The First World War saw an unusual battle take place on the Home Front across Hampshire as rats and sparrows in their thousands were tracked down and killed throughout the county.

With food so scarce during the war years, people worked hard to stop animals and birds eating the seeds planted in the fields or the crops that had grown.

Rats were considered pests, but sparrows were also seen as a problem.

Many neighbourhoods ran “Anti-sparrow Clubs” where money was paid out by the Board of Agriculture for every sparrow or rat caught and killed.

People presented sparrows’ heads or rats’ tails to claim their cash.

Daily Echo:

Not only was this activity seen as an important contribution to safeguarding food supplies but tracking down these “enemies” was also a social pastime for working men.

A recently published local history book tells how the loss of many of its men impacted on the village.

The Boys Behind Hound War Memorial by Paul Keast and Maureen Queen tells the story of how the First World War, through the loss of 50 men, affected the parish and its everyday life.

“Hound parish suffered the grievous loss of some of the fittest and brightest young men of their generation,” says the introduction to the book.

“When a man was killed his family suffered the greatest loss, his unit or ship needed a replacement and his skills and earning potential were lost to the community forever.

“Being a small community, it was almost inevitable that village people knew all the casualties, which created a communal sense of loss to add to the grief of immediate family.”

Hound lost a primary school teacher, the railway ticket office clerk, a baker’s assistant, a barman, Lankester and Crook’s deliveryman, a bricklayer, the coal-merchants salesman, a naval pensioner, a Post Office telegraph boy, four career sailors and a painter.

Also killed were a marine engineer, a clerk in a yacht-builder’s office, two jobbing gardeners, a bricklayer’s assistant, the vicar’s son, a grocery assistant, a shipyard riveter, a general labourer, a domestic gardener, a marine electrician as well as a number of men serving in the armed forces on the outbreak of conflict.

A number of men also died who volunteered or who were conscripted directly after leaving school.

One of the more unusual aspects of Hound life at this time, which is highlighted in the book, was a letter received by the local parish council.

It was sent from the Under Secretary of State at the Home Office on June 6, 1917.

“During the First World War the government was extremely worried about the preservation of food supplies and about the avoidance of waste, mainly to reduce the amount of food imports and the risk of getting ships past the enemy,” said the authors.

“German ships and submarines took a heavy toll of merchant shipping. To prevent waste, pest had to be culled. The Home Office and the Board of Agriculture set up a scheme which was to be monitored by the police.”

The official letter said: “In view of the importance of taking all practical measures at the present time for protecting the national food supply, the Board of Agriculture has recommended that certain measures be taken for the destruction of rats and house sparrows.”

A bounty of one shilling (5p) for every dozen of rats’ tails, two pence a dozen for heads of unfledged house sparrows, three pence a dozen for heads of fully-fledged sparrows and one pence a dozen for sparrows’ eggs would be paid.

Local police were required to pay rewards from their own pocket and then claim reimbursement.

It was usually the policemen’s wives who had to count to gory trophies, do the paperwork and hand over the cash.

Its not known if the scheme succeeded locally.

It seems the parish council considered it and requested further details from the Home Office.