"On rejoining the 20th London Captain W. F. Marchant, Mayor
of Deptford took over running Holly Hedge House, Blackheath. The headquarters
of the Regiment with Captain Theodore Prestige, Deptford's representative on
the LCC.
At this time he made the following speech
"Men of Deptford! The Army is mobilised The Mayor is
enrolling recruits for your local Territorial Battalion at Holly Hedge House,
Blackheath. England expects that every man will do his duty. God save the
King."
They
also made a joint appeal with the news that the 20th had already been mobilised
and gone to its war station to the men of New Cross, Brockley, St John's and
Deptford for recruits asking that smart young men apply at Holly Hedge House.
"What we want" said Captain Prestige to a representative of the Kentish Mercury on Wednesday night. "Is young men of the type who need to belong to the old 2nd West Kent Volunteers, and we hope that numbers of such will answer our appeal."
Extract from the Kentish Mercury 7 August 1914 (Deptford Mayor's Speech)
On 7th August 1914 the Kentish Mercury published details of a speech by the Mayor of Deptford, Captain W.F. marchant, who had joined the 20th (County of London) Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich) of the London Regiment.
You can read this and other featured articles from the local papers on our Lewisham in the First World War wiki
No comments:
Post a Comment