1918 August

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George Harradine

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Private John W Goodwin

In News from the Front there was a repetition of last month’s stories of two of the Ingrey brothers. Sergeant Albert H Ingrey, 25, third son of Mr & Mrs Alfred Ingrey, from Mill Cottages near Ashwell Station had been wounded and was now back on light duties. It was confirmed that Lance Corporal Harry Victor Ingrey, 20, was a prisoner.

However the family were not out of the news. Although the newspaper only gives us the bald facts and not the reasons why a long serving worker resorted to minor crime. At the Petty Sessions the soldiers father Alfred Ingrey, 58, charged as a servant stealing a quantity tall wheat said to be about 3 pints in volume from Redlands Farm, the property of Sir George Fordham. John Kingsley, the farm bailiff, said he knew corn had been going missing so had put a watch on the barn and saw the defendant take about a peck and a half (24 pints) of wheat. After 10 years’ service he was dismissed at once. Sir George asked for leniency and Mr Ingrey was fined £1.

Fund raising for the war effort continued unabated.   A concert at the Merchant Taylors school was given to benefit St Dunstan’s Hospital for blinded soldiers. The school boys took the most part and a second performance had to be put on by popular demand.

The Ashwell Garden Fete was held in the Bury grounds for the benefit of the Red Cross. All the events were listed including an auction in which items were sold and then put up again several times. Especially popular for this treatment was an egg laid at the fete. The total money raised was a very creditable £260.

However the next edition of the paper had to make a correction. “We have been asked to state that “The Spider’s Web” at the recent Red Cross Fete was arranged by Miss A W Hyslop, captain of the Ashwell Girl Guides assisted by Miss M Huggins (Lieutenant) and Miss Mary Hyslop and the Girl Guides.”  I don’t know what form the Spiders Web took but I am glad the Guides gained their rightful recognition.

Away from the War there were only two mentions for the whole month. Cadet Mr Keith Bushell, a member of Australian Imperial Forces and former magistrate in British New Guinea, gave a lecture on the “The New Pacific Islands” by in which he emphasised the need for ‘missionaries to follow the flag’. On a more personal note the death was announced of the 45 year old Priscilla Lizzie Albon at Bournemouth. Before moving south she had lived in Kingsland Terrace and must have still been well remembered in Ashwell.

During August tributes were made to two casualties of the war.

Private George Harradine, 34, of Mill Cottages, Ashwell Station, who must have been a neighbour of the Ingrey family mentioned above, died of wounds on the 26th March 1918. He left a wife and four children under the age of 13. He had been a farm labourer before joining up and is commemorated on the Crouy British Cemetery in France and on the Odsey War Memorial.

Private John W Goodwin was with the Hertfordshire Regiment, 1st Battalion when they were in action at St Julien, Ypres on 31 July 1917 (his 39th birthday).  Nothing was heard of him since that date and it was assumed he was killed during that battle. He leaves a widow and 3 boys. Before enlisting John was a well-known and respected Prudential Assurance Agent in Ashwell & District and also a keen athlete. He is commemorated on the Ashwell War Memorial.