Chester in the Great War by Susan Chambers

Author:Susan Chambers [Chambers, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War I
ISBN: 9781783463534
Google: DaV2BQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-11-30T00:24:12+00:00

A 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment sergeant looks over the ‘breast-works’, temporary fortifications in Belgium 1916. (Cheshire Military Museum)

David Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer had ensured that drastic measures were put in place in London in 1915 under DORA, the Defence of the Realm Act, in an attempt to control what many saw as the great curse of drunkenness, and these strictures were imposed on other parts of the country in 1916. ‘Treating’ was illegal, in other words, people were not allowed to ‘stand a round’ of drinks for each other. Anyone giving or selling alcohol to a member of the forces who was undergoing medical treatment (unless using alcohol on the doctors’ orders) was guilty of a summary offence. In addition, opening hours were being greatly reduced to 5½ hours daily, and the time for off-licence sales of spirits were being reduced, stringent controls were attached. Another method of controlling the curse of liquor sales was enacted by the City Council Annual Licensing Sessions. Licensees were asked not to use their back doors for customers to enter, nor for selling alcohol, so that the police could keep a better check on what was going on. The back doors made access from the back streets and courts too easy, and the magistrates hoped that publicans would keep them locked.

The landlord of the Red Lion in Boughton was charged with permitting drunkenness (of one man) on his premises, in a case that involved the city’s chief constable and three licensing magistrates as witnesses to the event. They had found the customer in the lavatory, and his response when the chief constable asked what he was doing was unsurprisingly ‘made in language not fit to be repeated’.

Another landlord, this time of the Bars Hotel, was in trouble in March because one of his barmaids had put 2½ozs of extra beer into a 2 pint bottle when someone (sent in for test purposes) had asked for 1 pint. The crime was for an extra measure rather than a short measure as in other times. Later in the year, an off-licensee was summoned for getting his thirteen-year old servant to transport 4 pints of stout and 2 pints of beer in ‘a perambulator’ to a house in Hoole Road without a delivery book or invoice with all the details. This was contrary to the Order of the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic) 1916.

A popular spot for non-alcoholic snacks in the town was the Coffee Tavern at the railway station, which was used as a canteen for soldiers. Thanks to staff and public donations, free or very inexpensive food was nearly always available and it was said that 500 soldiers used the place daily.

Some Chester Christadelphians were early appellants to the Military Service Tribunal, heard by local Chester figures, as conscientious objectors, citing various tracts from the bible commanding them not to kill. They also claimed that joining the medical corps would not be acceptable as they would be assisting men back to fitness to go and kill again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.