Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Sergeant Wells passed through Peterborough East Station and signed the visitors’ book on 23 September 1917.  He wrote:  “A Soldiers Best Friend is his mother, next come motherly friendship, such as found at the S & S Rest. G E.R, Peterboro on the morning of 23-9-17 from 4.40. to 8..a m.  Many thanks to the Ladie’s”  His entry also reveals that at the time he was serving with 119 Field Bakery Section at Somerleyton Park, near Lowestoft.  Research has indicated he may be Thomas H Wells, an acting Staff Sergeant with the Army Service Corps.  Unfortunately there are several T H Wells listed in the records and without any further information we are unable to positively identify this soldier; finding him in the Census records also proved too difficult.

Please get in touch if you can help us to identify this soldier.

‘There is an old adage that an army marches on its stomach, and by 1914 the British Army realised that to fight even a short war in Europe it would have to provide the required infrastructure to feed it’s troops on campaign. Much of this work was done by the Army Service Corps (ASC) and one of it’s key units in providing part of the staple diet was the Field Bakery. In 1914 there was one Field Bakery in every infantry division. Staffed by one officer and ninety-two men from the ASC it could produce enough bread for more than 20,000 men. Because of the nature of their work they tended to be static units that did not move around much”.

The image shows the inside of a Field Bakery in France in 1914/15. A Non Commissioned Officer from the ASC is in the background overseeing the work and the men are in work aprons sorting and stacking the loaves so they can then be sent off to the troops at the front.

Bakery text and photo courtesy of Paul Reed, Great War Photos.  www.greatwarphotos.com