At the start of the First World War in 1914 there were two German brothers living in Boston who had been naturalised Englishmen for twenty-three years. The brothers, George and Leonard Cantenwine owned a butchers shop in High Street and late on the first Saturday night of the war a crowd attacked the shop because it was rumoured that customers had heard them expressing pro-German sentiments.
All the windows were broken and the shop looted and several of the attackers were later charged, surprisingly one of these was Alfred Harlow, another butcher.
Recruiting in the Market Place 1914, when there was hatred toward the German people of the town.
When he gave his evidence, Leonard Cantenwine asked the magistrates to be lenient and later several Boston people wrote to the press and expressed sympathy for the Cantenwine's and disgust with the rioters. In the first week of August 1918 when the war had gone on for four long years, an unsigned letter appeared in all the local papers explaining why the local farmers had not supported as well as had been expected the War Savings Campaign that summer. The writer pointed out that 'Germans' were living in Boston and had purchased farms near the military aerodrome at Freiston Shore. Leonard Cantenwine did own a small farm at Freiston and had recently bought a second at Leverton. The letter also accused these Germans of going to these farms daily in order to spy and hinted that they were preparing to assist in a landing of German troops on the coast. The writer was soon identified as Mr. Joseph Bowser J.P., also chairman of the Boston Branch of the National Farmers Union.
The Cantenwines had had enough and decided to defend themselves and started an action for libel against Mr. Bowser, The case wasn't heard until June 1919 when the war was long over. Many witnesses appeared for Mr. Bowser and they retold every little event of the war involving the Cantenwines in an attempt to show that the brothers supported Germany despite their naturalisation and, therefore, that Mr. Bowser's comments were basically true. Miss Bristowe, a barmaid at the White Hart and Walter Woodthorpe the coal merchant, told how Leonard Cantenwine in 1914 had forecast that the Germans would win the war and that he would become 'Burgermaster of Boston'.
The jury took only twenty five minutes to decide that Mr. Bowser's letter was defamatory but that the words used were fair comment on a matter of public interest. The Cantenwines were ordered to pay the entire costs of the case and it is no wonder that they soon left Boston.
