Category Archives: May 1914

All diary entries written in May 1914.

30 May 1914; Saturday

Busy all day. Had only an hour for dinner and went back in the afternoon on Charlie’s bicycle. Worked until 5.30. I developed bad cold. Charlie got me a bottle at the doctor’s at night for himself and for me. Went up town and looked in shop windows a bit. Papers full of disaster1.


  1. The Empress of Ireland disaster; see yesterday’s entry

29 May 1914; Friday

Got up at 6 o’clock. Went to the baths with George , his brother and Edward. Edward had a little boy there who was afraid. Charlie got his bicycle at night. I had a ride on it. Felt a bit jaded. Had short walk. Mother still unwell.

Got to know of the disaster to the “Empress of Ireland”. Storstad1 ran into Empress of Ireland in the river Saint Lawrence and sank her. About 1000 lives lost. Accident happened at 1.45 a.m.


  1. Storstad was a Norwegian collier. It rammed the Empress of Ireland in fog, early on 29 May as ALL says, but did not itself sink. 1012 lives were lost, of the 1477 passengers and crew on the liner, bound for Liverpool. 

26 May 1914; Tuesday

Got up 7.45. Fine morning. Busy all day. Went to practice at night after playing for Mr Lawson’s class. Decided, after a lot of discussion to go to Haydon Bridge and get our teas there. Called up station at night and tried to get to know something about the trip. Mother in bed bad1.


  1. “Bad” is North-Eastern English vernacular for “ill”. ALL’s mother suffered from angina. 

24 May 1914; Sunday

At chapel and School as usual. Rather fine day but cold. Mr Bacon sang at night. Rev A L Broadfield preached and was very good, the best we’ve heard for a good while. Read some of Anna Karennina. Had walks as usual. Played a little bit. Another meeting about the trip and decided to go to Haydon Bridge.

22 May 1914; Friday

Busy all day. The family at Roker in the afternoon seeing M. Salmet1 the Daily Mail man flying. I waited in the library for them. Joe, Charlie and I went over at night but he had finished flying then. Grand night.


  1. Henri Salmet had Royal Aero Club licence No. 99, awarded in June 1911. He had a Bleriot monoplane, and took part in Daily Mail-­sponsored UK touring exhibitions in 1912 and 1913, when various mishaps are on record. As ALL refers to the Daily Mail, this 1914 exhibition too may have been sponsored by the newspaper.