It is a Summer of peace celebrations: a Summer for getting back to normality after the cataclysm of war and of hope for new beginnings. There is little agreement about what the future should look like- although it should be better for the working men who laid their lives on the line for their country?
The Peace of Versailles is finally signed on the 28thJune, but not before much of the impounded German fleet has scuppered itself at Scapa Flow. The signing is marked by pan-German demonstrations in Germany and Austria’s major cities and, at the moment of national humiliation, by the resignation of the German government. Germany is to be excluded from the new League of Nations- a pariah nation which will be made to pay for starting the war to end all wars. In London, the treaty signing is marked by celebrations with the West End ‘jazzing’ into the night. With a rare meeting of minds, both the Labour Party and Field Marshall Haig continue to express concerns about whether the penal treatment of Germany is more an invitation to further war than a guarantee of permanent peace. The Government immediately announces that Peace Day will be celebrated on Saturday 19thJuly, The risks of over-exuberant revelling are revealed when Mr Churchill is called upon to Parliament to explain why certain important War Office papers are missing. He tells the Commons that the papers were thrown out of the window by a joyful clerk upon hearing news of the armistice.
At Clapton Orient, the squad building continues, but slowly. On 28thJune it is reported that Jimmy Hugall, the regular goalkeeper in the 1914/15 season has rejoined following discharge from the Durham Light Infantry. Hugall was wounded three times during the war including an eye injury, which remarkably doesn’t seem to have held him back. The 30 year old custodian will be joined by another North-Easterner, Owen Williams a short, stocky 23 year old winger who signs from non-league with Easington Colliery. A week it is confirmed that Arthur Layton, the reserves top scorer from before the war, will also rejoin the club. Unfortunately the war has taken away what would probably have been Layton’s best years as a forward, but he will be hoping to add to the three appearances and one goal he made for the first team before hostilities.
A flurry of further signings follow in July. Joe Nicholson, a 31 year old wing-half and another ex-miner from the North-East, signs to join Williams. Ben Ives, an experienced outside left with a strong Southern League pedigree signs from QPR having previously served Spurs and Exeter City. Jack Casey, a Liverpudlian forward who spent the last few years before the war with West Ham is reported to have signed too while Syd Leggett, another forward and a local lad from Clapton, who featured for the reserves before the war, is back with the club. In all twenty players are reported to have signed (although evidently not all the signing made the papers), with several others on trial.
Meanwhile the grandstand at Millfields Road is being renovated and the playing pitch surrounded by newly painted railings. The Daily Herald says the ground looks In splendid condition. A new trainer , C.G.Durning, has joined from Scottish Cup holders St Mirren and with legendary manager Billy Holmes still at the helm, training for the new season will soon start. Clubs are allowed to play public practice matches from 10thAugust onwards and two have been arranged for the 16thand 23rd.
Away from football, excitement remains high at the bewildering pace of aeronautical achievement. Hardly a day goes by without the papers reporting something new. Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown, after waiting it out for weeks to get ideal weather conditions, complete the first non stop crossing of the Atlantic by aeroplane, landing their Vickers Vimy in an Irish bog after a 1900 mile flight taking 16 hours. They arrive in London to a hero’s welcome and to claim the Daily Mail’s £10,000 prize for completing the feat. A few days later, the R34 blimp is making the trip in the opposite direction, this time with passengers on board. It is delayed by two days over the Atlantic by bad weather. The Globe newspaper points out that the in-flight delay would have been fatal to an aeroplane, which proves that . the airship is the passenger air service of the future. But there are problems that need to be solved. A balloon on a test flight explodes and drops into the North Sea, with the loss of all hands, while in Chicago an airship drops onto the Illinois Trust and Savings bank, killing ten bank workers and injuring twenty-seven others.
It is a Summer of industrial unrest as working men agitate for a better life after the deprivations and sufferings of war. Ninety percent of police officers vote for strike action, but their leaders immediately announce that action will be put on hold pending further negotiations. Some commentators suspect this is so that the strike can be called at a time of the Union’s choosing, to cause maximum disruption.
In Southend-on-Sea, where many O’s will be spending their holidays, 900 Council employees are on strike and among other disruptions they have removed the locks on the public lavatories so that ‘people can have gratuitous access to these conveniences’, according to the Daily Herald. There are also council strikes in Ilford, Islington, Paddington and Kensington in support of a 47 hour working week. Municipal gas and electricity supplies, tram services and refuse collection are all affected.
The industrial saga of the Summer however involves the miners- and this is a dispute that would almost certainly means a lot around the Orient dressing room, given the number of ex -miners from the North East and Scotland the club has signed. The coal mining industry had been under government supervision during the war and some in the union movement now want to proceed to full nationalisation. The Sankey Commission reports in June but fails to arrive at a definite conclusion, instead setting out four options ranging from full nationalisation to full private ownership. The question of ownership is bound up with a complicated dispute over post-war piece rates, and the government applies pressure by announcing a price increase of six shillings a ton. These are the consequences to the consumer of the miners’ pay demand. The Miners Federation wants nationalisation, but in the end steps back from a strike that many think could foreshadow a Russian-style revolution by agreeing the new piece rates. Strikes continue in several coalfields however.
In a shocking local case, a Leytonstone couple are in court accused of ‘baby farming’, the Dickensian practice of taking custody of young children in exchange for payment, and (since the payment doesn’t cover the cost of care for the child for very long) not infrequently linked the mysterious disappearance of the child. Henry and Beatrice Hatchard are found to have 17 children living with them at their house in Carlton Road, ten of them under twelve months old and one tiny body lying dead in its cot.
In sport, Grand Parade at 33-1 is surprise winner of the Victory Derby in front of massive crowds. The course has been in military use for four years and is in poor condition, which may have helped the outsider. Twenty year old French prodigy Suzanne Lenglen wins Wimbledon beating 40 year old seven times champion Dorothea Lambert Chambers in the final, and 15,000 people watch Joe Beckett knock out Frank Goddard at Olympia to win the British Heavyweight title and set up a possible World title bout against Jack Dempsey.
When Peace Day dawns, immense crowds view the pageants laid on in towns and cities across the nation. In London there is an impressive display of naval and military might. But the festivities don’t go off without incident, In Luton, where the council has denied the use of local parks for the celebrations, a large demonstration turns against the Corporation leading to the Town Hall being burned to the ground. This is one of a number of incidents over the Summer in which demobbed soldiers are implicated in violence. The men have been through a lot, their minds are shattered by the experience of war and their behaviour is that learned over long years in the trenches. It is hardly surprising that some are having trouble adapting to civilian life, but it shows that it is not so easy to turn off war like a tap.
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