Orkney at War (January - June 1917)

The 10th instalment of our "Orkney at War" Exhibition is now available to see upstairs on the Orkney Room corridor noticeboard.
The display shows how Orkney and Orcadians were affected by the war in their daily lives, using items from the Archive collections which were created at the time. Items such as newspaper reports, scrapbooks, council minutes, photographs, letters and diaries.

Here are a few items from the main exhibition:

SPHAGNUM MOSS CLEANING IN KIRKWALL

In the paper in January comes a fresh appeal for volunteers to work with Sphagnum Moss and a photograph from April 1917 to show some of the volunteers who came forward.

The fact was recently brought to the notice of the Orkney Moss Committee that the War Office was asking for more moss dressings than the various depots in Aberdeen and elsewhere could supply. It was pointed out that to send away uncleaned moss did not mend matters, and although the Aberdeen branch turns our ninety sackfulls weekly, this does not meet the requirements.

In October, a large amount of moss was gathered by the Girl Guides, Boys Brigade and Boy Scouts; and the ladies of the committee having decided to ask others to give their assistance in cleaning the quantity on hand, they were given the use of the Free Library Hall where there is ample heating and lighting arrangements. Every afternoon one may now find a "hive of busy bees" there; but the hive is not full. The most industrious can make but slow progress at cleaning, as it is essential that the smallest particle of foreign matter is cleaned away from the moss.

Ref: L4830/1

There is accommodation for a large number of workers, and we appeal not only to the fair sex, for probably there are men whose days of stir and stress are past who would be glad and willing to lend a hand. It has been arranged, therefore, that any afternoon between the hours of 2 and 3, and on Saturdays from 11am to 6pm, one or two of the principal workers will be found in the hall, who will give instruction in the cleaning of the moss. Little skill, but great pains and patience required. Everyone's help is wanted! Go and do your bit!

The Orcadian, 6th January 1917

 Servicemen News:

Sapper James Merriman [aged abt 30 yrs old in 1917], serving with the Canadian Engineers. He is a son of Mr James [and Anne] Merriman, Somiar, Sandwick. [Extra information from the 1901 census]

Archive Reference: D1/1127 Dr. Duncan's WW1 Scrapbook

THE HUNT FOR SUGAR
Sugar-hunting is at present one of the worries which harass the good people who are responsible for house-keeping. Many grocers are at present without white sugar, and the best they have to offer is a coarse-looking compound, almost black in colour, which customers are compelled to take in the absence of anything better. Obviously some people are getting more than their fair share of the available supplies, while a proportion is being wasted on expensive confectionary.

The Food Controller has threatened the rationing of sugar, if voluntary abstinence fails to effect a remedy. Experience has shown that more or less maudlin appeals to patriotism are ineffective where food is concerned, and if sugar tickets are to come, the sooner they are instituted the better. Then people will be supplied strictly in accordance with the number in the household.

The Orcadian 6th January 1917

 Servicemen News:

Private George Stout, a Stronsayman, serving with the Seaforth Highlanders. [The 1911 Census says he was the son of fisherman John and Jane L Stout, Station, Stronsay and was aged 13, so would have been about 20 years old in 1917.]

Archive Reference: D1/1127 Dr. Duncan's WW1 Scrapbook

Margaret Tait's Diary 28th Jan 1917 A New Year has come again. I wonder what luck it will bring. The weather for the last fortnight has been very fine, the roads are as dry as summer. Tomorrow Willie leaves home for Inverness. We will miss him in the house. Been out the Craigiefield road for a walk this afternoon with Bunty [the dog] and the bay was full of foreign ships. The sea was flat calm and everything looked very fine. Everything is pitch dark on the street now, at night you just jostle against everyone. The war is still raging as bad as ever and the end seems far off. Busy framing pictures for the fleet in the Flow. It would be proper dull in town now if it were not for the fleet.

Archive Reference: D1/525

Servicemen News:



 

Archive Reference: D1/1127 Dr. Duncan's WW1 Scrapbook

FIRTH NEWS - COMFORTS FOR THE SOLDIERS AT THE FRONT During the current winter the congregation of the Parish Church has sent to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh 34 pairs of socks and 5 pairs of mittens for the soldiers at the front; and Mrs Yair, as president, has, for the same purpose, sent to London from the Finstown branch of the Y.W.C.A., 18 pairs of socks, 10 helmets, and 7 pairs of mittens.

Orkney Herald 14th February 1917

Servicemen News:

Sergeant Jack Randall, Canadian Mounted Rifles, who was officially reported missing on June 2, has now written to his relatives that he is wounded and a prisoner in Germany. Sergeant Randall is the eldest son of Mr George [and Mary] Rendall, Hestwall, Sandwick, had been at the front since the beginning of October 1915, and has been twice wounded. [The 1911 census says he was born in Evie and was 17 years old, so would have been about 23 years old in 1917. He must have changed his name when he went to Canada].

Letters to the Editor

WOUNDED ORCADIANS IN LONDON HOSPITALS

Sir, - It may be that during the great offensive which is now imminent on the western front, some of our gallant Orkney lads may be wounded and brought to hospitals in London, or in the immediate neighbourhood.

During the time they are in hospital, far from their friends and relatives, they would doubtless appreciate a visit from a friendly Orcadian.

The Committee of the Orkney and Shetland Society of London has decided to arrange for visits being made to Orkney soldiers or sailors who may be in hospital in London. The Committee accordingly will feel obliged if the parents, or other relatives or friends of these lads will communicate to me the number, rank, and name of any such soldier or sailor, together with his regiment in case of the former, and the particular hospital in which he may be under treatment, and the Committee will make arrangements whereby he will be regularly visited while in hospital, and entertained during his period of convalescence.

All communications should be addressed to me - I am, faithfully yours, WILLIAM MAXWELL Hon. secy. Orkney and Shetland Society of London, 44 Calcott Road, Brondesbury, London, N.W.

Orkney Herald 28th March 1917

Mainland District Committee 

LOCAL AUTHORITY ASKED TO TAKE CHARGE OF SOLDIERS WITH TB

"No. 1153 Gunner James William Spence, No. 5 Company, R.G.A. at present in the first Scottish General Hospital, Aberdeen, is to be discharged from the Army on 18th January on account of Tuberculosis.

As his home address is given as Midhouse, Kirbuster Town, Birsay and as he is not insured under the National Insurance Act, 1911, I am directed by the Board to ask if you will take charge of the case on behalf of the Local Authority of the Mainland District and arrange with the Medical Officer of health for appropriate treatment." [Extract from the minute of the meeting held on the 3rd April 1917] 

Archive Ref: CO3/2/2 Mainland District Committee Minute Book 1907-1919 

Once again the Orkney Mail Service was in the news: 

THE MAIL SERVICE TO ORKNEY 

In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr Cathcart Wason [Orkney's MP] asked the Secretary to the Admiralty if the Admiralty had commandeered the St. Ola, the mail boat between Orkney and the mainland, and if so, he would state if the Admiralty proposed seriously to leave a very important agricultural county destitute of mail service. 

SS St. Ola leaving Scapa; Ref: TK403

Sir Leo Chiozza Money (Shipping Control Department) replied:- "The vessel in question has not been requisitioned. Inquiries have been made respecting her, and we are in communication with the General Post Office on the subject, which is still under consideration." 

Orkney Herald 2nd May 1917

The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th instalments are displayed in various locations around the building. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th instalments, including a special feature of the sinking of HMS Hampshire, are available to see in a folder in the Archive Searchroom. Click on "Orkney At War" in the labels to see more blog posts on this subject.

The Youngest Ensign?

Another mystery from our Balfour Blogger...

Box 22 of the Balfour papers contains many bundles of correspondence, tightly tied with old string, unopened for who knows how long.

They are on the whole dull: most relate to the sorting out of North Lowland Fencible regimental financial affairs after the death in August 1799 of Colonel Thomas Balfour. There is clearly much to be sorted and the debate goes back and fore for years and it is blatantly clear just how much Tom Balfour was in the British Army to make money: he argues every penny of bread money, of uniform costs, of lodgings; he is slow to pay his bills; he is quick to claim bounty on recruits. And he may even be the man who can lay claim to recruiting the youngest Ensign in the British Army…………….

Ray Fereday in The Orkney Balfours 1747 – 99 p156 tells of the purchase of commissions in 1794 for the 14 year old John Edward Balfour, son of Colonel Tom Balfour, by his wealthy uncle, John regardless of the fact that Edward was still a school boy at Harrow. Previously he had held the rank of Ensign in his father’s regiment, the Orkney & Shetland Fencibles. His father saw nothing wrong with the duplicity, there are many Ensigns in the service younger than he. (D2 17 Jan 1794, see Fereday Ch 6 footnote 47). An Ensign was the lowest ranking commissioned officer of the British Army of the day.

One explanation of the purchases/recruitment is that the Balfours were seeking to give young Edward a head start in terms of service and seniority, albeit fictitious, against the day when he actually joined the Army. But perhaps it was also to lay hands on his pay?

An even more startling example of the ‘recruitment’ of youthful ensigns emerges from the dustiness of Box 22, bundle no 9, with the story of Charles De Monti.

I have made many forays into the North Lowland Fencibles’ records over a number of years and was curious to see payments to an Ensign Charles De Monti, signed off by the Regiment’s Paymaster on 31 March 1796. It’s an unusual surname and a new one to me – someone worth keeping an eye out for and finding out more about. And why hadn’t I spotted him previously in many other Regimental records?

Next out of the bundle were 2 receipts, signed Edinburgh February 13^th 1796, for subsistence to Ensign De Monti, and signed X Charles De Monti. The payments were for the periods 15 November 1794 to 11 September 1795, and 12 September 1795 to 28 February 1796. Interestingly, it was on 15 November 1794 that Tom Balfour was appointed Colonel of the North Lowland Fencibles.

Orkney Archive Reference D2/22/9

Curiouser and Curiouser. Why on earth would an Ensign, an officer, albeit the lowest rank of commissioned officer, be unable to sign his name?  Why too would that X be witnessed by 2 witnesses, being H de Monti and Anne B de Monti? Was he ill and unable to sign?

Next document in the mystery was a letter, also written in Edinburgh, dated February 13th 1796 from H de Monti to Colonel Thomas Balfour. He was now enclosing the two receipts for my Son’s subsistence, which you were so good as to promise you would order to be paid here after having received them.

Orkney Archive reference D2/22/9

Some delving into others of the Balfour and Baikie papers, into Ray Fereday’s most-valuable book and on-line, produce the following scenario.

Tom Balfour had three cousins, the daughters of his uncle Thomas Balfour of Huip. Elizabeth married Robert Nicolson, an Orkney- based trusted man of Tom Balfour’s. Mary married Robert Baikie of Tankerness. Ann married Hurka de Monti.

Hurka introduces himself to the Balfour/Baikie men in a letter of September 1792, explaining that he has come to Orkney to pursue Ann Balfour, who he believes is not averse to my wishes. He is, he writes, descended from a younger Brother of an ancient family of Germany. He served 8 years in Prince Esterhazy’s Regiment, and left it 4 years previously. He has inherited a small landed property in Italy from his mother, which is laden with debt and he has paid many of these debts but yet still I owe about 8 hundred pounds sterling.

It is an astonishing document particularly given that Hurka de Monti is a music teacher in Edinburgh, a profession in which he is forever unlikely to raise £800 (equivalent today £108800) and maintain the means of day to day living. He has made his way to Orkney, laid bare his financial extremity to men for whom every shilling is hostage, and asks for Tom Balfour’s cousin/ Robert Baikie’s sister in law as his wife. And he wins her!



Ann Balfour married Hurka de Monti on 14th May 1793 according to a document from the Baikie of Tankerness papers. In a draft affidavit of June 1801, Robert Baikie, Karen Christie and James Robertson state that Joseph Hurka De Monti and Ann Balfour were married according to the rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh on 14 May 1793. Her cousin, the Edinburgh lawyer, and brother of Tom, David Balfour was horrified – but the imminent marriage had been kept from him. On 15 May 1793 David wrote (D2/11/1) to tell his mother of the marriage which had he known of it, he would have opposed … to the utmost of my power. It seems the Orkney men of the family had approved but it is the view of David’s wife, Marion, on 27 June 1793 that they will be a miserable pair. I think the chance is he will go off and leave her. (D2/11/1)




The Affidavit, Orkney Archive reference D24/11/100

In February 1794, Ann was pregnant. (Marion Balfour, D2/8/19). She is pregnant again in February 1795, as round as a ball (Frances Balfour, D2/8/19).

Her first child is Charles.  Given the dates above, he was born sometime between February and August 1794. On 15 November 1794 he was at best 9 months old; at worst 3 months.

Charles de Monti was unable to sign the receipt for his pay because he was unable to write, or even yet to speak or walk! His parents have been helped out by Tom Balfour, or, rather, the British taxpayer, in a breathtakingly, audacious manipulation of Regimental funds.

Hurka De Monti makes a few further appearances in the Balfour records, writing to Frances, widow of Tom Balfour. Ann Balfour de Monti, his wife, does not reappear and it may be that her marriage was not long-lasting, not because he left her but because she did not live long. Perhaps the affidavit in the Baikie papers, dated 1801, was drawn up on Ann’s death to confirm De Monti’s claims on her estate? David Balfour had made sure, after the marriage which so angered him, that any Balfour money was for her and her children, not for her husband. Somewhere in the Balfour and Baikie papers, or maybe with someone who reads this blog, we’ll establish what happened to Ann, but whatever ….  she could claim to be the mother of a remarkable prodigy, the baby recruited to protect Britain from the French.

We Do Like Biscuits... are You SURE They Like Us?

Some welcome alternative facts on biscuits from the lying advertisers of yore:

Taken from a 1945 edition of The Orcadian.

Maybe living in wartime Britain wasn't as bad as I've always assumed if biscuits were considered a health food.

We've fallen for this nonsense before though...

Magazine of the Month - Living Orkney

In our local studies section known as The Orkney Room, we keep a number of periodicals.

The Orkney Room

The magazine and journal section is shown on the picture above on the left hand side under the clock. It is ordered by subject using an adapted version of the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

Comfy chairs

One of the magazines available to see is Living Orkney, "the magazine about Orkney life" and Magazine of the Year 2016. We have the complete set from Dec 2005 up to the most recent issue, currently January 2017. It is bound in batches of 6 and filed under number 050 Y.

Examples of Living Orkney

And now, thanks to our wonderful Archive Volunteers, we have an index to every featured article in every copy of Living Orkney. So if you are looking for an article that you know was published in this magazine, we should be able to find it for you, and make a copy. For example by searching for "archive" I was able to find this article below from Issue 12, November 2006, p33-35 with some familiar faces...ahem...sorry...