Monday 1st November
The Eskdalemuir Observatory recorded a large earthquake in the area of Japan. It was offshore and there was no tsunami and no serious damage.
Esk & Liddle Fisheries Association waters were closed. The autumn has been very poor due to low water levels. Nevertheless, on the final day there were several good catches of salmon.
The parish council held a half-yearly meeting. There are currently 45 people on the poor roll.
At a meeting of the Langholm School Board, the recent dentist’s report was reconsidered due to a number of children not being treated because of parents’ unwillingness to meet expenses. Chairman Arthur Bell, manufacturer, said tongue-in-cheek that it was an issue for the Repairs Committee; it was referred instead to the Attendance Committee.
The Unionist and Liberal associations jointly arranged a meeting in the Town Hall to make arrangements for the forthcoming canvass of men of military age under the ‘Derby scheme’. It involves calling up younger unmarried men before older ones, and unmarried men before those who are married. The voluntary scheme depends on a good number of younger, unmarried men to come forward, otherwise other methods will be adopted.
Tuesday 2nd November
Rev Alister Stewart of Waterbeck, Dumfriesshire, gave a lecture to the Townhead Literary Society entitled Six Months at the Back of the Front, covering his work with the YMCA. He mentioned two reasons for the organisation’s success: its organisational abilities and the support it receives from military authorities, the latter being due not to philanthropy but to the YMCA’s influence on soldiers’ efficiency.
The YMCA plays key roles in providing writing materials for soldiers to write home and in facilitating concerts. Stewart also observed that ‘When the Army chaplain meets the men they have to stiffen to attention because he is an officer, but it is not so with us. […] One could see in their eyes a real hunger for talk with others who understand something different than the usual affairs of the soldiers.’ (E&L, 3 Nov 1915)
The Secretary of State for War (Lord Kitchener) has ordered the production of khaki armlets for a) enlisted men awaiting call-up; b) men who have sought enlistment but who have been deemed medically unfit; and c) ex-servicemen of good character who have been discharged due to injury. This may help to address the problem of some young men being wrongfully shamed for not being overseas, sometimes by being presented with a white feather, indicating cowardice.
The local woollen mill contracts for French blue-grey cloth have been completed but UK government contracts for khaki are still being fulfilled.
Wednesday 3rd November
This week’s films, presented by Electric Pictures at the Buccleuch Hall, include Charlie Chaplin’s A Night Out (1915).
A new train service is running between Langholm and Longtown to assist the transport of workers to and from the explosives factory at Gretna, attracted by good wages. Skilled workers can earn a shilling per hour. There have been some strikes by young female employees at the Langholm mills, emboldened by alternative employment opportunities.
Stewart Turnbull (40) of 8th Royal Sussex, a linotype operator, has been wounded in the shoulder, leg and back. His younger brother Joseph was killed in France on 15th June.
Soldiers’ letters have indicated that John Comrie of the Black Watch and David Thomson of the KOSB were killed, but subsequent official reports have described them as missing, giving some hope to families. (However, they died on 25th September 1915 in the Battle of Loos.)
John Hume, hatter, hosier and outfitter, is advertising various types of clothes for soldiers and sailors, including ‘Asbestol’ horsehide gauntlet gloves: ‘Look like kid – Wear like iron’.
Increased postal and telegram rates are now in force after the recent budget. Telegrams are nine pence for the first twelve words including the address, then a half pence for each additional word. A telegram sent overnight costs nine pence for 36 words.
The E&L’s reports that there are difficulties in finding sufficient jurors for court cases and that mature, competent women could relieve hard-pressed businessmen of the duty.
Friday 5th November
At a statutory meeting of the town council, it was decided not to fill the vacant roles of councillor and junior bailie, created by Alexander Montgomery’s resignation in April. The practice of keeping records of councillors’ attendances will be discontinued. A request from the town’s scavengers (cleaners) asking for a pay rise of three shillings per week was referred to the Cleansing Committee.
Saturday 6th November
The International Order of Good Templars held a social evening in the EU Church hall, including a tea, an address from a representative of the Scottish Temperance League, and a music programme.
Tuesday 9th November
Miss Inez Howard’s company put on a performance of The Rosary by American playwright Edward E Rose in the Buccleuch Hall.
Wednesday 10th November
Following the example of France, light steel helmets are being trialled by some British troops as protection against metal fragments.
Langholm stationmaster William Hamilton is being transferred to Caldercruix, Lanarkshire, and will be replaced by John Webster from Crianlarich, Stirlingshire.
Miss Janet Cunningham (1855-1915) of Brooklyn Cottage has left £350 to four Langholm churches. Her father James (1826-1910) was a grocer in the High Street who drowned after falling into the River Esk, aged 84. Her uncle Walter Park was a friend of Thomas Hope in the USA and lived in Brooklyn Cottage before her, named after his time in New York. [Janet Cunningham’s maternal grandmother was Janet Hope 1798-1836 – related?]
Lord Derby’s recruitment scheme will make use of the concept of ‘starred’ occupations and individuals for exemptions from overseas military service, i.e. those deemed essential to the war effort on the home front. Starred occupations include those in steelmaking, shipbuilding, farming, etc. Not all those working in starred occupations were starred individuals, e.g. young single men might still be expected to join up.
Thursday 11th November
The Appeals Court sat in the Town Hall and allowed a number of appeals against property assessments on the basis of poverty. The Langholm Kirk Session (parish church authority) appealed against the valuation assessment of the Mission Church on the basis that it had been used as a Red Cross Hospital for over a year. This was dismissed on the grounds of it being a matter between the Kirk Session and the assessor in Dumfries.
Friday 12th November
Another 11 men from 3rd/5th KOSB have left Dumfries to reinforce 1st/5th KOSB in the Dardanelles.
A total of 481 parcels have now been sent by the Comforts Committee. Christmas parcels are being prepared with shortbread, a tin of biscuits, cigarettes or tobacco, a plum pudding, a tin of sardines, a tin of turkey and tongue paste, a pair of socks, a candle, two boxes of matches, a handkerchief, a Tommy’s cooker (miniature stove) refill and a cake of soap.
The Milligan brothers put on an evening of pictures for the benefit of the Cinema Ambulance Scheme which is looking to raise £30,000 to purchase ambulances for the Red Cross.
Monday 15th November
Miss Danvers Smith’s Dramatic Company is putting on a series of shows this week.
Today was the deadline for sending any contributions (money or garments) to the Dumfriesshire branch of the Scottish Needlework Fund, care of the Duchess of Buccleuch at Langholm Lodge.
Tuesday 16th November
Fred Ross, a former private in the Gordon Highlanders, gave a talk to the Townhead Literary Society entitled The Lighter Side of my Experience as a Soldier. His left arm was amputated after a wound in the Dardanelles (see 19th May in the Diary). The talk gave a description of his non-combat experiences, including making music with others in the trenches with a concertina, a tin whistle, mouth organs and a biscuit box for a drum.
Wednesday 17th November
The Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch are extending their stay at Langholm Lodge until around mid-December.
The hospital ship HMHS Anglia hit a mine between Calais and Dover and sank with the loss of 134 out of 390 on board. One of the boats that came to the rescue was a coal cargo ship called Lusitania. The Anglia transported King George V across the Channel after his riding accident three weeks ago.
Saturday 20th November
A Flag Day for Russia was the town council’s fourth appeal on behalf of the UK’s allies, raising over £17, part of which will go to the Anglo-Russian Hospital in Petrograd, a Red Cross facility in the Dmitri Palace. The four Flag Days (for Serbia, France, the Red Cross and Russia) have raised a total of over £105.
Sunday 21st November
Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sank, five weeks after being abandoned in the ice (see 19th January and 27th October).
Monday 22nd November
Lord Beaverbrook‘s newspaper The Globe resumed publication after being banned by the government for two weeks for drawing attention to allegedly false rumours about the imminent resignation of Lord Kitchener. It has been reinstated after declaring that the rumours were untrue.
Tuesday 23rd November
Robert Milligan, water and sanitary inspector (unrelated to the Milligan brothers with the cinema), published a warning that people leaving their spigots (outside taps) and toilets running continuously will have their names recorded for the purpose of prosecution for wasting water.
Wednesday 24th November
Mrs Jane Comrie has now received official notice that her husband John was indeed killed in action at the Battle of Loos on 29th August, after conflicting news. After losing three children in infancy, her son Angus, born on 2nd October, has survived so far.*
* He lived to age 80.
Percy Molteno, Member of Parliament (Liberal) for Dumfriesshire, questioned the government’s very high expenditure, saying that there was enormous extravagance and wastage, including excessively high wages paid in the explosives industry, causing severe problems in other industries in addition to their loss of staff to the armed forces. Referring to Langholm, he said:
In one town there is a textile industry wholly in making cloth for our own army and for our Allies, and the directors tell me that their efforts will be paralysed very shortly if the authorities do not stop taking away their best and most indispensable men.
A trade union meeting was held in Langholm for Gretna munitions workers, addressed by Ernest Lowthian of the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers, a councillor in Carlisle. Between 20 and 30 joined the union.
The late Duke of Buccleuch’s will indicates that on his death he had 430,000 acres in Scotland and 25,000 acres in England, a total of 711 square miles (1,841 square kilometres). His total rental income was £217,000 pa and the total value of his estate is £1.1 million.
Major Edward Bell’s property Clinthead is for rent. After the suicide of his wife, their five children are now being looked after by Major Bell’s parents, Arthur and Jane, in their house Hillside, overlooking the town.
Thursday 25th November
In Berlin, Albert Einstein concluded a series of lectures to the Prussian Academy of Sciences on his General Theory of Relativity, arguing that gravity is a consequence of mass and energy, rather than being a force, overturning current thinking. It has been met with great excitement, ten years after the four groundbreaking papers that he published in 1905, his annus mirabilis (‘miracle year’).
Friday 26th November
Over 130 ladies of the Eskdale Women’s Unionist and Tariff Reform Association gathered in the Buccleuch Hall for a presentation to former vice-chairman Miss Margaret Graham, who is leaving for London. Margaret is the sister of Richard and Fred Graham who own the Reid & Taylor mill. Mrs Lottie Cairns, wife of bailie John Cairns, presented her with a gold watch bracelet, after which there was a musical programme.
William Pendreigh, coal agent, died at age 69, a year after his only son William (30) and wife Agnes (68). William junior was also a coal agent and died in the Eskdale Infectious Diseases Hospital. William senior’s business will be continued by his daughters Mrs Isabella Johnstone (49) and Miss Wilhelmina Pendreigh (36). He began as a postmaster in Langholm and then took over his father’s coal business.
Saturday 27th November
The Langholm Working Men’s Sick Society held a special meeting to discuss its distressed finances due to the level of claims. It was decided to continue the society but to reduce the level of payouts.
Railway stationmaster William Hamilton was presented with a gold watch by station traders and staff on his transfer to Caldercruix, Lanarkshire, after six and a half years in Langholm. His wife Sarah received an umbrella with a gold band on the handle.
The Independent United Order of Scottish Mechanics held its annual meeting in Langholm, with James Bell in the chair. It has 161 members on its roll, over half of which are on the English side of the border. The year’s accounts show that £96 (£8,270 today) was spent on sick benefits, £6 (£520) on maternity benefit and £16 (£1,380) on administration.
Sunday 28th November
Milk vendors in Langholm have increased the price of milk from 3 pence to 4 pence per quart.
Nellie Tudhope, a Sabbath School teacher at the South UF Church, was presented with a lamp by her fellow teachers on the occasion of her marriage to John Ainsworth this coming week. She is ceasing her teaching after 10 years to begin a new home. It is common for women to discontinue employment after marriage, although the war is changing this. Nellie’s younger brothers Adam and John are on the front line; John was wounded on 25th September.
Tuesday 30th November
David Harkness, draper, gave a talk on Heredity and Environment to the Townhead Literary Society, emphasising the importance of the latter to help shape healthy societies and individuals.
The town’s tailors and outfitters have decided to implement price rises due to increased costs:
There have been various incidents in which gelignite has been used in border streams to kill trout. When perpetrators have been caught, they have mainly been from mining districts and have been charged with appropriating explosives.