Private G. T. Gadsby 1212

Living with his family at 54 Midland Road, Ellistown, as of the 1911 census George was 18 and working as a colliery pony driver underground at Ibstock Colliery. To date, Ibstock Brick remains on the same site.

After the 1911 strike a national act was passed which introduced where the worker paid 4d and the employer paid 3d into the new insurance card system that provided money for the sick, injured and dole. The coal mine owners would lock the workers out before the strike but after, they would find work for 2 1/2 to 3 days for them so that they couldn’t go on the dole.  

The national coal strike of 1912 started (Feb – April 1912, lasting 37 days) after a ballot by the then MFGB, miners federation of Great Britain which later became the NUM, for a national day rate of 7s 2d and 5s 8d a day. The strike involved just under 1 million workers.  

The government got involved with the mine owners and brought the strike to an end because it was bringing huge problems to the country’s industry, trains and shipping. At the time of the strike meetings the local coal stocks were recorded and discussed, all with the same answer: no stock on site.

In the early first quarter of 1912 George joined the Leicestershire Territorial Army which King Edward VII had founded in 1908. There were eight offices around Leicestershire; the main one in Loughborough is still there.

From Leicester to Essex & Luton

The long rows of houses in Luton & Essex were admirably suited to company billets. Occupiers dismantled the ground floor front rooms and took in three but generally four men at various rates.

On the second of October 1914 a universal rate was fixed at 9d for each man. That made twenty one shillings per week towards paying rent, which would average 12 shillings at most.

The Great War

WW1 started on 28th June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by Gavrilo Princip a Bosnian Serb student.  Within a month, Europe was in a state of open warfare.

There are 33 letters in total from George’s time away: seven from Luton, thirteen from Essex and thirteen from France (including four from the trenches) sent from George.

In addition, his mother, Harriet, posted a letter two days before he went over the top for the last time – this letter and the two packets of cigarettes were returned.

Lastly, a Coalville Times article from October 1915 featured correspondence from fellow soldiers George Daft & brother Henry, sent to George’s wife, Lily.