5th April
Mr and Mrs Joseph Fray, for many years master and matron of the Abingdon Workhouse, concluded their offices on Monday last, who after having resigned about two years ago, generously kept on the duties during the war. The Oxford Workhouse being occupied by the military, the inmates were transferred to the Abingdon Institution.and to mark their appreciation of Mr and Mrs Fray’s work during that time has presented them with an inscribed marble clock.
The demobilisation of the Abingdon Red Cross Hospital (Tesdale House) took place the 21st, and final staff meeting ceremony took place at the Council Chamber in the afternoon when the Matron Miss King was presented with an excellent tea service in recognition and gratitude for her work.
The Abingdon Church Boys Club has been restarted at the Old Foundry, near St Helen’s Church, by the river-side. The Rev C. S. Thomas, who left the Abingdon clerical staff to take up armv work, has again taken up the management of the club.
12th April
At the Abingdon Borough Police Court on Tuesday, Ernest Butler, labourer, Ock Street, Abingdon, was fined 7s 6d for being found drunk at the Horse and Jockey Inn, Ock Street. It was also reported that the Abingdon lad remanded to the Workhouse till a home could be found, had absconded from that institution that morning at 9 o’clock.
The supplies at Abingdon Cattle Market on Monday last were 22 butchers beasts and 44 fat sheep, all of which were allotted to Windsor.
Thomas George Smith, 23, of West Hendred, discharged soldier, remanded from Thursday last, was brought up charged with stealing from the Milton Military Stores Depot, a roll of rubberoide roofing, value 25s 5d., the property of the Air Ministry.
19th April
The Abingdon Cricket Club held a meeting last week to consider the restarting of the Club for the forthcoming cricket season. The Mayor presided, and it was agreed to prepare the ground and recommence practice as soon as possible. The funds of the Club are satisfactory. Many of the old members have been discharged from Military service and a busy cricket season is anticipated.
The working parties of the Abingdon Branch of the Berkshire Voluntary Association for war comforts to soldiers are discontinued, but are asked to continue the work on behalf of St. Dunstan’s Hostel for the Blind.
A fund has been started for the Memorial to Soldiers and Old Boys of Roysse School, Abingdon, who have fallen in the War, and it is suggested to add a wing to the building and place a memorial tablet in the School chapel. The list of subscriptions are …
26th April
Easter Services were well observed in the Abingdon Churches and Chapels, the decorations were very effective, and the congregations good. The offertories of St. Helen’s, St. Michael’s, and St. Nicholas’ Churches were given as an Easter offering to the Vicar.
A fire broke out in a cottage at Court 9, Ock Street, Abingdon, on Sunday evening, the occupant being an elderly man named Taylor. The fire was caused by a beam in the chimney becoming ignited. The Fire-Brigade’s prompt assistance prevented much damage from being done.
Thankyou to extracts from the Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette – All Rights Reserved.
7/6p seems an awful lot to be fined for being drunk in 1919. Very interesting about the ACC. Well done Backstreeter.
7/6d may have been more than a week’s wages. (When my father started work in 1933 as a clerk in an insurance company, he was very well paid at 17/6d a week.)
One wonders whether the Bench wanted to keep the working class in their places – the same working class who had been Tommy in the trenches. Of course, we don’t know how drunk Mr Butler was: cheerful drunk or fighting drunk – all the same, it was a hefty fine.
Ah the nostalgia of it all – a week’s wages per head might go some way to covering the costs inflicted on A&E these days by those unable, or simply unwilling, to control their drinking behavior. Not just the ‘working class’.