Wendover Remembers, April 1916
In Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) the third attempt to raise the siege of Kut failed. On 29 April 1916 the British forces under General Townshend surrendered to the Turks. The siege had lasted 146 days. 9,000 British and Indian troops were taken prisoner. The Irish rebellion against British rule – the Easter Rising – began on 24 April in Dublin. By the end of the month the rebellion had ended and the Irish leaders were executed. German battlecruisers bombarded Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The Battle of Verdun continued with much bloodshed. On the Western Front small scale attacks, mining and shelling were endemic.
Wendover’s former postman, Sergeant Arthur Treadway of the 7th Battalion the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, was reported missing on 11 April 1916. The Wendover Magazine of September 1916 recorded that after he was wounded near Ypres, Arthur was moved to a dressing station which was then shelled and completely destroyed. The British and German Red Cross Societies searched hospitals in the area, but there was no trace of Arthur. In September the War office declared Arthur “missing, presumed dead”. Arthur, who left behind a wife and four small children, has no known grave.
Arthur Treadway enlisted as a Regular soldier with the Duke of Cornwall’s in January 1896, claiming that he was aged 18 when, in fact, he was only 15. He spent seven years in the army, mainly in India, and then nine years as a Reservist. After leaving the army Arthur became a postman, initially in London and then in Wendover. In September 1914 Arthur re-enlisted in his old Regiment and became a sergeant. He was posted to France in March 1916 and had scarcely been in the Ypres area for a month before he was killed.
The anonymous writer of the leading article in the April 1916 edition of the Wendover Magazine proposed that a committee should be formed to ensure that the prosperity enjoyed by Wendover since the beginning of the war should continue in peace time. The writer noted that men who had earned 15 shillings a week before the war were now earning three times that amount; that the hotels were full; all the small apartments were rented out; that there was full employment; and that tradesmen had increased their turnover enormously. He advised that now was the time to plan Wendover’s future as a health resort. “The air on the hills is as pure as any sea-side resort, and is free from fog and mists. A few motor and cycle trips to places of interest and a small guide book would aid the prosperity of Wendover”. He advised that houses should be roomy, light and well-ventilated; diet must include milk, fat, and fruit, “all abounding in the Vale of Aylesbury”.
In April 1916 the editor of the Parish Magazine, Mr Black, suggested that Wendover was now of sufficient importance that it should be an urban authority rather than a parish. The Chairman of the Parish Council, Mr H. Wood, said that: “… he did not think that the present time was opportune to apply for such powers, as it would certainly mean increased expenditure”.