Christmas 1915

By December 1915, the demand for men continued relentlessly. The 21st Battalion RWF were now being recruited, and Ruthin Town Council debated over the issue of the generally low recruitment rate in the area. Discussion focused as to whether the son of a farmer possessing ten acres, five cows and sheep was ‘necessary’ labour or not. Some councillors suggested that the great estates’ gamekeepers in the pheasant shoots were surplus to requirements, and that they should be made to enlist. A pamphlet was sent by the Town Council to each family in Ruthin who had eligible sons, drawing attention to the recruitment problems. By mid December, following the pamphlet’s distribution, recruitment was described as ‘brisk; but not what it ought to be.’

By now, Lord Derby’s recruitment drive was taking effect. All councils had to provide a list of young men eligible for the front, and blue canvassing cards were sent to each individual. Each man was expected to enlist voluntarily by 11 December. Of the 750 cards issued in Ruthin, only 51 men had enlisted by that date. These men were often referred to as the ‘Derbyites.’, and were warmly congratulated in the papers and council for having enlisted. On 18 December, the Free Press was triumphant in reporting that a ‘black list would now be formed, and the shirkers had better beware of the conscription process that was now undoubtedly to be made in the immediate future,’

Christmas 1915 came, and there was much less enthusiasm back home regarding parcels and gifts to ‘the lads at the front’. This year, there was no public drive to send half a pound of Christmas pudding to each man in the 4th. At Gallipoli, Sapper Hugo Locke of Rhos Street wrote home to say that he saw “Bob Shierstone and other Ruthin lads every day as I pass their trench on the way to work. We all wish you a merry Christmas!” Morale amongst the men continued to be high.

The New Year had hardly begun when the Services Bill became law, establishing compulsory service for single men age 18-41. People at home had an opportunity through the newspapers, to savour the ‘good life’ of the boys at the front. A letter published by Pte John Roberts of 118 Mwrog Street in the Free Press certainly cheered the folks back home “A word to tell you of the splendid time our battalion had at Christmas. We went out of the trenches at Boxing Day and into billets. We had a good bath which makes us feel fit and cheerful; then the following day we had our Christmas dinner of goose, ham, beef, plum pudding, nuts, oranges, apples and fags.”

The 4th Battalion RWF, however, had a different Christmas at Noyelles les Vernelles, near Bethune. The battalion history states their life in "the unsavoury sector...particularly the trenches around those notorious death-traps The Hairpin and the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Mud, trench mortars, and mine craters were the specialities ot this district, whilst it possessed a well-deserved reputation for violent shelling. Here in laying trench boards, deepening and repairing trenches, and sapping around the mine-craters of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, the Fourth spent a depressing Christmas."