100 Years Ago: Bedford in World War I

December 24, 2014

Bedford-HeroesLL600By Don Corey
Reprinted from The Preservationist, the Bedford Historical Society’s newsletter

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Although the United States delayed its entry into the war, many of its citizens served and contributed greatly to the war’s final outcome. In [the war’s] aftermath came such classic writing as Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” and Eric Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

Although not as widely read but distinguished by the fact it is the only hard cover-bound annual report ever published by the Town of Bedford, the 1927 Annual Report is interesting reading.

It contains the War Supplement, Bedford in the World War – An Account of the part played by the Citizens of the Town of Bedford Military and Civilians in the Great War with Germany 1917-1919. Charles W. Jenks, then owner of the Fitch Tavern, collected the experiences of the soldiers and the town’s activities. It includes descriptions of the three Bedford men who died in that war: Stanley Thomas Anthony, Hugh Hunt, and William Walter Hamilton for whom Bedford’s Anthony-Hunt-Hamilton American Legion Post is named.

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Stanley Thomas Anthony enlisted in the Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in April 1910 at age 17. After attending Radio School, he became a 1st Class Radio Electrician. He served on various ships, finally serving on the destroyer USS Chauncey. It was escorting the transport Rose in a war zone without running lights when it was cut in two in a collision of the two vessels in November 1917, with the loss of 21 men, including Anthony.

Hugh Hunt enlisted in the Army in 1915, at age 17, and saw service at the Mexican border in 1916. His regiment went overseas in September 1917. Hugh was wounded in action by a German sniper in February 1918 and died of his wounds. He was the youngest Bedford soldier to die – being 19 years of age at his death.

William Walter Hamilton enlisted in the Marines in 1899 at age 18/ He served in the Spanish-American War, China Relief Expedition, Philippines and the Mexican Border. He went overseas in June 1917 as a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Brigade. He was wounded at Belleau Woods in June 1918 and was killed on November 2 1918, just days before the war’s end. There are three letters in the Society’s archives that relate to William Walter Hamilton: Hamilton letter 1, Hamilton letter 2, and Hamilton letter 3, conveying his award of the Victory Medal

World War I Memorial Boulder on Bedford Common

Commemorative boulder - Image (c) JMcCT, 2014

The World War I Memorial Boulder on the Town Common contains the names of all the Bedford men and women who served in that war.

Editor’s note: The memorial lists just three women  Abigail Bacon, Johanna Elizabeth McMahan, and Alice Frances Murray.

The War Supplement from the 1927 Annual Report has been republished by the Bedford Historical Society and is available either at the Freight House or through the Society’s office.

Commemorating World War I - plaque on the boulder at the front of Bedford Common - Image (c) JMcCT, 2014
Commemorating World War I – plaque on the boulder at the front of Bedford Common – Image (c) JMcCT, 2014

Read about the 1914 Christmas Truce, the Boston Pops’ commemoration and the film “Joyeux Noel in The Bedford Citizen

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