Rushden and The Good News
Joyous Crowds in The Streets
Thanksgiving Services

The momentous news of the signing of the armistice first reached Rushden in the form of a telephonic communication to the “Echo” Office, and a few seconds later an intimation of the cessation of hostilities was posted up in our windows.  Four or five minutes afterwards the news was displayed in the window of a contemporary, but meantime a special edition of the “Rushden Echo” was printed and was soon circulated free in all parts of the town, dozens of boys acting as messengers.  An hour-and-a-half later a Kettering evening paper issued a special edition in Rushden – and charged a penny for it! – but it contained not a word more about the armistice than our free copy did.  Copies of the “Rushden Echo” special were displayed in scores of shop windows in Rushden and Higham Ferrers within a short time, and were read and reread by thousands of people, who speedily crowded the streets.  All the factories closed, and business was almost entirely suspended – except for the sale of flags, tri-coloured ribbons, etc.  Shops and houses were soon bedecked with flags, and before long St. Mary’s Church bells were ringing a joyous peal.  The hooter which was to have been used in case of an air-raid sounded the notes which told not of danger, but of “all clear,” and factory buzzers added to the “harmony.” 

Throughout the day, and until a late hour in the evening, the main streets were thronged with tri-colour-bedecked people, young and old, and flag-waving proved to be infectious.

Of course, there was a good deal of fun, most of it of a harmless character, but the German prisoners at Rushden were treated by some hooligans in a threatening manner which is not characteristic of British magnanimity to a fallen foe.  The Rifle Band played for dancing at Ward’s Corner.

The wounded soldiers from the Higham Ferrers Auxiliary Hospital created much amusement by parading Rushden and Higham Ferrers with drums, bugles, and tin trumpets, and a banner bearing the appropriate motto “Out of Work.”

A much-appreciated firework display in celebration of the cessation of hostilities was given at Rushden on Monday night from the Queen Victoria Hotel through the generosity of Mr. W. A. Evans (proprietor).  It is to be regretted that owing to the premature explosion of some of these “squibs,” etc., some of the pyrotechnists got their clothes slightly damaged.

Professor Harry Neal on Armistice Day exercised his gift of oratory to a large crowd in the Rushden High-street.  In the course of his “address” he remarked that rifles, bayonets, swords, etc., were about to be done away with, and that the next war is to be fought with soap!

All the factories remained closed on Tuesday, and Rushden streets surely were never so thronged.  The bands of the town paraded the streets on Monday and Tuesday, playing appropriate music.

The withdrawal of the lighting restrictions was not sufficiently known on Monday evening to add greatly to the illumination of the streets, but on Tuesday night there was a big and acceptable change all over the town from the recent darkened thoroughfares.

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THE Terms of the Armistice were first published in Rushden at 5.31 p.m. on Monday by a Northampton newspaper.  An hour-and-a-quarter later they were published here by a Kettering evening paper.