The most urgent help required was to a put a roof over the refugees heads and the first houses in Teignmouth to be offered for the use of Belgian refugees, recorded in Council Minutes, were 8, Brimley Villas, Crathorne in Hermosa Road, Salisbury House on Salisbury Terrace and 41 Northumberland Place. Bitton House was proposed as a possible venue to house refugees but was rejected as the cost of conversions would be too expensive. However, Mr. G.O. May, the old Devon County footballer and now of New York son of Mr and Mrs May of Lindell, Teignmouth had offered the use of a home in Triangle Place for refugees and Mrs Haskett-Smith had also offered her furnished residence in Barnpark Terrace.
Teignmouth Urban District Council (TUDC) cooperated with the Central War Refugee Committee (Devon and Cornwall) whose job it was to find unoccupied unfurnished houses in the town and fit them out to house the refugees. The TUDC excused the payment of general district rate, Water Rate, Gas Rate and meter rental for these houses as long as they were occupied by the refugees. The Town Hall in Teignmouth was also provided free of charge for entertainments.
As Belgians kept arriving, the War Refugees Committee (WRC) coordinated a wide network of voluntary relief work. More than 2500 local committees supported by local authorities, were set up across the country. Teignmouth Urban District Council (TUDC) cooperated with the Central War Refugee Committee (Devon and Cornwall) whose job it was to find unoccupied furnished houses in the town and fit them out to house the refugees. The TUDC excused the payment of general district rate, water rate, gas rate and meter rental for these houses as long as they were occupied by the refugees.
In February 1915 a representative from the Central War Refugee Committee visited Teignmouth and established a sub-committee to replace the locally established group. At the first meeting of this sub-committee “notices to the effect that it was intended to board out refugees in parties of four or more at a fixed rate of 10s per head irrespective of sex or age…”
Mr. Hamilton Young became chair of the sub-committee with Miss Lynne as Secretary who will “be attending at the Surveyors Office, Town hall between 11am and Noon each day this week to receive the names of those desirous of boarding the refugees”.
After the first day 70-80 applications had been received in Teignmouth and 120 in Shaldon and it was anticipated that Teignmouth and Shaldon would receive 250 refugees.
