Thursday 31 July 1913 ; A Last Day of Innocence
First staged in 1876, the same year as General Custer died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call, the 38th annual show took place in Warner’s Park on a beautiful sunny Thursday afternoon.
The event had become a major fixture for the county. Businesses in the town closed early to allow staff to attend. With acrobats, a Montgolfier balloon and dancing late into the night there was plenty to entertain the thousands of visitors who were transported to St Ives from villages and towns around Cambridgeshire on specially laid on trains. The open class for roses had become a national attraction, drawing major growers from around England to compete for the first prize of £5, equal to more than £300 today.
The 1913 show was clearly a success. Described as one of the best for some years, the 2,000+ entries made it about four times the size of our show today. Competing for prizes worth over £5,000 in today’s money, and the quality of exhibits was judged as never better.
There were amusements and a bowling match between St Ives and Bluntisham. St Ives Town Band played music through the day, with dancing from 6.30pm until late into the evening. A magical atmosphere was created, with Japanese lanterns and fairy lights surrounding the dancing area and fireworks to round off the evening.
But storm clouds loomed on the horizon. Little did the participants of the 1913 show know that in less than one year the first step towards the nightmare of World War 1 would be taken. Not only would the world change forever and much of the innocence of that July day in Warner’s Park be gone forever, but some participants would be directly affected.
George Day was a solicitor in the town and was town clerk, something of a family tradition since both his father and grandfather had also held that position. The family home was at Rheola in Pig Lane, now a care centre for older people. Not only had George donated prize money for the 1913 show, he was also a serious contender, winning no less than 17 first places for his flowers from the total of 36 prizes he won.
George’s family consisted of a daughter and three sons, all of his sons fighting in WW1. Sadly two sons were killed.
Dennis Day enlisted at the outbreak of the war. As a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, Dennis was tragically shot by a German sniper at Vermelles, France on Saturday 25 September 1915 when he was just 23 years old. His parents were called for and crossed the channel to Boulogne, but he did not regain consciousness and died of the injury twelve days later on Thursday 7 October. His body was returned to St Ives and an impressive funeral was held on the lawn at “Rheola”. It was scheduled to start at 3.30pm, but before that time three thousand people had assembled around the house. All shops in the town closed for an hour in respect for the young soldier. His body was carried from his father’s house over the road to the Pig Lane Cemetery. Decades later, his parents were interred with him beneath a tall granite cross.
The Day brothers were oarsmen and active members of St Ives Rowing Club. On hearing of his brother’s death, Miles Day wrote a poem reminiscing of an early morning dawn on the Ouse, something they’d often shared whilst oaring together. The opening lines are...
This will I do when we have peace again,
Peace and return to ease my heart of pain.
Crouched in the brittle reed beds wrapped in grey,
I’ll watch the dawning of the winter’s day.
Tragically, Miles was not to find the peace he so obviously yearned for. On leaving school he joined the Royal Navy and became a Flight Commander. On Wednesday 27 February 1918, two weeks after being awarded the DSC for distinguished action near Dunkirk, he was flying a Sopwith Camel with another English plane over the North Sea when they were attacked by six German aircraft. Miles engaged in battle with them and his aircraft burst into flames. Diving down he flattened his descent to land on the sea, but his plane was not a seaplane. Climbing onto the wing he waved his fellow pilot back to base before his plane sank beneath the waves. His body was never recovered. He was only 21 years old.
The oldest son, George Jnr, also fought in France and Belgium. He was wounded just before the Armistice, but recovered to take his place in the family business after the war.
Frank Geeson was a steward at the 1913 show and entered exhibits, with him and his wife winning three prizes. Their son, Frank Junior, enlisted at the start of the war as a Private in the 1st/13th Kensington Battalion, London Regiment and died on Saturday 1 July 1916 aged 22 years.
William Sparrow Harrison was also a steward at the show, and his wife was an active exhibitor with four prizes. Here he is in his portrait as Mayor of St Ives, an office he held from 1914 to 1916.
It’s likely his son Robert had emigrated to Canada to seek his fortune as part of the massive influx of British immigrants that had been taking place since 1900, since he enlisted with the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles in December 1914. He died on Tuesday 6 June 1916 aged 26 years. His name is entered in the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, France, a memorial to 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.
Mrs Frederick Kirby was awarded two prizes in the Bread, Jam and Jelly section of the 1913 show. Her son Harold died of wounds on Sunday 6 May 1917, aged 34 years.
There is little information known about Joseph Lister, who won 4th prize in the show for his white kidney potatoes. As a Private he was presumed killed in action on Tuesday 30 October 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres. He is commemorated with an entry on the stone panels at Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, along with another 35,000 men whose last resting place is unknown.
Richard Lister, son of John who won 1st prize for his long pod beans, was a Private in the 8th Battalion Beds Regiment. Richard was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme on Saturday 15 September 1916 aged 32 years. His name is shown on Thiepval Memorial in France, one of 72,000 officers and men remembered there since they have no known grave.
A century later, the small group of organisers who put on the St Ives Flower & Produce Show are proud to be holding the 2013 show in memory of those in 1913 who sacrificed so much.
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