Local Recruitment

Bromham Vicarage

Tuesday 11th August 1914: Mr Sidney Richard Quenby left Oakley yesterday to join the Force as a volunteer, Mr. Quenby was once attached to the Hertfordshire Yeomanry. He is a very fine horseman. Mr. Quenby will be much missed from the cricket field, and in fact from the village generally as he was very popular.

A number of doctors on the Bedfordshire panel have volunteered for active service and fourteen have left the county already. Other doctors in the county are acting loyally in the manner and are treating the insured persons on the panels of their colleagues.

Bromham is considerably affected by the war. In consequence of the horses being commandeered, grooms have been dismissed. Altogether Bromham has nine men in the Army and Navy: Captain Allen and Lieutenant Stobart in the Regular Army; Walter Mortimer, private in the regulars; Herbert Mortimer in the Navy; A. Swan, H. Robinson and J. Tysoe in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry; A. Waller Naval Reserve and Jack Browning, the vicar’s son, in the Canadian Volunteers*. Two others have volunteered since the war broke out. The friends of the Vicar (Canon Browning) are wondering how he is getting on in Switzerland, where he went to take a chaplaincy for August.

Sources: Bedfordshire Times 14th August 1914 and 21st August 1914

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* Captain John Francis Allen of 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment died of wounds on 5th November 1914 aged 32. He was the son of W. H. Allen, who owned the Bedford engineering company and lived at Bromham House and he is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery. Company Sergeant Major Walter James Mortimer, MM, of 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment, died on 6th April 1918 as a prisoner-of-war, having been captured in 1917, and is buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery. Lieutenant William Stobart, Royal Flying Corps previously 10th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, was killed in a flying accident on 24th August 1916, aged 21 and is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge. Two more Mortimers were killed: Harry, of 12th King’s (Liverpool) Regiment on 20th November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial. Private William S. Mortimer of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed on 27th July 1916 during operation in Delville Wood and is buried at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval.