Ely and AWOL Soldiers
As a major railway junction, Ely station was very busy during the War years. Perhaps surprisingly, it was also the place a large number of soldiers were arrested! Especially from early 1917 onwards, the Ely Standard included weekly news items naming soldiers arrested as “absentees” at the station because they were not carrying current travel passes. These soldiers were changing trains at Ely, and many of them appear to have simply gone home on leave and not returned to their regiment at the right time. Others had been refused permission to go home before their battalion went overseas, and had decided to go anyway. So many were picked up at Ely, that it gives the impression that the local police were regularly meeting trains for this purpose.
The Ely magistrates commented that battalions stationed on the East coast appeared to be particularly lax with their security – at one point the Seaforth Highlanders seemed to be mislaying a number of men! The fate of all these absentees was always the same, whatever excuse they proffered, they went before the magistrates and were remanded in custody until someone from their regiment came to escort them back.
Sometimes the soldiers wandering around the city were actually con artists - in February of 1915 the newspaper warned the populace against a so called "Private Chapman" who was begging from people to pay for a ticket "home to Winchester" and had already been given 15 shillings by a kindly unsuspecting resident (worth about £70 today).
A few of the absentees were actually Ely men coming home: in May 1917 Private L Ackroyd of the Middlesex Regiment was arrested in Springhead Lane – he had been absent without leave for a full month and could only produce an expired rail pass from Leeds to Thetford. Even more amazingly, on 29th October 1915 Thomas Everitt of the 3rd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment (the brother of James Everitt who was killed) appeared before the police court under charge of being a deserter. He had been invalided home on 27th January 1915 and had never returned to his regiment.
One person who made himself extremely unpopular with the police in Ely was John William Tunnell (also known as William John Tunnell) who seems to have been born in St Pancras, but later claimed to be born in Ely. He appears to have worked for a while in the Goods Department of an Ely company, or possibly at the railway station, and to have been at some point in a workhouse in London. In 1911 he was an inmate of the Tower Workhouse in Ely. He was arrested several times in Ely for drunken behaviour, obscene language and violence – including viciously attacking the police when they tried to move him on. In June of 1916 he was arrested and charged for the 37th time, but was by this stage in uniform (the Lincoln Regiment) and said he was due to go to the Front the following week. The magistrates handed him over to a military escort and requested his CO to prevent his returning to Ely again. (This may have worked for the duration of the War but in 1921 he was in prison, and then in January 1922 arrested by the Cambridge Police, for the 46th time, on a charge of drunkenness. He was wearing his medals, and the magistrates took his war service into consideration and sent him on to Ely.... where he was soon arrested for the 47th time on the usual charges.....)
The apprehension of absentees continued for many months after the War, while soldiers anticipated their official demobilization and set off for home - such men were sent back to their regiment in exactly the same way as before. One has to feel particularly sorry for nineteen year old Ernest Stevens of the 3rd North Staffordshire Regiment, from Little Downham, who was recognised by the police, despite being in "civvies", on Ely High Street and arrested. He too was sent back to his regiment, just like the other soldiers who had been merely passing through the city's train station.
The Ely magistrates commented that battalions stationed on the East coast appeared to be particularly lax with their security – at one point the Seaforth Highlanders seemed to be mislaying a number of men! The fate of all these absentees was always the same, whatever excuse they proffered, they went before the magistrates and were remanded in custody until someone from their regiment came to escort them back.
Sometimes the soldiers wandering around the city were actually con artists - in February of 1915 the newspaper warned the populace against a so called "Private Chapman" who was begging from people to pay for a ticket "home to Winchester" and had already been given 15 shillings by a kindly unsuspecting resident (worth about £70 today).
A few of the absentees were actually Ely men coming home: in May 1917 Private L Ackroyd of the Middlesex Regiment was arrested in Springhead Lane – he had been absent without leave for a full month and could only produce an expired rail pass from Leeds to Thetford. Even more amazingly, on 29th October 1915 Thomas Everitt of the 3rd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment (the brother of James Everitt who was killed) appeared before the police court under charge of being a deserter. He had been invalided home on 27th January 1915 and had never returned to his regiment.
One person who made himself extremely unpopular with the police in Ely was John William Tunnell (also known as William John Tunnell) who seems to have been born in St Pancras, but later claimed to be born in Ely. He appears to have worked for a while in the Goods Department of an Ely company, or possibly at the railway station, and to have been at some point in a workhouse in London. In 1911 he was an inmate of the Tower Workhouse in Ely. He was arrested several times in Ely for drunken behaviour, obscene language and violence – including viciously attacking the police when they tried to move him on. In June of 1916 he was arrested and charged for the 37th time, but was by this stage in uniform (the Lincoln Regiment) and said he was due to go to the Front the following week. The magistrates handed him over to a military escort and requested his CO to prevent his returning to Ely again. (This may have worked for the duration of the War but in 1921 he was in prison, and then in January 1922 arrested by the Cambridge Police, for the 46th time, on a charge of drunkenness. He was wearing his medals, and the magistrates took his war service into consideration and sent him on to Ely.... where he was soon arrested for the 47th time on the usual charges.....)
The apprehension of absentees continued for many months after the War, while soldiers anticipated their official demobilization and set off for home - such men were sent back to their regiment in exactly the same way as before. One has to feel particularly sorry for nineteen year old Ernest Stevens of the 3rd North Staffordshire Regiment, from Little Downham, who was recognised by the police, despite being in "civvies", on Ely High Street and arrested. He too was sent back to his regiment, just like the other soldiers who had been merely passing through the city's train station.
