Bedford Boys at Home at Newmarket

Monday 8th March 1915: On the Links, horses are being trained "over the sticks" for future steeplechase events. On the Bury Hills racehorses are being prepared for the "flat" recing fixtures; while on the Warren Hill grounds the men of the (reserve) Bedfordshire Regiment(1) are being trained for their work "en route to Berlin". Newmarket has been very hard hit by the war - so many owners of racehorses are away at the Front, so naturally fewer horses are in training, fewer race meetings are being held, fewer attendants are needed, and so many homes were anticipating a bad winter. At this juncture some cavalry were sent to the town and the intention of the military to make the racing centre an important remount depot was naturally hailed with delight.

Then another section of the residents got busy. Strongly they represented to the War Office that this would mean the importation into Newmarket of every equine disease  under the sun - and the remount scheme was abandoned. Later the military sent a few artillery and arranged for some hundreds more to stay in or near the town. Again Newmarket's poorer inhabitants' hopes were dashed to the ground, a "petition" - some assert signed by "all the trainers" - was sent to the War Office reiterating the former objection to the danger of introducing equine disease.

The local council, who on hearing that the War Office had ordered the troops to move, sent a protest on behalf of the majority of the townspeople to the War Office, approached the trainers, not one of whom would admit having signed. The War Office was obdurate; the removal order had been issued, and it must stand, and the troops left. Others interested themselves in Newmarket's fate and, shortly before Christmas, the Reserve Bedfordshire Regiment was billeted in the town, and has remained ever since.

The inhabitants of the Turf metropolis are now accustomed to hearing the "réveille" and at 9.30 "lights out" and to hearing the soldiers in training singing, as they swing by, their song: -

We are the Bedford Boys,

We are the Bedford Boys,

We know our manners,

We spend the tanners,

We are respected wherever we go,

When we're walking down the old High Street,

Doors and windows open wide,

We're the boys to mop our ale

Out of a Dixie or a pail.

Oh, we are the Bedford Boys.

The men behave themselves admirably, and in some cases endear themselves. Let me give an example. Three quartered in a working man's house noticed their landlady was unwell. They insisted upon her resting while they washed up the crockery and cleared away the breakfast things. Then they did such housework as was pressing. Later on they cooked their own food. A pretty incident is told concerning a sergeant. He saw three tiny girls and their brothers at the grand stand attempting to imitate, as children will, the drilling they had seen the Bedfords going through. Approaching them, he asked their nurse whether their parents would object to his showing them the correct way to carry out the operations. And for upwards of an hour he delighted the youngsters by putting them through their "facings".

Again and again the children managed to meet their sergeant, and it was quite amusing to see how seriously they carried out the orders of their instructor. Eventually he intimated to his landlady how much he would like to have the young people to tea. The landlady gladly consented. It is doubtful who of the party, the youngsters, landlady, or sergeant most enjoyed the evening's frolic. Only today an old lady was trying to get across the street, halting and nervous at the traffic. One of the "Bedford Boys" went up, putting his arm through hers, piloted her safely across, and to her profuse thanks simply remarked "Oh, that's all right, mother, I've got a mother of my own". How like Tommy!

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 12th March 1915

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(1) The 2nd/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, a home service territorial army unit, from which men did also volunteer for active service. It was part of 207th Brigade, 69th Division.