Monday 1st March
The Langholm School Board discussed an offer from a former pupil, David Beattie, sculptor and poet, to donate a sundial to the school, which was accepted with thanks.
Tuesday 2nd March
Edward Harkness, deputy of the Langholm Lodge of the International Order of Good Templars, gave a talk to the lodge about alcohol prohibition. He noted that the Czar of Russia has banned vodka, the French government has banned absinthe and the German Kaiser is asking soldiers to abstain.
Wednesday 3rd March
Farmers in the area have held shoots to try and contain a significant increase in the number of wood pigeons. It is thought that many of the birds have arrived from war zones.
Monday 8th March
Miss Marie Danvers Smith and her No. 1 Company of Dramatic Artistes are putting on a different play each night for six nights this week in the Buccleuch Hall. The troupe has returned after a successful visit last year.
Organist Charles Metcalfe and his Parish Church choir gave a recital of various songs about war and peace.
Wednesday 10th March
There are four adverts in the E&L today for hens’ eggs for hatching, including two by Board of Agriculture Egg Stations. The UK is a major egg importer and the war has caused much concern about supplies, prompting a need for more UK breeding for local production.
[Advert]
Thursday 11th March
Private James Thomson, 2nd Battalion Royal Highlanders (‘Black Watch’) was killed in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, aged 37. He served in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and had re-enlisted in his old regiment, joining them in France two months ago after they had relocated from India.
The Town Council discussed a report about the town’s roads, including the alternative costs of stone surfacing or tar painting. The report included statistics of High Street users over the course of a week in June 1914:
| Type | Number |
|---|---|
| Ordinary cycles | 1512 |
| Motor cycles | 524 |
| Motor cars | 531 |
| Motor omnibuses | 1 |
| Motor lorries (rubber tyred) | 14 |
| Motor lorries (steel tyred) | 12 |
| Traction engines (trailers) | 15 |
| Light vehicles (one horse) | 432 |
| Heavy vehicles (one horse) | 869 |
| Heavy vehicles (two horses) | 18 |
| Omnibuses (two or more horses) | 10 |
| Horses (led or ridden) | 38 |
| Barrows | 387 |
| Herds of cattle | 18 |
| Flocks of sheep | 3 |
After the council meeting, Provost Easton accused four council members (Montgomery, Scott, Laidlaw and Irving Bell) of meeting in Montgomery’s hairdressing shop three years ago to determine a town council vote in advance. His informant was a council member who was now away on national duty [seemingly Major Bell]. All four denied pre-arranging any votes.
Saturday 13th March
John Maxwell (age 31), a private with the Highland Light Infantry, was shot through the mouth today in the trenches near La Bassée, France. He survived and is being evacuated. Earlier, he was buried by an explosion but was dug out. On another occasion he was saved from bomb blasts by dead bodies lying on top of him. He previously served in India.
At the AGM of the Langholm branch of the South of Scotland Woollen Trades Approved Society, it was reported that there are currently 633 members (292 men and 341 women). There were 140 sickness and disability payments and 15 maternity payments during the year.
Monday 15th March
Joseph Allison, violinist and woollen pattern weaver, gave a lecture on Handel to the Townhead Literary Society in the North UF Church, accompanied by various Handel compositions performed by choir members from Langholm churches. John Milne Home, the Duke of Buccleuch’s property manager, presiding, said that some might feel that this is not the time to be listening to music from Germany, but despite its current government’s policies, much is owed to German individuals in the fields of music, art, science and theology.
Joe Allison has a band that plays at various local functions.
Lord Kitchener made a speech in the House of Lords saying that large orders of munitions had not been completed in time due to worker slackness and alcohol. He appealed for increased output with the promise of a medal in the event of a successful conclusion to the war.
Tuesday 16th March
Lawson Cairns is now five miles behind the front line and is on water cart duty.
A Chalmers United Free Church ladies’ working party put on a concert in exchange for a recent fundraiser for soldiers’ comforts. Many people could not gain access to the hall which was full. Rev. David Inglis presided over two hours of Scottish and Irish songs, preceded by the Belgian national anthem.
Wednesday 17th March
The Langholm Town Band issued its annual report, indicating that it currently has 20 playing members, less than normal because of military service. Attendance at practices is good, considering how much overtime members are doing at the mills.
Thursday 18th March
HMS Dreadnought sank the submarine U-29 by ramming it in the Pentland Firth, off the north coast of Scotland’s mainland.
Two British battleships, HMS Irresistible and HMS Ocean, sank after hitting drifting mines in the Dardanelles.
Friday 19th March
Lawson Cairns is now on nightly trench-digging duty near Ypres, sharing a tent with two sanitary policemen and a soldier with dysentery. He left his tent for the front line at 10.40 pm last night. From today’s diary entry:
Left trenches at 4.20 a.m. & got back at 6.00 a.m. The distance is about 5 miles each way over awful roads. Sleep all day except when we are disturbed for meals & even then only sit up to eat them. We were called at 6.00 p.m. & told we had to be ready in 1/2 hour. We went back to same trenches and continued digging. Each man had to
carry something such as shovels or sandbags, barbed wire, a big coil of plain wire between two. We were about 200 yards from the firing line & were under pretty heavy fire all the time but only got one man wounded in the hand & leg.
Monday 22nd March
Lawson Cairns trained in medicine at Edinburgh University and was transferred today to medical duties in the Royal Army Medical Corps under Captain John Bowie from Edinburgh.
John Telford, a well-known blacksmith and engineer, died, age 70. He arrived from the neigbouring parish of Canonbie 30 years ago and built up a business with his brother James, a joiner. They supplied coaches to the Eskdale Temperance Hotel for its popular local tours.
Tuesday 23rd March
The International Bible Students’ Association [a precursor to the Jehovah’s Witnesses] is conducting a five-night ‘Photo Drama of Creation’ programme in the Buccleuch Hall this week, featuring a series of audio-visual presentations.
Wednesday 24th March
The E&L published an appeal by the Board of Trade for women to register at Labour Exchanges to help reduce shortages in the workforce.
Madame Marie Levante’s internationally known Orchestra of Ladies gave a performance at the Buccleuch Hall with 15 artistes including soloist Daisy Goldsack, a popular drawing room entertainer in high society.
An adder was killed in the neighbouring Tarras Valley this week, exceptionally early in the season.
Thursday 25th March
A memorial to the town’s former medical practitioner Dr John Gill was erected this week in Langholm cemetery. He died from a stroke while attending patients at Thomas Hope Hospital in April 1914. The inscription includes the sentences: ‘For 34 years a medical practitioner at Langholm. Erected by the people of Langholm and neighbourhood in grateful remembrance of a life of self-denying devotion to duty.’
Saturday 27th March
All discounted railway fares (weekend, half-day, short and long date excursions) have been cancelled until further notice, as well as special trains for Easter, due to wartime curtailments.
Sunday 28th March
SS Falaba was torpedoed and sunk in St George’s Channel (between Wales and Ireland), killing over 100 of about 250 people on board, heading from Liverpool to West Africa. The survivors included Rev David Inglis’ brother-in-law William Bishop, a civil engineer. A US citizen, Leon Thrasher, died in the incident, causing diplomatic tensions between the USA and Germany.
Monday 29th March
John Milne Home’s wife Mary gave birth to a son David at Irvine House, just south of Langholm. Mary (nee Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound) is a cousin of Eileen Elliot who married Lord Francis Scott last month.
Tuesday 30th March
The Duke of Buccleuch’s 51st birthday is being celebrated as a holiday on his estates.
Wednesday 31st March
The E&L notes that a national daily paper has protested against the term ‘Tommy’ for soldiers (and by extension ‘Jack’ for sailors), saying that it is degrading and insulting for the professionals and businessman who have joined the current conflict. Its origin is in the use of the name ‘Tommy Atkins’ as a generic reference to the ordinary soldier.
The ‘Women’s Gossip’ section of the E&L praises the work of Polish-French scientist Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, used in X-rays. She has installed one of her radiographs in a speedy vehicle and accompanies it along the front line to help surgeons locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers.
