Saturday 6th March 1915

Concerns were expressed in the local press about the arrangements in hand for the billeting of soldiers, including Tunstill’s Men, in Folkestone and Hythe.

FOLKESTONE, HYTHE, SANDGATE AND CHERITON HERALD 

A Billetting Grumble

On Tuesday in last week some Territorials were billeted in the town; they were not expected to arrive before dinner time, but they did. To be exact they were being conducted around to their billets at about 11 a.m. Naturally, they were given a dinner by the landladies, and they had every meal regularly afterwards. Saturday came and each landlady received the sum of 12s. 6d. for each soldier. This was at the rate of 2s. 6d per day for five days, so that the men were expected to make their departure after breakfast on the Sunday. But the expected did not happen. The men remained to dinner and, as the train by which they were to leave Hythe did not leave until 4.45 p.m., those Territorials were also given their teas. Now, if three, four or five men were billeted in one house these extra two meals meant a good bit out of the household purse, and in consequence of this the landladies concerned in one instance have put their heads together. The residents of one whole thoroughfare, at least, have, I understand, written letters to the Commanding Officer of the regiment concerned.

Two and Six or Three and Four?

Moreover, not content with this, those same determined landladies decided on a further move. When they were asked to billet more soldiers – a different regiment this time – each enquired of the billeting officer if the rate was to be 3s. 4d., and said, unless this was the case, they felt that they could not take any soldiers in as it did not pay. The officer answered to the effect that the soldiers must not be fed so well, and it is recorded that one landlady thereupon remarked, “Well, you want them to be kept fit and well, ready to go to the Front, don’t you?” The Officer eventually remarked that they were trying to get 3s. 4d. a day for the landladies and, relying upon that statement, the soldiers were taken in and – no, not ‘done for’, but done well. Next Tuesday will be pay-day for the billets, and it remains to be seen whether 3s. 4d per day will be paid. Meanwhile, there is another little complaint to be aired. On the last two occasions when troops arrived in the town the landladies of billets had previously been informed that the soldiers would not arrive until the afternoon when in reality they unexpectedly arrived before dinner, with the consequence that there was no proper meal for the hungry men.