Museum Collection: World War 1
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Blackout measures against the risk of night bombing is something that is associated more with the second war than the first. This air-raid precautions poster was sent to the Spencer Moulton rubber works in Bradford in 1915 and gives detailed instructions for cutting down on light under the authority of the Defence of the Realm Act 1914. It would have been extremely unlikely that the bombers of that time would have reached Bradford. The Zeppelin airships would have had the necessary range, but they were very vulnerable to attack.
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Bradford on Avon Council gave a special medallion to thank the 488 people who had served in the Great War. It was designed by Miriam, the wife of Richard Christopher the owner of the chemist shop that is in the Museum. This example, one of several now in the Museum, bears the name of Sapper Leslie Stanford Long who died from wounds received in Mesopotamia (modern ‘Iraq).
> . Unclaimed Great War medallions
A general service medal issued to all those who served in the war. It gives the dates of the “Great War for Civilisation” as 1914 to 1919 to include the date when the troops were stood down.
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One of the ways in which the townspeople showed their gratitude to those who had served in the war was in inviting them to a supper concert featuring “Mr. Lovegrove’s Bath Party” and “The Boys”. They were treated to a supper of cold meats with potatoes and pickle, sweets and cheese, then there were toasts to the fallen, the King and “The Old Town”.
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This calendar for 1916 from J.F. Goodall’s shop features a photograph of Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (1850-1916), the hero of Khartoum, who was Secretary of State for War when the poster was printed and is famous for the “Your Country needs you” image. He died in June of the same year.
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