Thursday 1st April
A large number attended the voluntary Infant School* religious examination despite it being during the school holidays. It consisted of verbal questions to the whole group, without marks, and also involved recitations, action songs and dancing, concluding with a dance around the Maypole.
* Up to age seven.
Sir Spencer Ewart, KCB, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland, inspected 1st/5th KOSB in Stirling. Recruitment is about to begin for a new KOSB section, 3rd/5th, to be located in Dumfries.
The International Order of Good Templars (IOGT) performed a musical Won by a Gypsy to a full hall at the EU Church, raising funds to purchase new regalia. In a short speech, Robert Copeland, a tweed finisher, mentioned that King George V has written to David Lloyd George, minister of munitions, offering to abstain from alcohol with all his household during the present crisis.
Friday 2nd April
Buccleuch Mills used some of its dye to colour Easter eggs, although only about half of the usual quantity.
Saturday 3rd April
Langholm Academy’s rector Robert Hamilton won the golf club’s scratch and handicap medals with a score of 99. He has a handicap of four.
Dr Andrew Calwell was appointed as a general practitioner in Langholm last year and is living at Major Edward Bell’s family home, Clinthead. His son was born there today but died at birth.
Tuesday 6th April
The New Town Bowling Club held its annual meeting and decided to take up an offer to purchase its rented bowling green from the Duke of Buccleuch for £31 5s [£2,800 today], rather than continue to rent it for £1 5s per year. Robert Glover, distillery stillman, was elected as the new president, replacing James Petrie, baker.
Wednesday 7th April
The Old Town Bowling Club held its annual meeting and decided to admit lady members, following the example of various other clubs. Ladies’ annual subscriptions were set at five shillings and gentlemen’s at ten. Robert Ramage, plumber, was elected as its new president, taking over from John Ewart, blacksmith.
Thursday 8th April
At the end of a town council meeting, junior bailie Alexander Montgomery let loose a tirade about being accused by Provost Thomas Easton on 11th March of planning vote-rigging with other council members in his hairdressing shop. Having handed his letter of resignation to the clerk before the meeting, he declared that Provost Easton had adopted the approach of ‘if you haven’t any argument against a proposal, abuse the proposers’. Continuing, he declared:
Seemingly in all things we should think as he thinks. Such is an insult to the intelligence. It is too much like “Kaiseritus”. […] For three years he has “nursed his wrath to keep it warm”. […] Apparently any member of Council who patronises my business is under suspicion. […] Apparently Provost Easton still thinks he is right for there has been no withdrawal of the statement which would have been only gentlemanly. I think I have proved he is wrong.
E&L, 14th April 1915
Montgomery then bade good-bye to the town council and left the room.
In separate business, the town council determined that Friday 4th June and Friday 3rd September are to be holidays under the Factory and Workshop Act 1901. The Act is one of a number of Factory Acts since 1802 regulating industrial employment; it included the raising of the minimum working age from 11 to 12.
Wednesday 14th April
South of Scotland woollen mills continue to operate at high levels of capacity, producing mainly military cloth.
Thursday 15th April
1st/5th KOSB arrived in Stirling by train from Fife, led by their pipe band for about a mile to King’s Park where they are now staying in tents. They have been instructed to prepare for overseas service. Around 40 personnel have close Langholm connections.
Friday 16th April
Jane Norris or Johnstone, of no fixed residence, was fined 7s 6d [£34 today] by bailie John Cairns for assault and breach of the peace but was unable to pay so took the alternative of ten days’ imprisonment.
The Eskdale branch of the Women’s Unionist and Tariff Reform Association held its annual meeting in the Eskdale Temperance Hotel, including a music programme. The association is a subgroup of the Tariff Reform League which is campaigning to unite the British Empire into a single trading bloc with protective trading tariffs.
Sunday 18th April
Private David Douglas, a stonemason, is with the KOSB on the front line near Ypres, and receives the E&L regularly from Arthur Bell, owner of Buccleuch Mill. He sends news to Mr Bell which is published in the paper. The following account is about the capture of Hill 60, Ypres, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April:
It is a constant fire night and day, but the danger is from their snipers, as they are always on the watch for a head appearing above the trench, and I can tell you your number is up, as they are all dead shots, almost all our men being shot in the head. […] We are only about thirty yards from the German trenches.
We had another fight on Sunday night, taking an important place from the enemy […] I am afraid we lost heavily both in officers and men. […] I could tell you more, but it is too blood-curdling.
E&L, 28th April 1915
Monday 19th April
The Clydesdale Horse Society, part of the Eskdale and Liddesdale Agricultural Society, has arranged for a breeding stallion called Bonnie Kelso to visit the Langholm area weekly for farmers to present their mares. The service fee is £3 plus an additional £3 for a resultant foal. Bonnie Kelso is kept at Riddings Farm, 11 miles south of Langholm.
Tuesday 20th April
Langholm’s Licensing Court re-issued alcohol licences to three grocers and seven hotels, including the Flying Spur inn in nearby Bentpath, Westerkirk. All the original licences are over 50 years old. The court has four justices and a clerk and meets half-yearly.
Wednesday 21st April
Alexa Gow from Fife was the manager of Langholm Laundry but has left to set up her own laundry in the same road, advertised in today’s E&L. Her former employers, Thomas and Archibald Hosie, are also advertising their services, including steam laundry, carpet beating and the sale of firewood.
Trout fishing has now begun in Esk & Liddle Fisheries Association waters. Some yellow trout have been seen and sea trout are expected in a few weeks.
Friday 23rd April
Lawson Cairns is two miles north-east of Ypres, near Saint Jean, around a mile from the front line:
The doc., sergeant & myself went to the nearest dressing station & started work about 2.00 p.m. We dressed between 20 & 40 of our own men. […] Germans had been firing stink bombs [chlorine gas] & the smell was felt for miles around.
Saturday 24th April
Lawson Cairns’s diary resumes:
Continued working all night & right on till 9.30 a.m. when we had to leave our station as shells were coming fast & furious. Took up our abode about 500 yards further down the line. […]
Sunday 25th April
We got word early this morning that there was to be a big shove, so we started at once to get a lot of things ready. About 5.30 a.m. they started coming & we were kept busy all day. About 7.00 a.m. we had to quit our billet taking a couple of bags of bandages & things & went into a cellar & did our work there. […]
Monday 26th April
We were kept very busy so much so that we had not time even to think of sleep. Every available space was taken up with wounded. A convoy of about 24 ambulances arrived about 12.30 a.m. & we had loaded 2 & were busy on the 3rd when a stink shell burst in the middle of the road killing a few & wounding a large number including the doctor, sergeant & 5 stretcher bearers. We were busy attending the wounded when the first car went on fire & we had to unload it. It was an awful sight & we could hardly work because of the bad fumes. When the car went on fire the Germans sent over 3 more of these awful shells. We had to lift the wounded without bandaging them & get them away. […] After we had got the convoy away I had to lie down as I was absolutely dead beat. We were busy making some food when two men arrived to take us to the battalion, the adjutant having heard the news.
[There is now an unusual six day gap in the diary entries. Lawson received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Langholm Burgh Medal for his actions above.]
Tuesday 27th April
Joseph Tinsley, a lecturer on beekeeping for the West of Scotland Agricultural College, is visiting the Langholm area for four days to meet any beekeepers that would like to see him. His visit is being coordinated by John Falconer, baron officer (estate official) for the Duke of Buccleuch, who oversees the Duke’s Langholm plant nursery. Falconer lives in Nursery Cottage, to the right of the large house on the upper right of the photo below.
Nursery in foreground (LAG)
The Star of Eskdale lodge of the International Order of Good Templars held its quarterly meeting to elect officer-bearers. It has now been in existence for a year, a relaunch of a former lodge founded in 1871.
Wednesday 28th April
The E&L reports that 2nd/1st Lothian and Borders Horse is being commanded by the Duke of Buccleuch’s brother, George Scott, who was wounded in the Boer War. As well as playing for Langholm, he used to play national first class cricket, including for the Gentlemen (amateurs; typically upper and middle class) against the Players (professionals; typically working class).
Langholm Working Men’s Sick Society normally has a surplus of funds but is having to ask for an extra contribution from each member to cover the cost of claims from the influenza epidemic.
A patient in the Red Cross Hospital recently witnessed two snipers targeting each other on the war front. They fired simultaneously, with the German then falling down a bank, apparently dead, and the Canadian receiving a bullet to the head, but still alive.
Thursday 29th April
The tennis club AGM was held in the Temperance Hall, during which it was decided to close the club due to the number of members away on war service. However, it can still be used by members if they make the courts ready for play themselves.
Friday 30th April
The cricket club held its annual meeting, chaired by the captain Fred Graham, and decided that no fixtures would be held during the war.
