Arrived at Paris at about 6 o’clock1. Taken by motors to A P M place2 where we were lectured and afterwards taken to the Hotel Bleriot†. Cleaned up and had breakfast, then walked round the town. After dinner3 got room and lay down for a while. Went to Army and Navy Club at night and heard fine concert by Miss Lena Ashwell’s4 party.
Arrived at Paris.
ALL arrived at 6:00am, having travelled all night. ↩
“APM” probably means “Assistant Provost Marshall“, essentially the local head of the military police. “Place” probably means the APM’s HQ. This possibly explains the lecture – servicemen on leave in Paris were put on notice to behave themselves? ↩
“Dinner” means “lunch”, as usual. ↩
Lena Ashwell: previously transcribed as ‘O’Dell’, without identification, but ‘Ashwell’ appears probable; Lena Margaret Ashwell 1872-1957; OBE 1917; born Lena Margaret Pocock (Ashwell was her adopted stage name), suffragist, trained at Royal College of Music, London; with War Office resistance but patronage from Princess Helena Victoria, she organised numerous drama and good-quality music parties for advanced locations in France from 1915 (said to have been the first to do this on a large scale: 25 parties by 1918). Is it verifiable that one of her parties performed at the Army & Navy Club in Paris on 8 September 1918? ↩