Keep the Home Fires Burning - detailing wartime life in the towns and villages mentioned.

Private Charles Yates, of the 1st Battalion London Regiment, died on July 3rd, 1916, of wounds received in France. Having made several enquiries, his mother has now received the following reply from a Sister at Havre Hospital;

“Like so many other brave men who have come here wounded, I think he scarcely realised how bad he was. His death was really due to septic poisoning, which set in rapidly while he was here and necessitated an operation, after which he never rallied.”

(Born at Little Woolstone, Private Yates was the second son of Esther Yates and her late husband, Samuel, and being a resident of St. Pancras he was employed on the tube railway when the war broke out. As a member of the London City Territorials, he was called up at the outbreak of war and sent firstly to Portsmouth and then Malta, returning to England some four months later. He was then transferred to France as a signaller, and during one of his many narrow escapes a piece of shell grazed his coat sleeve. On June 25th he was wounded in the leg near Albert, and in a letter dated June 28th wrote to his mother saying that he soon hoped to be in England. Then a telegram later arrived saying that he was critically ill, followed by another in the evening which stated that he had passed away. Aged 23, he had been recommended for the D.C.M. for bravery on the field, and on Sunday a memorial service was held at the parish church, where he had once been a member of the choir. A younger brother was with the Bedfords in France, and an older brother had been discharged from the Army after four months’ service, three of which had been spent in hospital.)

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For refusing to let a weights and measures inspector weigh his bread, in June 1918 a baker of Bletchley was summoned at the Newport Pagnell Petty Sessions. The offence had occurred at Little Woolstone on April 25th, when at 6p.m. he was delivering bread at the back of the Barge Inn. On returning to his cart he was asked to produce his weights and scales by the inspector, Charles Lake, but he took no notice, and, with the man running beside, drove his pony and cart towards some cottages 50 yards distant, saying in a surly manner “I’ll stop when I’m ready.” When the cart eventually stopped the inspector asked for an explanation, to which the baker replied “I have met you before. I know who you are.” Then when the inspector said that he wanted to weigh the three loaves in the defendant’s basket, which were about to be delivered to some nearby cottages, the baker snatched it away, saying “If you don’t leave go of the basket I’ll punch you in the face.” Wisely the inspector let go, but while the baker was delivering the bread he managed to weigh six loaves from the cart, five of which he found to be deficient from between half an ounce and an ounce. On returning to the cart the baker was asked by the inspector to help weigh the loaves, but when handed the scales the man dropped them in the cart and drove off, leaving the official with a loaf in his hand. When questioned in court the baker claimed that the inspector ‘was down on him,’ and had made up the story. Nevertheless he was fined £3 with £2 2s special expenses, and told to ‘learn to keep his tongue under better control.’