Remembering Rodborough

It starts when Tom and Alice met whilst she was working in private service and how they married soon afterwards and had four children, the eldest being their son Jack.

Tom Caldwell was very interested in World events and told Alice of the assassination in Sarajevo and the start of World War 1.

Jack was too young to fight but still was given a white feather for cowardice.

He did take the King’s Shilling and postcards were delivered to Alice full of what was happening at the Front until the dreaded telegram that he had been killed in the Battle of Loos on September 25, 1915.

His mate visited Alice to return a scarf she had knitted for Jack, his most treasured possession.

With the terrible losses at the Front the conscription age was soon raised to forty one and even married men were called up so Tom had to go.

The table was now turned over to represent a dug out where Tom was the father figure.

He instructed them how to lay the barbed wire and then they went over the top and reached the German trench to find them all dead, someone’s sons.

The children were growing up so Alice obtained work in the munitions factory in Quedgeley where over 3,000 women were employed with the railway going right into the factory where they were searched daily by a police man so nothing inflammable was taken in.

Alice trained the young women to the fill the shells, a very dangerous occupation which resulted in their skin turning yellow and how their nick name 'The Canary Girls' came about.

The scene went to Cheltenham Race Course which was used as a Hospital and a young woman was so shocked at how she had to relieve the soldiers’ suffering.

It then went back to the Front with Tom suffering a gas attack and also being wounded and being brought back to Cheltenham.

His experiences had broken both his body and mind.

Alice finally took him home where he spoke to no one suffering from shell shock.

The factory organised social events to help the children and the women cope with the war and Alice made Tom go to a Sports Event where he met someone who offered him work as a carpenter, his old occupation and so his path to recovery started.

The War ended on November 11, 1918 and the munitions factory was soon closed.

Alice wanted another baby to help her get over Jack’s death but after visiting her Doctor she found that the chemicals she has used to fill the shells had made her barren.

She then went to work in the Morelands Match Factory and they were promised by politicians that War would never happen again.

A moving performance looking at a Gloucestershire family’s life during World War 1 and information of when this play will be performed can be found at www.spanielworks.co.uk or ringing 01453 751823.

The next event in Remembering Rodborough’s programme will be a talk by Dr. Ray Wilson on 'Stroud’s Industries and World War 1' on Thursday, July 3, 7.30p.m. in the Little Chapel contact number 01453 752159.