1WW BIDEFORD WESTWARD HO AND APPLEDORE RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES ON THEIR WAY TO THE WESTERN FRONT

This photograph from 1917, taken outside Bideford Town Hall shows two of the Bideford Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway locomotives on their way to the Western Front. Torridge, ison the right and the loco on the left is named Kingsley which along with Torridge and a third loco, Grenville, was loaded on to a captured German freighter Gotterdammerung for duty in France, but the ship was torpedoed off the north Cornwall coast and sank. The locomotives were either volunteered or requisitioned for service on the Western Front, where extensive use was made of railways to move supplies and casualties. The picture was taken outside of Bideford Town Hall prior to crossing the bridge. It clearly gathered considerable interest.