When census enumerators went round the town on 2 April 1911, they recorded that Lancaster Municipal Borough had a population of 41,410 people. In some ways the town and people they surveyed were typical of industrial Lancashire when the county, and indeed the country, was at the peak of its industrial might. The town’s employment was strongly concentrated in manufacturing, particularly the production of oilcloth and linoleum. This industry was dominated by two family firms: James Williamson and Son (James Williamson II became Lord Ashton in 1895), and Storey Brothers. Waring and Gillow, furniture makers, were based on St Leonard’s Gate and provided another source of manufacturing employment. Not everything was well with the town’s industry, however. The Lancaster Carriage and Wagon Works on Caton Road had been the second largest employer in town after Williamson’s until it closed in 1908 with a major loss of jobs.
Lancaster was not an entirely typical northern industrial town. As the county town it had a judicial role with the court and the prison, and it had well-established mental health facilities at the Moor Hospital off Quernmore Road and the Royal Albert for children with learning disabilities on Ashton Road. Significantly for what was to follow, Lancaster was also a garrison town: Bowerham Barracks (now the University of Cumbria campus) was the headquarters for the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment whose 5th Battalion, a Territorial Force unit (similar to the modern Territorial Army), was headquartered on Phoenix Street. A Royal Field Artillery battery was also based on Dallas Road.
Little could the people answering the enumerators’ questions have known about what was to follow. From 1914 many of the younger men would be recruited, usually into the army, many into the King’s Own. As many as 20 per cent of men in some age groups would be killed, many more would be injured or mentally scarred by what they experienced. For much of the rest of the population, life would carry on but would be far from normal. The town’s industry and society were transformed as firms were moved to war production and women moved into jobs previously occupied by men. As you walk or drive around the town today, you pass many buildings that were part of this story: Bowerham Barracks and the other military sites were obviously centres of military activity; the Wagon Works was used as a prisoner of war camp; many of the mills and factories, now council offices, student accommodation, or disappearing under new housing, were used for the production of munitions or other products required for the war effort; many men enlisted at the Old Town Hall; and, along the streets of terraced housing and in the courts of the city centre, many houses lost men whose widows, parents, siblings and children had to carry on with their lives.
This book tells the story of Lancaster in the First World War. In doing so we draw together the military side, particularly the experience of the King’s Own, and the civilian side with the impact of mass casualties, the town’s civilian war effort, and attitudes to the war being key themes. In writing the book we are lucky to draw on two rich sources: the first is the records of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum, and the second is Reveille, created by Lancaster Military Heritage Group and informed by the collections held by the King’s Own, which provides a record of each Lancastrian killed in the war. The intention is to use these and other sources such as the local press to give the reader, a century later, an impression of how the global conflict affected the town and the people who lived and worked on the streets and buildings that modern inhabitants walk past every day.