower and vegetable gardens to the public, but had also allowed bowling competitions for ladies and gents to take place, for which she had provided the prizes. Music from a powerful gramophone added to the pleasure, and in the Dutch garden at about 6p.m. some 80 persons took part in a whist drive, for which the prizes were provided by Mrs. Borrett. In June 1917 a photograph of Private J.A. Cowley, the son of Mr. Cowley, of Leamington Cottage Farm, Castlethorpe, appeared in the local press. He was serving in Mesopotamia, and in the photo was seen reading a copy of the newspaper. On Saturday, June 23rd 1917, by kind permission of Mrs. Claude Borrett a whist drive was held by the Castlethorpe Red Cross Committee in the gardens of Hatton Court. Any persons not wishing to play whist could join a bowling competition, and the occasion would raise over £6 for the Red Cross Society. In the grounds of Hatton Court, in ideal weather a garden fete for the Christmas presents fund, for the soldiers from Castlethorpe and Hanslope, was held on Saturday, July 28th 1917. Mrs. Claude Borrett, whose husband was serving with the Essex Royal Horse in Palestine, had kindly given permission, and she also provided a liberal supply of the money, labour and materials necessary, as well as providing many of the prizes, and also the refreshments. During the day the Hanslope Boy Scouts, under Scoutmaster J. Washbrook, gave valuable assistance, and for having organised the fete so well the staff at Hatton Court also deserved especial praise. Of these were included Mr. and Mrs. C Lane, Miss Lane, Miss Rigby, Miss Holding, Miss Meakins, Mr. and Mrs. Feasey, Mrs. Powell, Mr. Graves, Mr. Percy Chase and Mr. and Mrs. C. Lane, the latter of whom served teas and refreshments under the shade of the trees, assisted by other members of the household staff. A stall of fruit and other delicacies was located under a bower of rambler roses, and although the gardens were open to the public, in order to aid the war effort vegetables were being grown in the flower beds, with the glass house reserved solely for tomatoes. A novel attraction for 1d was knocking out the eye of the Kaiser and his son, and the Bishop of Buckingham, the Right Reverend E. Shaw achieved success in both. In the afternoon sports took place, with Miss Borrett as one of the officials, and Percy Chase as the starter, whilst ‘modern music’ was provided by the Hanslope Brass Band, which also played for dancing in the evening. The whole occasion proved very enjoyable, and £44 0s 10d was raised. On Friday, November 16th 1917, at the Stony Stratford Divisional Petty Sessions, Benjamin Whiting, a farmer, was fined 10s, this being for not having lights front and back whilst driving his flock of 33 sheep on the highway, half an hour before sunrise. Police constable Bonner said that at the time it was very dark and raining. As for his evidence, Superintendent Dibben said that on the same morning while cycling through some of the defendants cattle a workman had suffered an accident. In May 1918 news arrived that Sergeant L. Stewart, the son in law of John Luing, had been awarded the D.C.M. while serving with the Royal Field Artillery. This was for gallant conduct and devotion to duty at Arras and Ypres. The purpose being to start a fund for the provision of a nurse for the two villages, by kind permission of Mrs. Claude Borrett a garden fete, organised by the Nurse’s Committee of Hanslope and Castlethorpe, was held in the grounds of Hatton Court on Saturday, June 29th 1918. In perfect weather the gardens were opened at 2p.m, and at 3p.m. a concert was given by members of Mr. Banton’s “Pom Pom” Party of Wolverton. As with the evening performance, this was much appreciated, and not least through the humorous items of Mr. Persey. A short whist drive, the prizes for which had been given by Mrs Borrett, took place at 5.30p.m., and afterwards there was dancing until 9.30p.m., when the proceedings came to a close. Kindly lent by Mrs. Claude Borrett, the grounds of Hatton Court were the setting for a fete held on Saturday, July 27th 1918, this being in aid of funds for parcels for the local soldiers. As the honorary secretary, Mr. A. Masterman had provided a very enjoyable programme, and musical selections were provided during the afternoon by the Bradwell Band, who also played for dancing in the evening. Including Mrs. Borrett, many people had given prizes, subscriptions, and various articles for the sports, competitions, side shows and refreshments, and at 5.30p.m. a short whist drive took place in the Dutch garden. Answering to the name of Peter, a rough haired fox terrier, with white and black patches, was lost on Friday, August 16th 1918. Anyone returning the dog to Dr. Easte, at Hanslope, would be rewarded. The sports which had been arranged for Peace Day, but were postponed due to the weather, were held on Saturday afternoon, July 26th 1919, in the Castle Field, which had been lent by Mr. J. Whiting. Races for the children were held first, followed after tea by those for the adults, which included a wheelbarrow event for ladies and gents, a hat trimming competition, and a ¼ mile race for demobilised soldiers. The ladies competed for a silver purse, given by Miss K. Whiting, who at the close of the proceedings distributed the prizes. Each child was presented with a Peace souvenir tumbler, and cakes and sweets were also distributed. The finance had been provided by the voluntary donations from the parishioners, and dancing brought a very enjoyable day to a close. In the second week of August 1919, the North Bucks police received a communication that Heinrich Schultz, a German soldier, had escaped from the Pattishall Prisoner of War Camp. Following reports of burglaries at Ashton, and petty thefts from the huts on the L.N.W.R., an intimation came that on Thursday night Edward Powell’s shop at Castlethorpe had been burgled. A railway hut near Castlethorpe station had also been broken into, and in consequence Superintendent Dibben established a string of pickets in the neighbourhood of Wolverton. Then on the night of Friday, August 15th, from his observation point on the river bridge on the Haversham road police constable Chilver heard footsteps approaching, and suddenly came face to face with the foreigner, who was in civilian clothes and ‘sauntering along’ smoking a cigarette. The man immediately bolted, but the police constable’s dog followed, and prevented his escape. Thereupon the German threw up his arms and surrendered. He was taken to Stony Stratford police station, where he was found to be wearing a cap stolen at Castlethorpe, with money from the burglaries contained in a waist belt. On the Saturday he was brought before the Stony Stratford Bench, to be handed over to the military authorities. A letter to the editor of a local newspaper, in 1920; “Sir, - It may interest some of your readers to learn of the treatment the above have received from the unsympathetic and ungrateful Castlethorpe Parish Council. When it became known that a portion of the United Services Fund would be granted to this village a meeting of the ex-Servicemen of the parish was called to decide how this money should be spent. After discussing various schemes it was finally decided to form a sports club to promote and encourage various forms of recreation and amusement (both indoor and outdoor), primarily for the benefit of the ex-Servicemen, but when established to be open by membership to any parishioners; and a committee was formed to carry out this decision. With the approach of winter thoughts were turned to indoor amusements, and for this purpose a building of some description was necessary. The Carrington School which has for the last seven years been little else than an idle ornament under the management of the Parish Council, appealed to us as a very suitable place. Whilst we were considering this matter the building, hitherto held by the Council on a lease, was handed over to them by the Marquis of Lincolnshire as a gift for the village to be used for the social welfare of the inhabitants. The need for somewhere for the younger portion of the villagers to spend their evenings in healthy recreation or amusement has for long been very pronounced, and this, coupled with the fact that we were hoping to supply this need, and the ex-Servicemen formed a large proportion of the parishioners who would be likely to make use of such an institution, gave us the thought that we had a fair and reasonable claim to have consideration shown to us by the Council when we appealed to them for the use of the school. We applied for permission to hire the school for a year as a trial, and offered to grant reasonable facilities to any other party or section of the village who might wish to use it. We have appealed in writing and by personal interview, but the only condition under which we could secure was by including the Council members on our committee of management. This, for obvious reasons, we refused. Apart from the reasons enumerated, one would have thought that the very fact that we represent those who at a time of national danger left our homes, families and comforts, and suffered hardships, discomforts, and risked our lives, some getting totally and some partially disabled by doing so, would have been taken into consideration, but
By a strange coincidence some of the very gentlemen to whom circumstances compel us to appeal are the same who, early in the war, canvassed the village for recruits for the army. When the war was on we constantly heard the remark, “The interests of the boys will be looked after when they return.” The treatment we have received from the Council may be summed up by saying that we have been well snubbed and have had insults hurled at us, one member remarking that we had a perfect cheek to ever approach them with such a proposition: another reminded us of what they did for us whilst we were in the army in the way of sending parcels, &c. (for which we were grateful), but I would like to point out to this gentleman that our best thanks in this direction are due to the promoters - Mr. Masterman, Mr. Armstead, the committee of “Our Boys fund, and “Our Girls” fund workers. One councillor even pointed to the memorial that is to be erected in the parish, which suggests they only desire to recognise the services rendered by those of our comrades who gave their all. If any of the councillors were at Hanslope Church on Sunday week surely the remarks of General Horne must have stung them. Yours truly, GENS DE GUERRE”
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