Sunday 7th March 1915

Part of the training for Tunstill’ s Company, and other men of 69^th Brigade, whilst stationed in Folkestone took place in Radnor Park. This large open space provided the opportunity for drill for large numbers of men; many of whom were billeted nearby (see 4^th March).

Radnor Park area of Folkestone. Note the proximity of many of the billets to the Park (see 4th March)

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.

Friday 5th March 1915

Tunstill's Company remained in training at Folkestone.

L.Cpl. Arthur Edward Hunt (see 4^th November 1914) was admitted to Shorncliffe Military Hospital, suffering from influenza; he would be discharged to duty on 16^th March.

At some point (exact date unknown) whilst billeted in Folkestone Pte. Arthur Walton (see 25^th January) would raise a query as to his rank, having previously been a Sergeant with 3DWR. According to a report which would be made in August by by Capt. Herbert Montagu Soames Carpenter, then commanding ‘B’ Company, Walton had ‘re-enlisted in answer to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for ex NCO’s as instructors. He was not promoted to non-commissioned rank on enlistment. At Folkestone he made a statement to CSM John Kearns (see 29th January) who brought this matter to Capt. Lewis Ernest Buchanan (see 1^st January), then commanding ‘B’ Company. His statement, with his certificate, were forwarded to the orderly room for Maj. Mayor’s consideration. Maj. Mayor, after going in to the case, offered to make him Lance Corporal, with a view to further promotion if found suitable, this Pte. Walton declined’.

Thursday 4th March 1915

In Folkestone, Tunstill’s Men, along with the rest of the Battalion, were billeted in threes and fours with the inhabitants (other units of the Division were billeted in Ashford, Canterbury, Shorncliffe and Rye). The Officer’s Mess and Orderly Room were in two empty houses in Julian Road and the majority of the officers were also billeted in the neighbourhood. Among the known billets for the rest of the men were properties in Linden Crescent, Broadmead Road and Bournemouth Road.

Julian Road, Folkestone (2015); it was in this street that the Officer's Mess
and Orderly Rooms for 10th Battalion were located in 1915.

Houses in Broadmead Road, Folkestone (2015), where members
of Tunstill's Company were billeted in 1915.

One of the houses in Linden Crescent (2015) where members
 of Tunstill's Company were billeted in 1915.

Priestley was billeted with a family in Radnor Park Road, “at the house of some French people, where I shall live entirely while we are here. Think of it! – I shall sleep in a bed and have real meals! It is like having a holiday at the seaside.”

The house in Radnor Park Road (2015) where J.B. Priestley
was billeted in 1915.

Pte. Harry Wood (see 14^th October 1914) was reported by Sgt. John William Headings (see 14^th October 1914) as ‘late falling in and improperly dressed on 7.15am parade’; on the orders of Capt. Robert Harwar Gill (see 28^th February) he was to be confined to barracks for three days.

Following the various stages of the administrative process, both Pte. Robert Newhouse and Pte. William Barker (see 24^th February) were finally formally discharged from the army on medical grounds.

Wednesday 3rd March 1915

Early in March (though the exact date is unknown) 2Lt. Maurice Odell Tribe joined 10^th Battalion, and would serve alongside Gilbert Tunstill. Maurice Odell Tribe was born 4^th June 1893; he was the youngest of five children, and only son, of Rev. Odell Newton Tribe and Annie Newton Beane. Maurice’s two eldest sisters, Dorothy and Annie, had been born in Ware, Herts, while Naomi, Margaret and Maurice had been born after the family moved to Tottenham, where they were living at 36 Lordships Lane. Maurice attended boarding school at Radley College from 1907 to 1911. At school he was a talented scholar but also a bundle of energy and often in trouble. A friend later described him as being “as explosive as any atom God ever made … a big-hearted lad with five loaves of science and two fishes of mischief’. He did however show a great aptitude for chemistry and went on to study at St John’s College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1914.

On the outbreak of war Tribe sought a commission in the Army but was rejected, apparently on account of his height (although at five feet six and a half inches he was well within the ‘normal’ requirements). Instead he volunteered to serve as a stretcher-bearer with 5^th London Field Ambulance (RAMC), signing up at Hatfield on 2^nd September 1914.  However, he was subsequently granted a commission with the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment, with effect from 25^th January 1915.

Tuesday 2nd March 1915

Geraldine Tunstill, wife of Gilbert, again followed the move of the Battalion, as she had done on their departure in the Autumn of 1914. The precise date of her arrival in Folkestone has not been established but she was certainly staying at the Metropole Hotel by early April when a further advertisement for the letting of the family home in Otterburn appeared in the Yorkshire Post. All enquiries were to be directed to Geraldine at the Metropole.

Geraldine Tunstill (second from right), with Gilbert (front right) and other
members of the Parker family, c.1917?



The Metropole Hotel, Folkestone, early 20th Century

The Metropole Hotel, Folkestone, 2015

Monday 1st March 1915

23^rd Division completed their march from Aldershot to Folkestone, covering the final 16 miles from Maidstone into Folkestone. The Brigade had covered a total of around 110 miles in seven days’ unbroken march.


Writing home to his sister, Edith, L. Cpl. Wright Firth (see 11^th January) told her how he “arrived at Ashford from Maidstone, 19 miles. We go today on our last march. We passed Lord Kitchener yesterday. 15 miles today. Feel fit and well.” Wright Firth had enlisted on 7^th September, before Tunstill’s recruiting campaign had begun, and had been one of the first three men from Earby (along with Ptes. William Digby Stockdale and Walter Robinson (14753)) to volunteer; all had been posted to 10^th Battalion but not originally to ‘A’ Company. However, all were closely associated with the Earby volunteers who had been added to the original ‘A’ Company. Wright Firth was 21 years-old when he volunteered and was one of eleven children of Squire and Clara Firth; he had been working as a twister in the local cotton mills before joining up. William Digby Stockdale was 21 years old and had worked as a weaver at Messrs. Shuttleworth’s Victoria Shed, Earby. Walter Robinson was 22 years old and had worked as a weaver for Messrs. J. S. Watson and Sons., Albion Shed, Earby. Both Stockdale and Robinson were from Thornton-in-Craven.

Priestley described his sense of exhilaration and achievement: “We started off this morning from Ashford with clenched teeth, and had the finest march of all. We passed through miles of Kentish hopfields, and then, through a cleft in the Downs, we caught a glimpse of the sea – the sea! – and a huge cheer went up from the long, weary ranks. We walked five miles on the edge of the sea and it was glorious for it is Spring here. We passed through Hythe, then Sandgate, and finally reached Folkestone, a beautiful town, full of large hotels and boarding houses”.

The passage of the Battalion through Folkestone provoked comment in the local press as Captain Hildyard, commanding Tunstill’s Company (see 19^th September), was a local man. Under the headline “A Popular Officer”, the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate and Cheriton Herald reported:

"With the troops who passed through Hythe on Monday was Captain H.R. Hildyard of the Yorkshire Light Infantry (sic). Captain Hildyard will be remembered by all as the promoter of our Cricket Weeks in years gone by. On Monday he was heartily greeted, not the least by a little group who took up their stand on the steps of the General Post Office; a family group it was and a happy one too. But perhaps the first greetings were those offered by Hythe’s Town Clerk, a colleague of Mr. Hildyard in regard to matters affecting the Hythe lifeboat. With other friends, the Town Clerk (Mr. B.C. Drake) awaited the regiment in Red Lion Square, and as Captain Hildyard – mounted on horseback and wreathed in smiles – approached, so were several hands raised to foreheads, and looks of pleasant recognition exchanged. Well, it may be of interest to mention that when the War broke out Mr. Hildyard’s services were first of all refused by the authorities. But our energetic friend was not discouraged; he kept trying, and at the same time was one of the ambulance class being drilled in the grounds of the School of Musketry. I am told that he is a very popular officer with the men under him, and we who know him can quite believe that”.

Hythe Post Office (2014)

Red Lion Hotel, Hythe (2014)

Pte. James Pickering would be admonished for “overstaying his pass from 11am until 8pm on 3^rd March” whilst at Aldershot; it is not known why he had not gone with the rest of the Battalion to Folkestone. He was a 34 year-old miner from Sheffield and had enlisted in September 1914 and been posted to the newly-formed 10^th Battalion.