A Five-Part Series
Part IV: Hatfield veterans receive “royal welcome home”
Hatfield Historical Society volunteer
By the fall of 1919, most of the 2.8 million U.S. servicemen stationed overseas had come back home and returned to civilian life or were soon to do so. Across the nation, main streets were bedecked with flags and buildings were strung with bunting, as towns and cities began staging elaborate events to welcome home their veterans. Hatfield staged its veterans’ homecoming program on Saturday, Oct. 11 and, from the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s coverage of the event, the town had spared neither the flags nor the bunting when it decorated its Main Street.