James Dring, Drunk & Disorderly, 3rd July 1918

Pte. James Dring, Army Service Corps, was sentenced to two months' hard labour on 3rd July 1918 for his violent drunken the previous day.

“KNOCKED MAN THROUGH WINDOW.

“HOW MANSFIELD SOLDIER CELEBRATED HIS DISCHARGE.

“A well-known Mansfield character [1], James Dring, who has been in France for four months, was sent home to hospital and discharged last Monday, and he celebrated his return to the town on the Tuesday [2nd July 1918] by getting mad drunk. When in Bridge-street he knocked a man down, and then turned on Walter Fred Gardener, of Belper-street, whom he knocked through a shop window. The broken glass cut Gardener's head so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital, where four stitches were put in.

“At the Police-court to-day [3rd July 1918] Dring was charged with being drunk and disorderly and also with assault, and Gardener said he was still under treatment at the hospital.

“Sergt. Soar gave evidence of arrest, and Supt. Rodgers told the Bench that Dring was a violent character. He was a man who should never touch drink, because when drunk he would even strike his grandmother if she came in his way.

“Sentence of two months' hard labour was passed.” [2]

[1] He was in Bagthorpe (Nottingham) prison when the 1911 Census was taken. He re-enlisted in the Labour Corps in 1919, serving in France, presumably part of a battlefield clearance party. He got into trouble there too, being absent without leave and was stabbed in July 1919

[2] 'Nottingham Evening Post', 3rd July 1918.