No more pitiful record of the war is there than that unnumbered roll of
men lured from our armies by this liquor trade, and cast into
dishonoured graves. We can take only a few of them.
A number of soldiers at Ormskirk came into camp drunk on Christmas
night. A request for quiet led to a fight, and one of the men was
struck two blows and was dead the next morning.
_Facts in “Daily Mail,” December 28, 1915_
A Liverpool soldier, drinking continuously, had overstayed his
leave, and in a quarrel about this he stabbed his brother dead.
_Facts in “Liverpool Courier,” April 20, 1917_
A soldier invalided from France, having recovered from his wounds,
gave way to drink, assaulted an officer, and hanged himself in his
prison cell.
_Facts in “Daily News,” April 11, 1916_
A young lieutenant shot himself in an hotel near Trafalgar Square,
and among the documents read at the inquest was a letter striking
him off his battalion for drinking and gross carelessness.
_Facts in “Daily Chronicle,” October 27, 1916_
A captain in the Army ruined by drink, with a fine record of
military service, started drinking on his way to a shooting range in
London, and in a struggle he shot a detective dead.
_Facts in “Daily News,” September 20, 1915_
In the Scottish Express, between Doncaster and Selby, a drunken
corporal of the Coldstream Guards was showing his rifle to a friend
when it went off, the bullet killing a munitions works director in
the next compartment, and narrowly escaping a lady in the
compartment beyond. The corporal had in his pocket a bottle of
whisky, which was freely handed round.
_Facts in “Daily News,” December 3, 1915_
A soldier who had been drinking heavily was placed in the guard
room, and died after a night of groaning, evidently as the result of
a fall.
_Records of Greenwich Coroner, January 1, 1915_
A young soldier arriving from India on Christmas morning was
arrested three days later, after a drunken fight in which a man was
killed.
_Westminster Police Records, December 28, 1914_
A soldier spent a day’s leave in Manchester, ate and drank very
heavily, and was found dead the next morning from choking.
_Records of Manchester Coroner, December 28, 1914_
A soldier home on leave was found drunk with his wife. They had been
throwing pots at one another, and on Christmas morning the woman was
found dead with a wound in her head.
_Records of Oldham Coroner, December 24, 1914_
Three gunners had four drinks each of rum, and at midnight lay down
to sleep in a garden at Lee, where one was found dying from alcohol.
_Facts in Local Papers at Lee, June 1915_
A soldier died from alcohol in a house where drink was unlawfully
sold.
_Facts in “Manchester Guardian,” April 8, 1915_
A private in the Welsh Fusiliers died from alcohol, cold and
exposure. He left a publichouse with a 4_s._ bottle of whisky, and
was found dead on the roadside next morning, with the bottle almost
empty.
_Facts in “Daily News,” April 13, 1915_
An old man who was said to be in a drunken condition was wounded in
a fall with a soldier from Gallipoli, and died a few days after.
_Facts in “Daily Mail,” January 17, 1916_
An elderly man, seeing a drunken soldier lying in the street, went
to his assistance, and was killed in a disturbance that followed.
_Record of Yorkshire Assizes, November 21, 1916_
A soldier was found drowned in the Trent. He was described as a good
man at his work, but not steady, and had been drinking.
_Facts in “Newark Advertiser,” August 4, 1915_
A terrible disturbance occurred in a camp at Portland Reservoir
after the closing of the canteen one Sunday night. A large number of
men who had been drinking created a disturbance, in which bricks and
stones were used, a tent collapsed, and the officers were called to
quell the riot. The captain, drawing his revolver, rushed with two
lieutenants into a hut where men were shouting and struggling, but
appeals had no effect—the men “did not appear to hear or recognize
their officers,” and one man raised his rifle and took aim at them.
At least fifty shots were fired, and a young corporal fired many
shots through the window into the darkness. In the morning a soldier
was found dead. Nobody knew who shot him, but the corporal thought
he must have done.
_Records of Dorset Assizes, Spring 1915_