‘Apparently the men had vanished off the face of the earth’

Illness was running through the camp of the Jarrow marchers as the crusade arrived at Sheffield.

The Jarrow marchers whistle a merry tune - with their mouth organ band further back in the ranks - as the crusade continues.
(Photo by David Savill/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) — The Jarrow marchers whistle a merry tune - with their mouth organ band further back in the ranks - as the crusade continues. (Photo by David Savill/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) | Getty Images

placeholder image — The Jarrow marchers whistle a merry tune - with their mouth organ band further back in the ranks - as the crusade continues. (Photo by David Savill/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Some of the men had to temporarily drop out with fevers and by day 12, one of the marchers contracted malaria. Robert Winship, 41, was diagnosed by a doctor and was ordered to be taken to Sheffield General Hospital where he was expected to stay for several days.

But that was not the only drama which faced the hardy men of Jarrow as they approached the city. All 200 of them vanished!

Or at least that’s what the people of Sheffield thought as they lined the streets in their thousands to welcome the South Tynesiders.

Our Shields Gazette reporter who was with the march explained what had happened.

“When we entered Sheffield, I thought we were to have a lukewarm reception, as few people turned out to view our entry.

“However, it was, I think, due to a mistake on the part of the Crusaders themselves who entered the city unexpectedly ahead of time and by the wrong road. I left them at the mid-day stop, to go ahead and make inquiries in Sheffield.

Marchers starting out on the Jarrow Crusade. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images) | Getty Images

“The inquiries completed, I went three miles out of the city by tram, on the main road to Barnsley, the road on which they were supposed to come. At the top of Sheffield Lane I found public officials and police officers awaiting there while all along the route constables were in readiness to keep back the crowds which were expected.

”We waited nearly half an hour, and still the crusaders did not arrive, nor had passing motorists seen them on the road. Eventually I caught a bus back to Barnsley and dropped off hallway at Chapeltown. Still no signs of the marchers. Apparently the men had vanished off the face of the earth.

“In desperation I returned to the city centre. There were two other routes left, so I took the shorter one. only to discover, alter a further abortive search, that the crusaders had taken the other.

“Apparently they ha'd taken the wrong turning at Birdwell, and I later discovered that the Mayor of Jarrow, who arrived in Sheffield by train, had also made a fruitless journey half way to Barnsley in an endeavour to catch them.

“He did not see them until he got back to the city to find them half way through washing.”