1914
June 17th
Women from Kent’s Territorial Force hold a camp at Herne Common. They are preparing for possible service in Voluntary Aid Detachments.
August 1st
The East Kent Regiment is mobilised in Canterbury and moved to Dover. Troops take up coastal defence duty in Dover.
August 4th
War is declared by the British Government. Special telegrams are displayed on the windows of the Kentish Gazette, Canterbury.
September 12th
The Local press gives strong support to men who have joined the forces. The names of local men who have joined up are listed in the Kentish Gazette and Canterbury Press. Attention is drawn to those who have joined the East Kent Regiment.
October 21st
The Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital at Down’s Park Collage, Herne Bay receives wounded Belgians for treatment & care. The hospital remains open until Dec 1917.
1915
July 10th
Every serviceman passing through Canterbury East Station is now offered cocoa, tea, coffee or Oxo on arrival at the station.
August 17th
A Zeppelin airship flies low over Herne Bay pier and is fired on. The airship then flies over Whitstable, Canterbury and Ashford, before dropping bombs in open countryside.
1916
June 13th
A memorial service for Field Marshal Lord Kitchener (who has a manor house in Barham,) is held at Canterbury Cathedral. Lord Kitchener was drowned when the ship he was travelling in, HMS Hampshire, struck a mine in the North Sea.
1917
December 6th
The Reverend Philipp Somerville, who is also working as a Special Policeman, arrests the crew of a German Gotha plane after the plane has crash-landed in a field near Broad Oak Road, Canterbury.
1918
February 5th
A communal kitchen for children is started in Herne Bay. Children from Herne Bay Broad School are taken down to the kitchen by their teachers.
November 11th
News breaks of the signing of the Armistice with Germany. “All clear” signals are heard everywhere – ships’ sirens and railway sirens hoot; business and trading is suspended; schools are closed for the day.
1919
May
Large crowds line the streets of Canterbury to welcome the East Kent Regiment back to Canterbury.
July 30th
Children at Herne Bay Broad School are given a half-day holiday to celebrate the signing of the Peace.
1921
August 4th 1921
The Kent County War Memorial is unveiled in the Memorial Gardens at the Precincts, Canterbury Cathedral.
1922
November 11th
The Herne Bay Memorial is unveiled.
With thanks to the Maidstone Library.
