Mansfield Miners and The Colours

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John Plowright Houfton

Recruiting Meeting May 1915

Reported in the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star, May 12th 1915

Speaking at a recruiting meeting held last night at Forest Town, Mr. J.P. Houfton stated that the 180 Sherwood Foresters who had just concluded a route march through a portion of the county of Notts., went back to Luton 370 strong.

Mentioning the record of the Mansfield Colliery in sending men to the colours, he said the 550 represented more than 20 per cent of the men employed at the colliery, but the call for men was today more insistent than ever.

The victims of the Lusitania* were calling out to the men who had not yet begun to do their duty, for vengeance, and the Mansfield and Forest Town men in the trenches were calling upon their comrades at home to come out and help them to bear the brunt of the battle.

*On May 7th 1915, the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which chiefly carried people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Great Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank in 18 minutes.  Of the people on board, 1,198 died, and 761 survived. The ship went down 11 miles of the coast of Ireland  The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States’ entrance into World War I.