Courtesy of St Margaret’s History Society: St Margaret’s in the First World War
Village Volunteers
Those who did not sign up still tried to ‘do their bit’. Eighty-seven village men joined the Kent Special Constabulary and a ‘Home Defence Corps’ was formed in 1914 with drills twice a week and a route march on Sundays. Local ladies joined the Red Cross or the VAD’s (Voluntary Aid Detachment) and eight ladies served as nurses in the ‘St Margaret’s Ward’ at a VAD hospital in Walmer. As well as this, over 8,500 knitted items were sent to men at the Front or for the wounded being landed at Dover. Plans were also made to evacuate the village in the case of invasion. Women and children were to be taken out by carts to Waldershare Park, all able bodied men were to stay behind.
Text by Christine Waterman