You can view the names of those in attendance by clicking on the adjacent thumbnail.

In January 1914, the Suffolk Regiment consisted of the 1st and 2nd regular battalions, (stationed overseas), the 3rd (Special Reserve) battalion, and the 4th , 5th and 6th (cyclist) battalions of the Territorial Force.

The 2nd battalion of the Suffolk Regiment consisted of 1000 men, including 26 officers and a medical officer. They had arrived at Le Havre on 17th August, and they were sent straight into the Battle of Mons. Fighting began on 223rd August, and the BEF was forced to retreat south. Just after dawn on the 26th August the Germans caught up with the 2nd Corps of the British army at Le Cateau and the Suffolks mouted a rearguard action under heavy fire. Total British casualties during the battle are estimated at 8,000. Casualties for the 2nd battalion totalled over 700. When they arrived at Pontoise on the 28th August the battalion numbered just 229 men.

In January, 1915, the 1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment sailed from Portsmouth to arrive at Le Havre on January 18th. By February 3rd they were under fire in the Ypres salient.

In France, conditions during the first winter of the war were awful. Both the 1stand 2nd battalions of the Suffolk Regiment spent much of their timein Flanders, defending the Ypres salient. Trenches were feet deep in water, and bombardments and attacks were frequent. Mud was everywhere, and Trench Foot become a familiar condition. The 1st battalion took 300 casualties in two weeks in February when ordered to take some forward positions. The 2nd battalion, holding their lines lost casualties to constant sniper and rifle grenade actions.

The 1/4th Suffolks were in the same conditions. In January they were at Richebourg near Neuve Chapelle. They were Territorials of the 4th Battalion, who had volunteered for overseas service, and were designated the 1/4th to distinguish them from the home based parts of the battalion.

The Corn Production Act was passed in 1917 to guarantee minimum prices and wages to encourage more home grown food during the war. The government had finally accepted that the German submarine fleet was drastically reducing the country's ability to import food by sea. Indeed it was said that the country was only three weeks away from starvation before food rationing was finally introduced. A new Rationing Scheme was introduced in England on 12th November "to encourage the utmost economy in using food by all classes and all persons".

Cheered up by the fete, despite the rationing, the 1918 harvest was made extremely difficult by bad weather and a lack of resources. It rained incessantly through August and September. However, agriculture managed to keep the nation fed, helped by the rationing system, and farmers were able to make a living partly because of the price controls imposed by government.

By November the influenza epidemic had become a grave problem in Bury St Edmunds. Three wards of the hospital were completely filled by patients with the illness. Eighteen of the first 74 patients admitted died, including one of the hospital nurses.

Some of the family collection of books and art-objects and paintings was bequeathed to the town of Bury. It was to become housed at the School of Art in the Traverse, in two years time, following probate. Many of these objects can be seen in Moyse's Hall Museum, the paintings were displayed in the Manor House Museum until it closed, and the books are in the West Suffolk Record Office in Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds. George also bequeathed a part of the Hardwick Heath to the people of Bury St Edmunds.

The residuary legatee was Mrs Reginald Gurney, who ordered the contents of the house to be sold at auction in June 1924.

The Hardwick estate itself became the property of the Crown, and was put up for sale. In the depression of the time, no buyer could be found for the vast house and grounds still remaining. The estate would therefore be broken up and sold off piecemeal over the next few years. By the end of 1926 it would still prove impossible to sell the great house, which would then be demolished.

The fine Jacobean painted closet was sold to Christchurch Mansion at Ipswich, and can still be seen there today.

The estates of Hardwick and Hawstead reverted to the executors of George's step-grandmother, Lady Ann Cullum. She had died 45 years earlier, and the failure of the various limitations in her will meant that the property became subject to the Intestate Estates Act of 1884. This resulted in the appointment of trustees to sell the property on behalf of the Crown. In December 1924 the whole estates of Hardwick and Hawstead were put up for sale by the Crown Trustees. Before the auction took place, however, the 1,400 acre combined manors were sold to a Mr Towler.

Also sold at this time were the separate lots of Hawstead Lodge, the Priory at Babwell at the foot of Tollgate Lane, the maltings on the Mildenhall Road in Fornham all Saints, several cottages and other land. However, large plots of land continued to change hands over the next two years.

A handritten note on the attached plan gives the total area of the Hardwick Estate sale as 726.258 acres. This had been subdivided into 29 lots, unless previously sold privately. Three of the lots were earlier sold privately, lots 2, 3, and 10.

In November, 1926, Gooday held a three day sale of the fixtures and fittings still in the house. There were 750 lots including 11,000 square feet of oak and pine boarding, an oak staircase, 49 carved mantlepieces of marble and wood, 67 stone vases and figures, six wrought iron gates, 11 greenhouses, and a turret clock by W Nelson last, a Bury clockmaker.

After the sale of fixtures, the fabric of Hardwick House was sold for demolition. All it was thought fit for was to salvage its building materials, such was the depressed state of the economy. The site was to be cleared by August 1927.

The main porch was sold to a Mr Cox for £22.