City of Khaki

06/12/1914

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Today men from the 5th Essex Regiment, the East Anglians, the Norfolk & Suffolk Army Service Corps, the Norfolk Regiment and the East Anglian Field Ambulance attended a church service in St John's. With over 3,000 troops in winter training quarters locally, many people commented that Peterborough had become a 'city of khaki'. (Bull, J & V., Perry, S. and Sturgess, R., Peterborough - a third portrait in old picture postcards, S.B. Publications, 1990)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Burial of a Controversial Bishop

08/05/1839

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Bishop Herbert Marsh was buried on this day in a prepared vault behind the altar in the 'New Building' part of the cathedral - the last bishop to be buried there. His wife Marianne was buried alongside him eight years later. He had died on May Day, after twenty years as bishop. Referred to by some as an 'enfant terrible', and others as 'the Peterborough Theological Laboratory' - the latter due to his deep knowledge and firmly held beliefs as an 'old-fashioned High Churchman'. He had been the centre of a controversy a few weeks before his death for taking up a political position in Peterborough - but that was nothing new. His obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine referred to his unpopularity: 'His attempts to repress Calvinism in his diocese soon rendered him obnoxious to the evangelical portion of the clergy, and several publications appeared on the subject that were ultimately brought before the House of Lords - but without material result.' Balancing this is a comment in the Stamford Mercury of 24 May 1839, attributed to the cathedral sexton, who supposedly said that 'the Bishop liked his pipe and many hours of the day were spent inhaling Greek and tobacco'. (Carnell, Geoffrey, The Bishops of Peterborough, RJL Smith & Associates, 1993; Jenkins, Eric, Victorian Northamptonshire: The Early Years, Cordelia, 1993) Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.