Aberystwyth at Christmas in the War Years

A few more snippets from the wartime Cambrian News, 1914-1919: 

1916: 22 December

Goods: 

An article entitled ‘The Hunt for Presents’, makes much more mention of the war ‘and its sorrows and preoccupations’.  It applauds the spirit of the public being ‘wisely determined to keep the great festival of Christendom with as much éclat as possible’, and of the tradesmen for enabling them to do so.  It introduces the various goods on offer, such as ‘prime beef’, with this sentiment:
 


“A tour around the shops in Aberystwyth tends to banish for the moment the dread spectre of war and to give the spectator the impression that the famine which is said to be stalking the Huns is conspicuous by its absence in this favoured district.”

However, it is worth noting that the previous week’s edition (15 December) published a stringent call for landowners – however small – to prepare land for planting potatoes and other food items to mitigate the ‘serious danger’ of food shortages: ‘If food be scarce, of what use is money?  It will not nourish our children.’  In the 22nd December issue this is referred to explicitly:

  ‘The food problem has become of late a pressing one and the scarcity of good butter has driven all classes to seek a reliable substitute’, which was margarine, manufactured by the Maypole Dairy Company at Aberystwyth, which had recently been inspected by the King and Queen. 

Anti-German feeling is reflected in a note about Owen’s of Terrace Road and North Parade, providing Japanese goods such as ‘elegantly-lacquered boxes and chests of chaste designs intended to permanently oust goods made in Germany’.

 
Troops: 

Many ‘Comfort Fund’ letters are cited in an article entitled ‘Comforts for Fighters’, many giving illuminating details not only of the Christmas parcels sent out but also of their conditions, of which this is a small illustration, from a letter by Private D.A.Hughes from France: “I have read in the Cambrian News of the good work you are accomplishing and of your anxiety to give every Aber boy a Christmas parcel.  We are at present in a German dug-out, thirty feet below.  It is nice and warm, but terribly smoky as the boys keep putting wet logs on the fire.”

The religious heart of Christmas was promoted in various notices of sacred concerts and Church Services, and in the 29 December edition a small piece about the Salem C.M. Church describes a meeting on Christmas morning devoted to celebrating The Nativity, with children reciting pertinent verses and hymns.  A choir was proposed to revive ‘some of the old-time carols which have of late years fallen into disuse and tend to become forgotten.’  It would be interesting to try to find out which those were!

1917: 21 December

This edition states cheerfully that ‘a casual observer would not find many evidences of war’, and applauds local tradesmen for securing ‘necessaries’ for their customers, though there was some ‘deprivation of luxuries’.  The article highlights many shops in well-known Aberystwyth streets, of which the following is but an illustrative selection.

Plenty of clothing for ladies and children was supplied by T. Ellis & Co in Terrace Road, and in particular ladies who ‘wish to secure the latest creations in hats, blouses and other articles dear to the feminine heart’ are encouraged to visit the ‘Misses Compton Evans’s establishment opposite the Town Hall’.  (An enjoyable follow-up to this article would be to scour for any photos of the time identifying such intriguing establishments!)

Christmas Fayre was not scarce: Owen’s bakery provided ‘as fine an assortment of delicacies as the Controller will allow’ (who is this ‘Controller’ and what was his remit?), including ‘Christmas crackers, bon-bons in abundance, miniature tanks and ingenious mechanical toys filled with sweets and chocolates’.  

The article mentions the difficulty of buying good boots and shoes but that ‘Dicks’ in Great Darkgate Street were able to provide a good selection.  Boots the Chemist provided not only ‘thoroughly reliable drugs and medicines’ but a fine selection of ‘goods adaptable for presents’.  James Veary of Northgate Street supplied fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables from his own garden.  

Holliers of Bridge Street offered Christmas stationery, dolls and toys, whilst David Watkins, a plumber in Terrace Road, secured a supply of flash lamps and batteries ‘to guide the pilgrim through our badly-lighted streets’.  

 Reference is made to an attractive window display in Styles, Terrace Road, which parents and guardians won’t fail to visit because the ‘children will not allow them to do so’, since it provided toys ‘in abundance despite Germany’s exclusion from British markets’.  In several editions a large advert illustrated with a mother bear holding a baby bear surrounded by toys (subliminal messaging even 100 years ago?!) promotes the Christmas Toy Club at Styles: ‘Pay what you like.  Have what you like.  See Window.’  

What we would now call ‘pester power’ must have then been intense!

 1918: 27 December

The newspapers for this ‘Peace Christmas’ have less about Christmas offerings and more about wounded or killed soldiers, casting a more sombre note over the festivities.  An article detailing the plans for the War Memorial raised by the YMCA is to be found in the 3rd January 1919 issue.

Whilst home life in Aberystwyth does not appear, from this tiny sample of snippets, to have been greatly affected by the four years of war, poignant letters cited from troops still away from home remind us that cessation of war is never instant or easy, as represented by this note from Seaman R.A.Jones: 

‘We ought to be thankful to God for His protection through the war.  I should very much like to be home for Christmas, but having so much work to do I am afraid I cannot.  This is the fifth Christmas for me to be away from home.’ 

– or indeed permanent, as in this extract from Bombardier T. Price’s comfort fund thanks letter, Egypt: ‘At last we have had the joyous news that hostilities have ceased, never to re-commence, I hope, and before very long the boys will meet once again in dear old Aber.’

To end on a lighter note, we jump ahead to the following year, where the edition on 26 December 1919 includes an article entitled ‘Christmas – Old and New’, ostensibly about how Christmas has been celebrated through the ages.  But its opening lines convey the sense of hopefulness as Aberystwyth faced the post-war years, and is still pertinent today:

‘Christmas, 1919, will rank as one of the most memorable in the annals of the world.  It will be a “Peace Christmas” when the divine call “Peace on Earth Goodwill towards Men”, will be realised as never before.  Despite sorrows, despite hardships, it will be possible to feel “Christmassy” this year, and we trust the carillon of the bells, young voices raised in melody, with the revival of many an old custom will cause the dark shadows of the past to flee away.”


Wishing everyone a Peaceful 2019!
Lynne Blanchfield, Project Volunteer