Newsletter kept morale up for Dawley boys

Called Dawley News, it was packed with news, snippets of gossip, soldiers' letters, and cartoons which would appeal to the troops stuck in the trenches or in any of the other areas of service across of the globe.

It began in the autumn of 1915 and was the work of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Dawley Baptist Church. It cost one old penny and was distributed at the Brotherhood and Sisterhood meetings held at the chapel during the war "on condition it is sent, when read, to a Dawley soldier on foreign service."

According to the magazine in 1917, about 300 Dawley soldiers were on foreign service at that time, and it is clear from their letters that it was a popular read – even among non-Dawley troops.

One figure who pops up in the pages now and again is Billy Lloyd, a local "character" from Station Road, Lawley Bank, who was very short.

The issue for March 6, 1917, prints a letter from Private A.E. Powell, writing from Singapore: "I am always glad to see Billy Lloyd (the soldiers' pal) in the paper. I should like to see him with a rifle and a bayonet for they would be bigger than himself. If the Germans saw him coming over the top of a trench they would not be able to fight for laughing."

Although the handwritten text throughout the magazine is in perfect English, the cartoon captions regularly use Dawley vernacular.

"Canna thee drawer better til that?" asks a little boy with his hands in his pockets in a cartoon imagining soldiers making a much-needed post-war map of Dawley.

Sad news is not glossed over. The magazine of December 18, 1917, for instance, reports in detail the deaths of four Dawley lads – a miner and three soldiers. Father of 12 Samuel Churm was killed at the Granville Pits. One of the soldiers was Gunner Elias Round, 24. "This soldier had previously lost two other brothers in the war – Pte Enoch Round, who was killed in the Dardanelles in August 1915 and the Boy-Telegraphist, Noah Round, who went down on the 'Invincible' in the North Sea fight."

Happily many of the magazines have survived. A total of 64 of them were given to church secretary Mrs Mary Westbrook in 1997 and on her death her husband Clive donated the magazines to Shropshire Archives. Clive has also since died. The magazines for 1915 and 1916 were also compiled into a book, Owd Jockeys At War.

Here are some extracts giving a flavour of the magazine.

* (BLOB) JANUARY 9, 1917: In common with other places, Dawley has been asked whether it has any public grounds which can be cultivated for the growth of foodstuffs. The question has therefore arisen – what about Dawley Park? Considering that a few years ago the site was a public deposit for the refuse of the district, it may be imagined if it were ploughed the immediate crop would be of a most interesting character rivalling the excavations of the old Roman City at Wroxeter!

(This item was accompanied by a cartoon of a Dawley farmer ploughing up the park and holding up one of the "finds" saying: "This looks like an old tay-pot.")

* (BLOB) MARCH 6, 1917: Pte A. Morton writes from France on February 20: We are wearing old Fritz out as fast as we can. The other day our boys made a raid on one part of his lines – no sooner were we over the top than we were in Fritz's third line of trenches and back again, bringing some prisoners. They were jolly glad to be took and as they passed us on the roads they were saying "Ina Bon" – that means Very Good in their language or French. We are bad off for a few smokes here.

* (BLOB) JANUARY 30, 1917: Pte S. Bache writes from France saying the 'D.N.' is just what a fellow likes after he has been in mud and water waist deep for 48 hours.

In another item the magazine says: Last week there was returned to us by a soldier in France a mud-stained copy of the 'D.N.' which holds for us a pathetic interest.

It was sent to a soldier in the ordinary way and after reading it other men got hold of it and in course of time it went so far afield that the original owner considered it lost.

A short time after, a soldier (who hailed from London) was killed and when his comrades came to do the last sad offices for him they found among his papers the long lost copy of our little paper – which finding its way to the soldier who first received it, has now been returned to us.