Andover in the World War, Claude M Fuess

[John_Hartley]

No, not that Andover.

This is Andover in Massachusetts.

The book, published in 1921, is a fascinating little read. It's very much centred (or, should I say, centered) on the community's efforts during the war. There may well have been similar publications in Britain but I can'r recall coming across one (anyone know of one?).

There's a chapter recording a couple of paragraphs of biographical details on the 14 local men who died during the war - five with British or Canadian forces, five killed or died of wounds with American forces and four died during the flu epidemic. There's another chapter giving very brief details of the men who served in the forces.

But the real interest to me was in the civilian effort. And it seems to be an exmaple of when there is nothing better to do, then it;s best to form a committee. And there is a profusion of committees in this small town (population then about 7500). They each get a little mention usually with the committee members listed. There's the State Guard Committee (originally called the Home Guard); the Food Production Committee, several dealing with fund raising activities, others dealing with comforts for the troops (originally the initial combatant Allied forces, later just American). My favourite is the Committee on Advice to Aliens, which quickly realises that there aren't many and most of them are British, who tended to return to the Britain to join up. Of the others, the Committee efforts seem to have been confined to persuading them to apply for American citizenship.

Mine is an original (bought at a second hand bookshop in the little village of Manchester-in-Sea) but Abebooks lists a number of modern "print on demand" copies at around £12.

[rob carman]

You wrote...."There may well have been similar publications in Britain but I can'r recall coming across one (anyone know of one?)."

Kenedy, Maj. JH. 1921. Attleborough in War Time.

That's Attleborough, Norfolk, not Attleboro, Mass. It sounds very similar in scope to Fuess's book. It was originally published privately. It was recently republished on CD.

Rob