15 January 1914; Thursday

January 1914, , , ,

Got up about 7.45. Drilled a bit. Left work shortly after 11 o’clock and went to the County Court in the car1. Managed the business all right. Had to make a 4th copy of the agreement for the Rechabites2. Old Mr Robson buried. Finished very late at night, nearly 7 o’clock. Did a bit Pelman3. Finished reading “Hypatia”4 and took it in. Went to Jack’s last thing and told him I had done the necessary. Called at the post with Ernie’s paper. Went to bed about 11.30. Charlie got heavy cold. Read newspaper about Strike in Johannesburg5, and also Volcanic disaster in Japan6. Mr Jos. Chamberlain7 expressed his intention of retiring from Parliament.

  1. In England at least, “car” in the diary usually means “tram-­car”, though later, especially in France, ALL evidently used it for other, usually unspecified sorts of conveyance. ALL also occasionally used the noun “car” as a verb – “carred” meaning “I (or we, depending on the context) rode on the car.” ↩

  2. The Independent Order of Rechabites (rather oddly referred to in Roy Hattersley’s biography of Lloyd George as the “Antediluvian Order of Rakebites”; the name “Rechabites” was presumably adopted from Jeremiah ch.35 v.2 ff.) was a temperance Friendly Society, set up in 1835 and still in existence, providing insurance, death benefits etc, to which ALL continued contributing a few (old) pence a week, until some date after WWII. ↩

  3. See note on 6 January. ↩

  4. “Hypatia”: Charles Kingsley’s novel; “took it in”: presumably to the public library. See also: Arthur Linfoot’s Library ↩

  5. A strike of white railway workers in Pretoria led to a general strike throughout South Africa, with martial law. ↩

  6. Sakurajima: former island in a caldera off the southern tip of Kyushu; worst Japanese volcanic eruption in 20th century. ↩

  7. Joseph Chamberlain (1836 – 02.07.1914): father of the half-brother MPs, Austen and Neville Chamberlain, Birmingham industrialist, Mayor of B’ham, MP for B’ham 1876 as radical Liberal; resigned as Pres. of Board of Trade 1886 because he opposed Irish Home Rule, became ‘Liberal Unionist’; Sec. of State for Colonies 1895 – 1903 (covering the Boer War); driving force of B’ham University after its creation (1900) from Mason College, led its removal from Edmund Street to Edgbaston campus; campanile there named after him. ↩