Starcross Remembers

The centenary of the signing of The Armistice at the end of the First World War was celebrated in Starcross.
The Remembrance Day Service took place in St Paul's Church at 10:00am.The congregation processed to Starcross War Memorial on The Strand, where they were joined by many more from the village for a Remembrance Service, and wreath-laying which started at 10:45am.
Many thanks to Hugh Scudder, from Kenton, for the photographs
Click this link to see them all
A few images from Sundays Remembrance Service at St Paul’s and Parade to the Memorial

Kattanga the War Horse is ready2go

Kattanga the War Horse

Kattanga the War Horse waits to be installed on Teignmouth sea front

Tea and Talk in Barnstaple

On Tuesday 22^nd May, between 2 and 5 pm, the second in this year’s series of ‘Tea and Talk’ afternoons, comprising a talk of local interest and a Devon Cream Tea, will take place at the North Devon Record Office in Barnstaple.

 North Devon Record Office
Barnstaple Library
Tuly Street
Barnstaple
EX31 1EL

Emil Sokolov, of Exeter University, and one of the Devon Remembers Heritage Project’s leading researchers, will be talking on:

The Many Faces of the Great War: Local Patriotism and Recruitment in Ilfracombe, 1914-1918

Historians have studied the effects of the First World War on Devon in terms of nationalism, housing, food shortages, social unrest, religion, pacifism, and volunteerism and conscription.  On the issue of voluntary service, however, Devon has often been portrayed in a rather unpatriotic light.  There are many sides to this debate, but there is one story about a small seaside town, which has remained untold so far. It is an exceptional story, which has presented us with almost five hundred pictures of a patriotic and united Devon. The history of Ilfracombe’s photos of soldiers from the war is essentially a tale of how two prominent local men – a councillor and a headmaster - brought together and inspired their compatriots to go beyond the picturesque views of North Devon and participate in one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The men whose pictures were exhibited in the local school, grocery stores, town hall and elsewhere gave the war a collection of recognisable human faces. In Ilfracombe, the national narrative about the Great War was understood through the hardship and suffering of some five hundred local men, whose photos constantly reminded the rest of the community what this war really meant to them.

Ilfracombe’s exhibition of soldiers’ photos was simultaneously a tribute to the self-sacrifice of native community members, but also an organised response to the national demands of recruitment in times of great conflict.  The story of Ilfracombe is an excellent contribution to the British historiography of the First World War and the ways in which local communities met the demands of the war effort.

If you would like to attend, please contact Gary Knaggs at the North Devon Record Office on 01271 318795 or northdevon@swheritage.org.uk.

19240 Shrouds of the Somme

Starcross Walkers visited Northerhay Gardens today to see the final day of the tribute to those who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Names of the fallen were read out, and war poetry recited.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Read  about the exhibition on this link:
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/…/story-29…/story.html

World War 1 project for Holcombe, Dawlish and Cofton

The Dawlish World War 1 project
is a programme to commemorate those named on the war memorials at Holcombe, Dawlish and Cofton.

The project co-ordinators are keen to liaise with Starcross, so if you have a connection with any of these World War 1 heros, please get in touch

The Dawlish Gazette has published supportive articles which include:

• Soldier’s memorial service marks centenary of death in first world war Wednesday, 25 February 2015  
•  Manor article sparks memory. Wednesday 5 May 2015 
• Armistice Day in Dawlish Wednesday, 11 November 2015 

Here's the list of the seven Starcross heros, in month order of the day they died. Perhaps we should celebrate their lives in a similar fashion? or perhaps we already do so?

Many thanks to http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Devon/Starcross.html
for the information

• Reginald Homeyard. 12th April 1916
• Ernest William Sizer. 24th April 1918
• Richard Venvil Bowerman. 29th April 1918
• George James Baker. 20th August 1916
• Arthur James Grant. 2nd September 1918
• Ernest Walter Goss. 7th November 1918
• Walter Harry Boult. 19th November 1917

Starcross War Memorial

The Starcross War Memorial photographed from the railway station footbridge.

 http://www.geograph.org.uk/stamp.php?id=4731108

Thankyou JohnC for this image

The Dogs of War

Excerpted from The Curious Map Book by Ashley Baynton-Williams. Out now from the University of Chicago Press. 

When the first world war started in 1914, most commentators thought that the war would be of short duration, and this was reflected in the relatively light-hearted caricature maps issued in the first months of the war. By the second year, when the true scale of the conflict became apparent, such propaganda maps took on an altogether darker tone.

Hark! Hark! The Dogs Do Bark!, published by G. W. Bacon, depicts the principal protagonists as dogs. The stereotypes are as familiar today as then: the British bulldog, the French poodle, and the German dachshund. Serbia, however, is depicted as wasps, stinging the Austrian mongrel. North of the British Isles is a puppet master in naval garb (sometimes said to be Winston Churchill, at the time first lord of the admiralty) who is gradually moving Royal Navy ships on station to blockade Germany by sea.

Walter Lewis Emanuel (1869–1915) contributed the descriptive text outside the lower border; he was a famous English humorist, known for his contributions to the magazine Punch and for a series of anthropomorphic dog books such as The Dogs of War (published in 1906 and reprinted in 1913), which was illustrated by the artist Cecil Aldin (1870–1935). Emmanuel’s text reads:

The Dogs of War are loose in Europe, and a nice noise they are making! It was started by a Dachshund that is thought to have gone mad – though there was so much method in his madness that this is doubtful. [Note for the ignorant: The German for Dog is Hund. The English for German in Hun. Dachshunds means badger-dog – and he is sometimes more badgered than he likes.] Mated with the Dachshund, for better or for worse, was an Austrian Mongrel. By the fine unwritten law of Dogdom big dogs never attack little ones. There are, however, scallywags in every community, and, egged on by the Dachshund for private ends, the Mongrel started bullying a little Servian. And then the fat was in the fire, for the little Servian had a great big friend in the form of a Russian Bear, and he stood up for his pal. And that was what the Dachshund wanted. He hoped that a big row would ensue, and in the confusion he intended to steal a bone or two that he had had his eye on. The Dachshund now began to look round for friends, but they seemed strangely scarce. He had relied on an Italian Greyhound, a thoroughbred, named Italia, but Italia dissembled her love in the strangest way, and asserted that War was a luxury which she could not afford just now [...] The Dachshund, to his annoyance, found only one friend, and that was a dog of Constantinople. ...Meanwhile the rest of the European Happy Family looked on, and who shall say how the row will spread? There’s the Greek with his knife ready to take a slice of Turkey; there are the Balkans determined not to be baulked of their own little ambitions; there’s the Spaniard fond of Bull fighting so long as he is not a John Bull; there’s the Portugee just spoiling for a scrap; there’s the Swiss suffering from cold feet; there’s the Dutchman... All this, and more, may be seen depicted above. Search well and you will find many things. But not Peace. Peace has gone to the Dogs for the present – until a satisfactory muzzle has been found for that Dachshund. Meanwhile the Dachshund’s heart bleeds for Belgium – and his nose for Great Britain.

It is interesting to note that a German copy of the map was published in Hamburg early in 1915, presumably in an attempt to highlight and discredit the perceived self-interest of British war aims. It is also interesting to speculate on the market for such a map, originally sold for a shilling (5p); the image is child-oriented, and it may be that the map was aimed at parents and schools as a tool to explain the background to the conflict. When handled in the house or classroom, the maps would have been easily damaged, which explains their relative rarity today.

Ashley Baynton-Williams is an antiquarian map dealer and researcher based in London and the author of several books.

Invitations to 2 FREE history days in Exeter on 20th April, and Colyton 13th May.

Starcross History has today received 2 invitations to 2 FREE OF CHARGE EVENTS. The 1st is a belated invitation for its members to attend a day dedicated to Devon in the First World War. This event is THIS MONDAY, 20th April, and the details are published below.

Brian Carpenter, Devon County Council's Community Learning Officer, has apologised for the short notice, but writes that the Devon Heritage Centre 'will be happy to see any of your members here if they wish to attend'.

Brian Carpenter

Community Learning Officer

Devon Archives and Local Studies Service

Devon Heritage Centre

Great Moor House

Bittern Road

Sowton

Exeter

Devon

EX2 7NL

01392 380573

Email: brian.carpenter@devon.gov.uk

www.devon.gov.uk/record_office

www.swheritage.org.uk

DEVON REMEMBERS THE FIRST WORLD WAR 

Devon Heritage Centre, Monday 20th April 2015 

10.00:  Arrival and Coffee 

10.30:  Welcome and Introduction: Janet Tall, Head of Archives and Local Studies, South West Heritage Trust 

Heidi Watson-Jones, Project Co-Ordinator, Devon Remembers 

10.45:  Paula Clarke, Community Engagement Officer, Castle Drogo:  Castle Drogo Building Work: Inspiring a New Approach to Learning 

11.20:  Peter Mason, The Lustleigh Society, Dartmoor Life in the First World War 

Peter will talk about the research and development of the Dartmoor Life in the First World War exhibition which is running until September at the Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre in Princetown. 

  

12.00:  Comfort Break 

12.10:  Dr.David Parker Devon and the First World War and Exeter: Remembering 1914-18 

David will talk about the research which led to the development of the arguments in his two books about the impact upon Devon of the war. 

12.50:  James Wallis, First World War Research Co-ordinator for the South West, University of Hertfordshire First World War Engagement Centre:  The Food and Farming in Wartime Devon Project 

1.00:  LUNCH 

There is a café in Great Moor House and a larger one, the Fresha café, about five minutes’ walk away.  There is also a pub, the Barn Owl, on the other side of the Honiton Road.  However, it may be preferable to bring your own lunch.  

2.00:   Jo Loosemore, BBC Radio Devon: World War One at Home 

Jo will talk about how the First World War affected local people and places, and how the BBC told their stories on radio, TV and online. 

3.00:  Close 

SPEAKERS: 

Paula Clarke is the Community Engagement Officer for the National Trust at Castle Drogo. Her role is funded by the major restoration work currently underway where she is working to achieve the aim of ‘making Drogo a much loved local place’. Her work involves outreach, project based activities with local groups and exploring learning opportunities. Paula has been at Castle Drogo for nine years in a variety of roles including Volunteer Co-ordinator until taking on her current role in November 2012. 

Peter F. Mason has curated the current exhibition about life on Dartmoor during WW1 for the Dartmoor Trust and the Dartmoor National Park which is on show until September at the Princetown Visitors’ Centre.  He is Chairman of the Lustleigh Society which manages the Lustleigh Community Archive and a former national committee member of the Community Archives and Heritage Group.  He is the compiler of a series of features for the Dartmoor Magazine on Dartmoor Life in Old Photographs. 

David Parker is a retired Headteacher.  He has written and researched extensively on 20th century British social history, and his books include The People of Devon in the First World War, which was Devon Book of the Year in 2014, and Exeter: Remembering 1914-18. 

James Wallis is currently completing his doctoral research at the University of Exeter as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded collaborative partnership with Imperial War Museums London. This is examining key permanent and temporary First World War exhibitions held within the museum over a fifty year timeframe.  

In November 2014, he was appointed Associate Research Fellow at the University's History Department. Focusing specifically on the South West, this research co-ordinator post feeds into the University of Hertfordshire's AHRC-funded First World War Engagement Centre, 'Everyday Lives in War'. This aims to connect academic and community research on particular themes relating to the conflict, as part of its centenary commemorations. 

Jo Loosemore produces World War One at Home (in partnership with Imperial War Museums) and the Listening Project (in partnership with the British Library and BBC Radio 4) for BBC Radio Devon.  She previously worked as Education Projects Manager for the Theatre Royal Plymouth and Community History Officer for Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. 

If you wish to attend, please let Brian Carpenter (brian.carpenter@devon.gov.uk) know by Monday 13th April.  Numbers are limited to 50 people. 

The 2nd invitation is to a regional meeting of the Devon History Forum, which will be in Colyton Town Hall, on Wednesday 13th May. (dunnawurry - there will be time enough for you to get back for our evening meeting in the Starcross pavilion at 7:30pm)

The building on the right is the Heritage Centre containing:

• Family History Research Room
• Colyton family records, Colyton photos and archives
• Literature, gifts and mementoes
• Exhibitions

The building on the left houses the Merchant's Tea Rooms and Tea Garden. The Merchant's Tea rooms are an independant organisation located next to the Heritage Centre building.

 There will be presentations from 3 local history groups. Who knows what an Ottregian is? Read on... 

In the afternoon, there's a conducted walk around Colyton and its Heritage Centre.

DEVON HISTORY FORUM REGIONAL MEETING 

Colyton Town Hall, Wednesday 13th May 2015 

10:00:  Arrival and Coffee 

10:20:  Welcome and Introduction:  Brian Carpenter, Community Learning Officer, South West Heritage Trust 

10:30:  Trevor Hitchcock:  Honiton Yesterday and Today 

Trevor Hitchcock is the author of Honiton Inns and Honiton Yesterday and Today (Allhallows Museum Society, Honiton).  He will talk about Honiton, past and present.  

11:15:  Nigel Sadler, Sands of Time Consultancy and Ottery St.Mary Heritage Society:  Ottregians and the Great War – the Research 

Nigel Sadler is the author of First World War: The Postcard Collection (Amberley Publishing) and was involved in the research for the Ottery St.Mary Heritage Society exhibition Ottregians and the Great War.  He will talk about the research and preparation which went into the exhibition and what was discovered about the contribution of Ottery St.Mary to the Great War.   

12:00:  John Addie, Colyton Parish History Society:  The Colyton Heritage Centre   

John Addie is a long-standing member of the Colyton Parish History Society.  He will talk about the Colyton Heritage Centre project, which culminated in the opening of the centre in April 2014. 

12:45:  LUNCH 

There is a range of places which serve lunch in Colyton, including the Merchant’s Tea Room, which is next door to the Heritage Centre, and the Kingfisher Inn in Dolphin Street. 

2:00:  Town Walks and Tours of the Heritage Centre 

After lunch there will be the opportunity to go on a guided walk around Colyton and also to visit the Heritage Centre. 

3:30:  CLOSE 

There is a public pay and display car park in Dolphin Street, which is within a few minutes’ walk of both the Town Hall and the Heritage Centre. 

If you wish to attend, please let Brian Carpenter (brian.carpenter@devon.gov.uk) know by Friday 8th May.