South Staffordshire Water Archives
South Staffs Water
and the First World War
Whilst a
great deal of information survives about the Company’s involvement in World
War Two, records of employees who served in the First World War are somewhat
more difficult to locate. There does not appear to be a roll of honour or indeed
any documents which list the names of men who enlisted in the armed services,
who were wounded or perished in the conflict or who returned to their duties
with the Company following the armistice in November 1918. Of course many firms
went to great lengths to honour their employees who served, often in the form of
a monument in stone or bronze or maybe a wall mounted plaque, however no
evidence has been found that South Staffs commissioned anything similar. It is
of course possible that no employees were lost during the war, although this
seems unlikely. Perhaps the Company was able to retain a high proportion of its
staff due to the essential nature of its activities in maintaining water
supplies to a heavily industrialised region of the country.
Scouring the
board records for the years 1914 – 1918 there are of course references to the
impact of the conflict such as the requirement to make additional water supplies
available to military camps and munitions factories and to make war bonus
payments to its employees who were feeling the effects of inflation brought on
by wartime shortages. A resolution made in 1914 records the decision by the
directors to ensure that any serviceman returning to the Company following the
end of the war would be entitled to his old job back. A later board minute
approves the issue of uniform clothing to female employees who had been
recruited as waste inspectors, a job that had previously only been carried out
by men. There is clear evidence that the Company was short of water resources
during the war. Reservoirs frequently emptied and it was found necessary to
limit supplies to some districts during night time periods. Measures were taken
to obtain emergency supplies from wherever they could be found, such as
coalmines and neighbouring undertakings with spare capacity. Interestingly,
despite the prevailing wartime conditions, the Company found it possible to
pursue its submissions to parliament for permissions to proceed with capital
works such as new pumping stations, reservoirs, trunk mains etc. These were the
precursors to the explosion of building and mainlaying projects that ensued
during the inter war years under the supervision of the then Engineering in
Chief, Fred J Dixon.
Following
the recent First World War centenary it is perhaps appropriate to explore
the reasons for the apparent lack of information about the Company’s employees'
involvement in the conflict. An attempt will be made therefore to piece together
information about those employees who did enlist in the armed services in order
to compile a permanent record of their contributions. This will be achieved by
probing the Company’s own archives and exploiting the vast amount of
information now available on line and in record offices, military museums and
other repositories.
Database of Company Employees Who Enlisted In The Armed Services