East Anglian Royal Engineers in France

Saturday 2nd January 1915: The 1st Field Company of the East Anglian Royal Engineers are honoured by being the first Bedfordshire Territorials to be sent to the Front. Since they mobilised in August they have been usefully trained at various places in the Eastern Counties and for a considerable time were engaged on coast defences. The latter part of their training has been undergone near Bury Saint Edmunds and it was from this place that they moved off. The Company sailed from a Southern port on Christmas Eve and had a quiet and safe passage.

Sapper Charles Chesher writing home on Christmas Day, soon after the arrival in France says: “Arrived safe in France. The passage was quite smooth. The sea was just like a lake, hardly a ripple on it and the moon shone lovely. I was on deck nearly the whole of the way to see if we got any fun, but everything passed off quietly. We have just had dinner, but no plum pudding. It will be a Christmas I think I shall never forget. I have just been talking to Jack Negus. He is just about the same as when in Bedford”. The company is currently at Heuringhem, a few miles south of Saint-Omer.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 1st January 1915