The Blandford Express

Bincombe - the small South Dorset hamlet north of Weymouth is reckoned to have inspired the nursery rhyme   The Grand Old Duke of York. The Grand Old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men, He marched them up to the top of the hill, And he marched them down again. In the Napoleonic Wars, there was a large military camp on Bincombe Down and the York Hussars among others were posted there. This was at a time when an invasion by the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte was expected. Apparently, these soldiers were reckoned to number around ten thousand. They were  marched up and down the hill near the church so often by Frederick, the Duke of York that it inspired the nursery rhyme.  He was the favourable son of George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. The Duke was notorious for his drinking and gambling. During the years prior to the Battle of Trafalgar everyone who lived along the south coast lived in fear of a French invasion.  It was also there  t...

  In 1781, the British Army fought in the Battle of Blandford. However, this was not in Blandford Forum in Dorset but Blandford, Virginia in the USA. It was during the American War of Independence. However, if in 1940 a German invasion of Britain had taken place it is almost certain a Second Battle of Blandford would have taken place but this time on Dorset soil. Operation Sea Lion was the code name for a plan by Adolf Hitler to invade Britain in 1940. Some 2,400 barges had been collected from around Europe to enable the German Army to cross the English Channel. Suitable landing points had been identified by the Germans between Dover and Lyme Bay. The small seaside village of Burton Bradstock, near Bridport was considered as particularly suitable because of the profile of its beach. The British authorities had decided to make Blandford Forum a key point in the defences against a German invasion. The town was on what was called a ‘ stop line’ which ran along the River Stour from Ch...

William Lawrence was a Dorset soldier who fought the French from 1808-1813 and again at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Yet, despite this, he married a French girl, Clotilde Clairet from St Germain-en-Laye some ten miles from the centre of Paris. Returning to civilian life at the age of 28, he ran an inn with his wife at Studland. Born in 1791, and from a large impoverished Briantspuddle family, he was compelled to seek out his own livelihood at an early age. Initially, he was paid just two old pennies (1p) per day to frighten birds off corn fields and then he worked as a ploughboy earning just six old pence per day. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to Henry Bush, a Studland builder. Running away from a harsh master, William Lawrence joined the British Army. William Lawrence served in the war in South America in 1805 and through the whole of the Spanish Peninsular War. He was awarded a silver medal with no less than ten clasps representing the battles in which he fought an...

At the time the giant German airship, Hindenberg was the largest aircraft ever built – it was an awe-inspiring sight. With its Nazi emblems, it was the pride of the Nazi Party when it flew over North Dorset during the morning of the 5 th July 1936. However, was the Hindenberg on a spying mission? That was certainly the view of a reader’s letter to the Somerset Standard (11 th July 1936) : ‘Are we in future when this country has been suitably photographed from the air by the Hindenberg to expect showers of bombs and poison gas wherever she has been? That is in the event of a future war. In case the Nazis should at any future date take exception to this letter, I think it more prudent to sign – AYZ.’ Returning from the United States to Germany with passengers, it was not taking the most direct route. It was also making its way contrary to an undertaking between the British & German Governments. This was that the Hindenberg would avoid flying over Britain except when forced to do so...

During the early hours of Sunday 16 February 1958, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) raided Blandford Camp. Brandishing revolvers, masked raiders shot a soldier and overpowered seven others. During the attack, the men were heard to shout, ‘this is with the compliments of the IRA.’ Despite this, the raiders appeared concerned about the young soldier shot in the stomach. They intended to raid the armoury for arms but were unsuccessful. The IRA assault on Blandford Camp was probably an inside job. Frank Skuse was a young Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) corporal. His home was in County Cork. A man answering Skuse’s description had hired accommodation in a country house at Charlton Marshall. When the police forced entry they found ammunition, weapons and three suits of battledress with REME shoulder flashes. Two weeks after the attack, a tommy-gun, small arms and ammunition were discovered in a converted bus parked in a Bournemouth caravan park. Frank Skuse had hired the bu...

As in the past joining the British Army was rarely an attractive proposition, recruiting sergeants would result to ruses, often with a publican’s help, to snare unwilling prey. That is what happened to an unsuspecting, ‘ railway navvy’ during a rowdy Saturday night in the Three Choughs Inn, Blandford in November 1858. He was with a group of construction workers who were employed to build the new railway line from Wimborne to Blandford. The ‘ navvies ’ were not particularly popular with the locals and had a reputation for fighting, heavy drinking and general rowdy behaviour. ‘ Taking the King, or Queen’s Shilling’ has long been slang for enlisting in the British Army as for many years a shilling (5p) was akin to a signing-on payment made to new recruits. The recruiting sergeant would ensure his target became drunk and would then slip a shilling into a back pocket. The next day the unfortunate and hung over victim would be hauled before a magistrate who would confirm that he was the Br...

Nicknamed the ‘ Powder Puff Line’ , Blandford Camp railway probably had the shortest and most controversial working life of any railway in Britain. Blandford Camp railway was a small branch line built towards the end of World War I which connected the town with Blandford Camp designed to carry both supplies and personnel. It left the Somerset & Dorset line just to the south of Blandford Station passed along the borders of Langton Long, crossed the Blandford-Wimborne road and climbed up to the military camp. At the Camp end of the line there was a 200 yards long halt style platform. This remained in place until the 1960s. Although today Blandford Camp is an army establishment, its first permanent occupants were the Royal Naval Division to be followed by the Royal Air Force in 1918. The RAF had been formed in April 1918 and its Blandford base of 15,000 military personnel became a major entry point for new recruits. It was also the location of the Royal Air Force’s Headquarter’s Gen...

Benjamin Randell Harris was a rifleman who served in the British Army between 1803 and 1814. Born in Portsmouth, his family moved to Stalbridge in North Dorset when he was still a child. His father, Robert was a shepherd and Benjamin as a youngster would help tend the sheep across the Blandford Downs.   Later, Benjamin would train as a cobbler. In 1803, Benjamin was selected by ballot to join the British Army for which he was paid a bounty of eleven pounds. Forty five years later, a book would be published recounting his army experiences. Like most ordinary soldiers of the time, he was illiterate so he related his memories to Captain Henry Curling who produced the book – A Dorset Rifleman . It is one of the few accounts of the life of a common soldier of the time. During his service, he was randomly selected to be part of a firing squad to execute a deserter – an experience understandingly, he found particularly disturbing. Benjamin Harris served in Ireland, Denmark and in the ...

  While it may not be unusual for members of the Rail & Maritime Trade Union to take industrial action, it is much more unusual for members of a British military base to do so. Yet, that is what happened in Blandford Camp at the end of World War I. Today, the military base is associated with the army yet in early 1919 it was a large but only recently opened Royal Air Force (RAF) establishment. Recruits to the RAF were received there for initial training and the RAF Records, Equipment and Personnel Depot had been relocated to Blandford Camp the previous year. Having only been opened as an RAF base in 1918, Blandford Camp was not a happy place. There were accommodation problems due to construction delays caused by a shortage of building workers. The War Cabinet had flatly turned down an Air Ministry plea to improve construction worker pay rates to aid recruitment. Such delays resulted in widespread overcrowding in tents particularly unsuited to bad weather.   Blandford’s RAF...

In the latter years of the Second World War, Blandford Camp was occupied by the U.S. Army. While Langton House, now demolished, became the base of the 1 st United States Infantry Division. In preparation for the 1944 Normandy Landings, part of Blandford Camp was transformed into a major U.S. Army Hospital complex. It was to be known as the ‘ 22 nd General Hospital’ . The site was converted from a British Army training camp to a hospital containing wards, operating theatres and medical stores. While the hospital was being constructed, Blandford Camp was also used as a parking zone for tanks and vehicles awaiting the Normandy invasion. This area was well camouflaged and protected by anti-aircraft guns. American Army medical staff arrived in Liverpool in April 1944 and travelled on to Blandford by train. There were five hospital units set up which each had 1,248 beds. They started receiving patients about two weeks after ‘ D Day’ (6 th June 1944). Many casualties were flown into t...

(Illustration: A Peninsular War Veteran with his medal.) Henry Maidment was an agricultural labourer who lived in the village of Pimperne.  In 1866, Henry was one of the few surviving British Army veterans who had fought Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Army in the Spanish Peninsular War.  At 83, he could not work and had hit hard times. He was surviving on a parish handout of just two shillings and sixpence (12.5p) per week and a single loaf of bread. The octogenarian pauper had, in fact, a distinguished military record but had left the army without a military pension.                                                                     Henry Maidment fought in the Battles of Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle and Toulouse. For this, he was entitled to a Military General Service Medal with c...