Some extracts from Ewbank-Smith's 'Farnham in War and Peace' seem an appropriate and hopefully interesting conclusion to the Remembrance Day postings and is probably typical of what was happening in towns and villages throughout Surrey and the rest of the Country at the outbreak of war in 1914. The local Farnham newspaper of 15 August 1914 reported on the 'exodus' of young men volunteers. Names included: Etienne ROBO the Roman Catholic priest who went to join the French army but returned later after being rejected as unfit. HC PATRICK brother of Sidney PATRICK Frank SWAIN of Swain and Jones motoring business Lionel MITCHELL son of Thomas MITCHELL EF CRUNDWELL solicitor Rev Neville TALBOT and Rev Edward TALBOT sons of the Bishop of Winchester (as army chaplains) - Gilbert the youngest son applied for a commission in the Rifle Brigade. GRR COMBE son of Richard COMBE of Frensham Tommy SIMMONDS son of the local Police Superintendent Mr LANGHAM (propieter of the newspaper). Harold FALKNER The Royal West Surrey Regiment's Territorials of some 130 men had been recalled from summer camp to mobilise at their battalion HQ in Guildford. Forty three Farnham men had already signed on at the Corn Exchange - within the coming month their number grew to 328 aged between 18 and 30. Just one month later the reports of casualties started to reach home: Lt Cdr BARTELLOT HH SHORT William PARSONS of Castle Street, Charles PARFITT, of Fairthorne Terrace Major CHRYSTIE son of Colonel Geo CHRYSTIE RS JACKSON and AE ROBINSON - both able seamen of Babbs Mead, on board the Bulwark when she was blown up in Sheerness Harbour. Major BACON and Private T CUFF both of Upper Hale and later Gilbert TALBOT (see above) was killed in 1915. (Toc H became his lasting memorial.) Within the month Waverley Abbey House was annexed to the nearby Cambridge Military Hospital just along the road at Aldershot and the first casualties arrived there on 24 September. This is just a very small sample of how the town of Farnham was affected early in 1914 - who then could have imagined what was to follow. Ann

Hi Ann Thank so much for this little glimpse of the past from Farnham. I recognise a lot of the names from the past, my dad started work with Swain and Jones, collecting cars from the manufacturers in the Midlands and driving them back. He used to tell a lot of stories of how hard it was in the winter when there were no windscreens in the cars. When I started work in Farnham, I worked for Eric Patrick, who is no longer with us. He was part of the famous Patrick family and I can remember having long chats with him about the past and his family. It was very interesting. Thank you again Ann very much. Kind regards Yvonne Melb. Aust. ----- Original Message ----- From: Ann Sargeant To: Eng-Surrey@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:02 PM Subject: [SRY] Farnham 1914 Some extracts from Ewbank-Smith's 'Farnham in War and Peace' seem an appropriate and hopefully interesting conclusion to the Remembrance Day