Finished about 2 o’clock. A remarkable amount of work. Belgian Flag Day. I purchased one in the office at work and Charlie and I were tannered1 again up the town and I had to get them too. Walked up to the Workhouse Field and saw the Athletes2 drilling. Everybody in the town wearing Belgian flags. Went to the lecture at Trinity3 at night, and afterwards went to Roker out with† Willie and Mr Peake. The cars4 not working from Roker to the lower end of Roker Avenue. Fern. Motte called at the office. Bought a pair of new boots at the Store. The “Niger”5 a small gunboat had been sunk by a German submarine off Deal. No lives lost.
“tannered”: the transcription seems to be correct, and if so probably means that ALL and Charlie had again been caught by a seller of flags, for which the going rate was a “tanner”, meaning 6 old pence, equivalent to 2½p.” ↩
Athletes: the Athletes’ Force? See 6 November. ↩
“Trinity”: possibly Holy Trinity Church, Bishopwearmouth. ↩
Cars: tram-cars. ↩
HMS Niger: built as torpedo gunboat, converted to minesweeper; sunk by U-12. This was the first Allied casualty from submarines based in Belgian ports. ↩