This day in 1914; Scarborough

As I stood on one of Scarborough's majestic Victorian streets last week I remarked to one of the locals in passing conversation that the place cannot have changed at all since that halcyon era in its history.

The town gives that impression of sturdiness, immoveability against the winds and tides of the North Sea coast.

The buildings are characterful, many of them four or more stories high having been purpose built in the mid to late 1800's as lodging houses, private hotels, guest houses and as homes of the well to do of Yorkshire and beyond.

The man on that street soon put me right.

He told me about how the town had suffered one of the first hostile actions of the First World War, a barbaric and unprovoked shelling from the sea by two battlecruisers of the German Navy.

The enemy had considered the seaside resort to be a strategic threat to the shipping lanes in that part of the North Sea and their intelligence had suggested that behind the genteel facade there was a sizeable garrison.

The harbour, for centuries a safe refuge, could potentially serve as a base for maritime activities but on the 16th December 2014, a very early phase in the enactment of World War One it would have been very much in its role as a fishing port.

It was early morning on a wednesday and just over a week from Christmas.

There will have been activity in the town with traders and workers preparing for a busy mid week in the run up to the Festive Season.

Two battlecruisers, the Van der Tann and Derfflinger had separated from a larger flotilla of heavyweight fighting ships and were steaming at full speed with the distinctive silhouette of the hills of the town in sight.

At 8 am the first of a total of 500 shells hit a random assortment of targets in and around the town.

A principal focus for the attack was military although in its broadest interpretation being the Medieval castle which had been laid to virtual ruin in the English Civil Wart of the 17th Century. A barrack building was hit, also parts of the ramparts and walls, a Coastguard Station, the harbour lighthouse, the landmark structure of The Grand Hotel and three churches.

The fall of the high explosive shells was indiscriminate.

Commercial and residential buildings had roofs, walls and windows blown out.

A quiet street at the foot of the hill known as Oliver's Mount suffered damage to its housing stock and at 2 Wykeham Street, nearer the town centre, there were the first of the total of 17 fatalities , comprising multiple members of just one family.

One of the 80 injured died later from injuries sustained in the attack.

The onslaught had lasted only 30 minutes.

The two perpetrators made off to join the rest of their battle group wreaking similar  mayhem and havoc on the northerly towns of Whitby and Hartlepool where another 120, if not all civilians, died.

The events , exactly 103 years ago today, had a huge effect on the British public.

Those in Scarborough who witnessed the attack had run for their lives in a mad panic, fearing that this was the precursor to a German Invasion Force. A dramatic image representing the barbarism of the Kaiser's Navy was used to encourage menfolk and boys to enlist in the British armed forces and will, no doubt have been the deciding factor for many to sign up to fight for their country.

I will never look upon Scarborough again as just a timeless backwater of English seaside charm.

It has, in its time, been very much on the front line.


Historic England have a great page and short animation on this at Scarborough