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Northumberland
Colliery Row's Proud Record in England's Fighting Line
Three miles from Alnmouth Station
lies the row of twenty or thirty dwellings – Bilton Banks,
Lesbury, is the name of the place. A more industrious lot of
folk one could not wish to come across. The menfolk obtain their
livelihood down the pit. It is only a small one, but it works
good time. Surely you’ll have heard of Shilbottle coal! Why it
is reckoned to be the best quality in the North.
I paid a visit to this quiet
little place quite recently. Out of every one of the houses in
the row at least one member of the household has enlisted. Some
had two sons away, and others three, but the end house of the
row holds the record. No fewer than five sons are serving with
the colours.
Mr and Mrs Robert Baxter are
the proudest parents in the row, for is that not a record for
the row? Aye, and more, it is a record for Northumberland. Well
might the fond father and mother feel proud of their sons.
“Yes,” said Mrs Baxter to me, “I am proud
of my boys; I have a right to be, but one cannot take that sad
feeling away from a mother’s heart, who has her bairns gone from
her."
“I’m proud,” repeats Mrs
Baxter, “but only in a way. I would sooner know they were safe
from harm. Had one or two gone it would not have been so bad,
but the whole five being away makes the home dreadfully lonely
and quiet.”
Then Mrs Baxter proceeded to
look for photographs of her sons. “This one,” she explained, “is
a portrait of my eldest son Tom. He is thirty-nine years old,
and is serving in the Guards. He is married, and has left a wife
and one child behind him.”
“Next to Thomas,” she
proceeded, “comes John, aged twenty-eight years. John is in the 2nd
Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, Machine Gun Section,
Sabathu India. I know he is anxious to go to the front,” said
the mother sadly, “for the last letter I had from him said:-‘I am
just wishing to get to the war. You may think it horrible to
take human lives, but if I get the chance I’ll be off like a
shot.’ “And he’s just the likely lad to do his best in the
fighting line” she continued.
“The three younger boys,
Robert, aged twenty-four, James, aged twenty-three, and David,
aged twenty one are in the 7th Battalion
Northumberland Fusiliers, the youngest one being stationed at
Blyth, and the other two at Gosforth Park, Newcastle.”
“Out of Shilbottle alone
one hundred men have gone to serve their King and Country, We
are all very proud of them. It can never be the said that Bilton Banks has not done her duty. We womenfolk are proud of
our husbands and sons, and we pray that they will all come back
safely.”
“Besides having five
sons at the front” said Mrs Baxter, “I have also a grandson,
Wille Smith, and he is only fifteen years old. He has gone out
as a little drummer boy, so that makes the total up to six”
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