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By the middle of 1915 the effects of War were being felt on the Home front. In Wolverton, the London & North Western Railway carriage works was geared to the war effort. Men were producing wooden transport wagons to carry supplies and armaments to the front line and building ambulance trains to carry the wounded. The loss of the young male labour force meant that many young women were employed on the shop floor, repairing shell cases. Wartime shortages were already having an effect on the cost of living. When McCorquodale’s, Wolverton’s other main employer, awarded a 2/- (10p) war bonus selectively to office staff, it was not surprising that the rest of the mainly female force, objected, as Mabel Brown remembers |
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Jack Rowledge recalls girls on strike from McCorquodale's visiting the homes of those who were still working
The Wolverton Express continued to detail the negotiations to settle the dispute and the actions of the strikers The girls returned to work on Tuesday 1st June on the promise that the question of the bonus would be settled. These letters from the front highlighted the tension that existed between those at home and the soldiers whose dreams of excitement and adventure had been realised but in a much more horrible way than they could ever have imagined. In hindsight this letter from a Wolverton man comparing their service to that of the soldiers’ shows the lack of realisation of what was happening away from home. |
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Queuing to view the ambulance train at Wolverton Works on March 25th 1916 |
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An interior view of an ambulance train |
This lack of understanding was also encountered by soldiers returning from the Front, as Sid Carroll recalls It was not surprising that many people at home didn’t understand what was going on, for many soldiers coming home on leave did not talk about their experiences. Alice Gear’s cousin Alf Meacham used to live with her family.
Viva Chappill's mother helped look after wounded soldiers Meanwhile, in the Railway Works, the workers were doing their bit, as the Wolverton Express revealed. Many, many years after the open day to view the ambulance train referred to in the Wolverton Express article, a poem was found when clearing the house of a deceased railway worker in the town. Signed 'Watcher 1916' the poem clearly illustrates one aspect of the class distinction that existed then between the foremen and the workmen in the Railway Works. Wolverton had given homes to several families of Belgian refugees and lavished care on them. Marjorie Cook was a child at the time and remembers the treatment they got. She recalls an incident in the summer of 1916, which followed a winter of severe blizzards when trees and telegraph poles had been blown over. Alice Gear (Marjorie's sister) remembers the kind of food that they used to enjoy in those days - food that would not be greeted with the same enthusiasm by our tastes today.
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