The Coroner: “This poor man, unfortunately, is one of many.”
Facts in “Western Daily Mercury,” January 8, 1917
A publican at Dover was fined £20 for selling a bottle of whisky to a sailor. The Admiral said drink undermined the efficiency of the patrol vessels, and those who supplied it directly assisted the enemy, and might be the cause of the loss of very many lives.
Police Records of Dover, October 6, 1916
A private in the Northumberland Fusiliers, aged 23, was charged with burglary while drunk. His father and three brothers were in the Army. He took part in the battle of Loos, was wounded at Salonika, and was recommended for distinction for helping to save a wounded officer.
During the whole of Christmas leave he was drinking, made drunk by his friends who were probably proud of his having held part of a trench against a German bombing party. His captain described him as a good soldier in peace, and brave in action—a man whose disgrace would be felt by the regiment.
Mr. Justice Rowlatt said everyone was hoping for the time when millions of brave men would come home after facing incredible dangers, and we must look forward almost with terror to having these men exposed to drink and its temptations. What would be the state of the country in such a case unless we could make a clean sweep of drink? We should have to face this question over and over again, and the sooner we faced it the better.
Records of Derbyshire Assizes, February 1917
Whoever allowed soldiers or sailors to drink to excess, said the Mayor of Tynemouth, should be tried by court-martial for treason. He would be recreant in his duty to God, to himself, and to the citizens, if he did not call attention to the brutalising of so many townspeople and the callous conduct of the “waster” element in the drink trade. He had no quarrel with those who conducted their business properly.
Facts in Tynemouth papers, February, 1915