Gipsy Dan Boswell

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                             Luton news and Bedfordshire chronicle Thursday 29 march 1917



Scuffling noises near a gipsy caravan attracted the attention of constable, P.c. Lilley, while cycling along the Luton-road on Thursday morning. He asked who was in the van, when a gipsy replied. “Only the old woman." But on the floor only partly covered up, was the gipsy's son, John Oliver, who first gave his age as 18 then 19, and afterwards 20. Charged under the Military Service Act at St, Albane the same day, he was ordered to handed over to the military authorities.

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                                         Cambridge daily news Friday 23 march 1917



Five sturdily-built gipsies, aged from 18 to 30, "rounded up” by the Nottingham police, were yesterday fined as absentees and handed over to the military.



                                       Nottingham evening post Thursday 22 march 1917



                                               VAN-DWELLERS WHO DODGE THE ARMY.
 

                                                   FIVE £3 FINES IN NOTTINGHAM.



At the Nottingham guilhall to-day no fewer than five van-dwellere came before the magistrates charged with failing to report under the Military Service Act. They were James Wesseldine, 23, horse dealer, Sonnie Brinkley. 30, horse dealer, John Wesseldine, 28, hawker, Adolphus Brinkley, 29, hawker, and John Squires. 16, hawker. Major McGuire , the chief recruiting officer for the city, explained the difficulty in tracing absentees who travelled about the country in caravans, and pressed for heavy penalties. In some cases the men had not even registered. The magistrate fined each of the defendants £3, and ordered them to be handed over to the military authorities.

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                                                 Nottingham evening post 11 April 1916



                                                        DID NOT WANT TO INLIST.



                                             UNATTESTED MEN ARRESTED AT GRANTHAM.



At Grantham to-day, Timothy Price, 25, and Frederick. Price, 23, hawkers, of the Blue Ram yard, Grantham, unattested men, were charged under the Military Service Act with being absentees from the Army Reserve by not joining when called up by the Royal Proclamation. P.c. Leeson proved the arrest, and Timothy said he came up once in February. He called at the Town Hall to see the doctor, but there was not one there. They told him that they would let him know more about it, but they never did. The reason he did not go up was because he could neither read nor write. The Chief Constable said prisoners were travelling showmen, and lived in vans. He got to know they were in the Blue Ram yard, and he sent down to them a week ago. He then found that prisoners had not had their addresses transferred, for while they were liable for a penalty. That was the reason why the military authorities had not been able to get them before. Mrs. Price, the mother, said neither she nor her boys were scholars. She was a widow with a large family, and her sons had been working for her. Colonel A. Hutchinson (the magistrate): Both of them are willing to join, I take it? Mrs. Price: “No.'' They don't want join. Colonel Hutchinson: But Timothy went to join. Timothy “I went to see the doctor to try and get off.” Prisoners were handed over to the Military authorities, and later in the day went to  Lincoln with a number of Derby recruits.

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                                     Nottingham evening post Saturday 17 march 1917



                                              DESERTER’S STRANGE HIDING PLACE.



                                               CARLTON POLICE RAID ON CARAVAN.



Charged at the Nottingham Shire Hall to-day with concealing a deserter, a travelling gipsy, named Angelina Bosworth, 29. was to sent to gaol for six weeks’ hard labour. Inspector Harrop stated he saw the woman at Carlton where she had a van. Asked if John Henry Watts, a soldier, was there, she answered “No,” but a search of the van resulted in the man being found under a Sock bed in a cupboard. He admitted being a deserter, and having been absent from the army since last April. Defendant said she did not know Watts Was a deserter, for he told her he was discharged from the army. She denied having placed the bed on the man, and declared that he put it in position himself.



                                      Lancashire Evening post Wednesday 14 March 1917


For concealing a deserter who, she said. had promised to marry her. a young gipsy widow was sentenced in Nottingham to 6 weeks’  imprisonment

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                                        Daily record Thursday 16 December 1916



                                         Liverpool echo Tuesday 27 august 1918



A gipsy, named Nathan Green, passed Grade 1, when called up, presented himself at the barracks doubled up and hobbling on two sticks. Several medicals subjected him to severe examination and pronounced him fit, but the man could not be straightened. Specialists were called in, and the man underwent electric shocks varying in degree, but never once flinching In all twelve doctors declared the man fit for service. He was thereupon ordered the usual course of training, but he absolutely refused to stand up. Saturday he was placed in the draft for Ireland, but owing to his still doubled-up state he rode to the station while his comrades walked.

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                             Buckingham advertiser and free press Saturday 29 September



                                                   STRATFORD PETTY SESSIONS.



Thursday. Sept.  Before Colonel W. J. Leri (Chairman). Sir Herbert S. Leou. T. Q. Kirby. Esq., and S. F. .lone. Eaq.
 John Green, alias Jack Fletcher, gipsy, who was arrested under the Military Service Act by Special Constable P. C. E. Lovett on the 11 inst.. and who had previously been remanded for inquiries to be made, was found to have deserted from the depot of the Bedford regiment on August 6th. The first charge of  failing to report for service with the Colours and was therefore amended, and it being proved that he was a deserter, he was handed over to the military escort which was waiting at the Police Station.

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                                               Hull daily mail Saturday 7 February 1918



                                                        EPWORTH PETTY SESSIONS.



THURSDAY.—Before Aid. J Stephenson, Aid. Messrs Archer, Fox, Gilding, Smales. and W. Light 
 
WILLING TO GO.—Zachariah Smith, a hawker, of Luddington, was charged with being an absentee under the Military Service Act. Defendant said he did not think he was 18, but he was willing to go.

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                                          Surry advertiser Saturday 22 April 1916



At Police Court Thursday. before Mr. C. Willock Pollen and Mr. E. H. Burgdss. two gipsies named Nelson Smith and Walter Smith were charged with being absentees under the Military Service Act. P.C’. Butler proved the case, and they were each fined 40s. and handed over to a military escort.

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                                Manchester evening news Wednesday 13 september 1916



                                                          GIPSY HIDING A TREE.



The Cheshire County police are rounding up the gipsies eligible for military service in their area, and to-day, at the Stockport County Police Court, there was an exciting chase across country by his men described by P.C. Cunliffe. 8 p.m. last night Cunliffe and Constable Gregory went to the vans in Bramhall Moor Lane, and on seeing them one man bolted. They chased him for about two miles across the fields, and eventually they found him hiding in an oak tree. They returned to the vans and discovered another man between a mattress and a bed in one of the vans. The prisoners were fined 40s. each and ordered to be handed over to the military authorities. Gilroy Finney was also fined 10s. or seven days for failing to register.