A call from the King in August 1914
Image credit: A Call to Arms 1914 © IWM (Art.IWM PST 5080)
Budleigh
Salterton residents line the bridge on Leas
Road to watch young men departing for the front
from the railway station
Image credit: Fairlynch Museum
Traditionally, historians have taken the view that
when Britain declared war on
4 August 1914 it was in a mood of patriotic euphoria, shared by people in towns
and cities all over Europe.
It’s probably true that few took the views expressed
by thinkers like Albert Einstein, left, in Berlin and
Bertrand Russell in London - that Europe, “in her insanity has started something almost
unbelievable”, and was about to descend into a state of “primitive
barbarism.”
At the beginning of the Great War, no agreement had
been reached by politicians at Westminster
about whether the country should have a system of national conscripted service.
In 1914, British Army units, unlike those of Germany
and France,
were made up exclusively of volunteers.
The traditional picture of the patriotic euphoria
which has been held to have swept the nation and inspired so many to volunteer
for war is well conveyed by the images of young men in uniform departing from
railway stations like Budleigh Salterton. For contemporaries it seemed as though most of
the town had turned out to see off the volunteers. There was, recalled Budleigh’s Jim Gooding,
“pride that our country was about to be drawn
in to fight an enemy aggressor.”
Anti-German feeling among British
people was extreme following the invasion of Belgium, but in truth Germanophobia
had been flourishing since the previous century. Kaiser Wilhelm’s 1896 telegram of support for the
Boers of the Transvaal had seemed to confirm German ambitions for expansion and
influence in South Africa,
and a naval arms race had started between Germany
and Britain.
Well before the start of the war, people had been
alarmed by the threat to the Empire by German ambitions as presented in the British
press. For many years they had been fed a diet of thriller and ‘invasion’
novels characterised by the portrayal of evil German spies involved in sinister
plans to destroy Britain.
Many blame the deterioration in Anglo-German
relations on the influence of the press. One journalist in particular led the
way in portraying Germany as
a threat to Britain.
As early as 1894 Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail, had commissioned author William Le Queux to write The Great War in England, which
featured Germany, France and Russia combining forces to crush Britain. "This is the book that frightened the
life out of many British people, proclaiming a German threat a decade ahead of
the First World War," wrote historian Max Hastings.
Left: The first edition of William Le Queux’s The
Invasion of 1910. Over one million copies were sold
Twelve years later, with Harmsworth’s
support, the exercise was repeated, resulting in the publication of the best
selling The Invasion of 1910.
The book originally appeared in serial form in the Daily Mail in 1906. Well before its appearance in the newspaper
the public had been fed a diet of thrillers in the same vein.
Some, like George Tomkyns Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking (1871) or H.G.
Wells’ The War in the Air
(1907) depicted a country invaded by a well organised enemy; others, like
Erskine Childers’ The Riddle of the
Sands (1903) portrayed evil German spies involved in sinister plans to
destroy Britain.
“Next to the Kaiser, Lord Northcliffe has done
more than any living man to bring about the war,” wrote A.G. Gardiner, editor
of The Star newspaper.
In Budleigh Salterton the threat to the British Empire may have been more deeply felt because of
the military and colonial traditions of the town. Indeed Devon
in general may have reflected this feeling more than most English counties
because of the way in which it attracted retired people with a military
background.
It is worth noting that of the 109 male residents
listed in the 1919 Kelly’s Directory for Budleigh Salterton, including Great
Knowle and Little Knowle, 21 are given with
a military rank.
Anglo-Indian connections in Budleigh Salterton were
especially strong. Many Budleigh residents had been born in India. They
included people like Georgina Porter and
Priscilla Hull, both associated with Fairlynch
Museum; also artists like
Joyce Dennys and Cecil Elgee, and Nurse Phyllis Maltby who died in December
1918 and is listed on the town’s war memorial.
More young men from the Budleigh area leave for the front in 1914
Image credit: Fairlynch Museum
Yet along with the euphoria there was also, in Budleigh
resident Jim Gooding’s words, “a mixed feeling about it all, the fear of what
would be happening.” Dutch courage, he notes, would have played a part in the general
mood.
“Photographs would be taken, sometimes not very
flattering to the men in uniform, as they had been celebrating their being called
up and were in no fit state to be photographed for such an occasion.”
Away from such scenes, anxious people sought comfort
in churches. The Devon & Exeter Gazette of 14 August commented on the “very
impressive” service of the previous Sunday “owing to the heavy
cloud of war hovering over us.”
Image credit: Fairlynch Museum
For us in retrospect, one hundred years later, it’s with
sadness that we gaze at this photo. Its bravely defiant caption - ‘Some
Salterton lads off to help keep the Flag flying’ - is handwritten above a
cheery cap-waving figure at the train window.
This was Private Frankie Cowd, the son of Charles Montague Cowd and Ellen Mary Cowd of 14 Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton. He
was on his way to join the Second Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers.
Three years later, on 21 July 1917, he would be lying dead in the Mesopotamian
desert, aged 22.
‘The Great War at Fairlynch’ 2015 exhibition at Budleigh Salterton’s very special museum! Reviews included: “Wonderful display on WW1, informative, bright and relevant. Well done!!
