Yearly Archives: 2015

22 June 1915; Tuesday

Abridged, June 1915, , , , , ,

At work as usual. Called in the town at dinner time at Hills’ to see about a new typewriter ribbon. Called at Stewarts’ at night to get jacket altered. Played, and Charlie sang. Wrote up diary and shop books. Had walk with Joe.

Father bought some chickens. Mr McKenna1 introduced his new finance bill. Lemberg2 in danger.

  1. “Mr McKenna”: Reginald McKenna, 1863 – 1953, MP 1895 – 1918, Home Sec. 1911 – 15, Ch. Of Exch. 1915 – 16; issued second War Loan June 1915, at higher rate of interest than first (which was made convertible to second); this is said to have committed the UK to higher rates of interest than elsewhere, not only throughout WW1 but during the inter-­war Depression. The “McKenna Duties” of 33⅓% on luxury imports, “to finance WW1”, lasted until 1953. McKenna married a niece of Gertrude Jekyll. He was Chairman of the Midland Bank (now owned by HSBC) after 1918. ↩

  2. Lemberg: the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, Polish: Lwów, Russian: Lvov, Latin: Leopolis, or German: Lemberg). The battle of Lemberg, 20-22 June 1915, was a short-lived Russian attempt to defend the great fortress of Lemberg against advancing German and Austrian troops during the aftermath of the great German victory at Gorlice-Tarnow. ↩

16 June 1915; Wednesday

June 1915, , , ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Finished in decent time. Went over to the Tyne with Hoggetts & saw the damage done by the air raid1. Train to South Shields, walked to Tyne2 Dock, car3 to Jarrow, and train from Hebburn back again.

Visited the Tyne. Reggie Bailes4 left the Office.

  1. Air raid: See yesterday’s entry. ↩

  2. The shorthand clearly has “town” and “town dock”, but “Tyne” and “Tyne Dock” must be right. ↩

  3. “Car” means “tram-car”, as usual. ↩

  4. “Reggie Bailes”: evidently another work colleague who may have joined the war effort. As of 12 June 2015, Lives of the First World War lists only four people with that name. One of these served with the 6th Durham Light Infantry but without any further clues – and, sadly, there are none – it would be pure speculation to suppose that this was the same Reggie Bailes. ↩

15 June 1915; Tuesday

June 1915, , , ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Finished in decent time. Went down to practice. Walked up with Willie Whittaker and Blaikie and Joe.

Air Raid on the Tyne1. Damage to Palmer’s†2 works and 16 killed & many injured. Zeppelins arrived about mid-night. They were seen by some people in the town here.

Miss Aitchison commenced in the Office.

  1. This page at Strong-Family.org has extensive detail about the air raid. ↩

  2. Palmer’s: the shorthand, which is indistinct, looks more like “Abraham’s” or “Abram’s”, but has been transcribed as “Palmer’s” because a) that is known to have been the business most damaged in this raid and b) the detailed record at Strong-Family.org as noted above confirms the same number of fatalities at Palmer’s shipyard as recorded in this diary entry by ALL. ↩