Category Archives: 1914

All diary entries written in 1914.

13 November 1914; Friday

November 1914, ,

At work as usual. Hurried up to the High Barnes school with Joe to drill and we had to stay in and drill with the three recruits. Left about 9.15. Called by the chapel and played a foursome at ping‐pong.

Germans capture Dixmude1, slight advance on Rhine side2.

  1. Dixmude: Actually the town of Diksmuide in Belgium; the French spelling is Dixmude. If the Germans did capture Diksmuide as suggested by ALL, then they only held it  briefly. A contemporary newspaper report, dated 14th November, from the Evening Post in New Zealand notes that “a bayonet charge enabled the French marines to recapture the greater part of the town.” ↩

  2. See also Battle of the Yser, mentioned in the diary entry for 2 November. ↩

10 November 1914; Tuesday

November 1914, ,

Busy at work. Stayed at home until late trying to complete Willie Wanless’s song. Went to the practice late. Came round by myself. Read a bit at home.

Received news that the “Emden” had been destroyed near Cocos Islands by H.M.A.S.”Sydney”1. Also that the Koenigsberg2 had been entrapped on the East African Coast by the Chatham.

  1. “Emden”, a light cruiser (4.1” guns; coal-­fired, the last non-­turbine German warship), had been a successful raider in Eastern waters, latterly with a dummy fourth funnel to masquerade as HMS Yarmouth; however she reached Direction Island without it, and was spotted by the Telegraph Superintendent; HMAS Sydney, with 6” guns, answered his call. ↩

  2. “Koenigsberg”, similar to Emden but even older: successful Indian Ocean raider, traced by HMS Chatham through her collier in mid‐October, besieged and repeatedly attacked in Rujiji Delta (S. of Dar-­es­‐Salaam, then German E. Africa, now Tanzania) by RN cruisers, until scuttled under heavy attack in July 1915. ↩

5 November 1914; Thursday

November 1914, , ,

Very busy at work. Received news of a naval engagement off Valparaiso in which the cruiser Monmouth was reported to have been sunk and the cruiser Good Hope badly damaged if not sunk1. German losses are reported small. The German Cruiser Yorck2 lost on a mission in the Coral Sea. Probably one of their own mines. Affairs on land progressing favourably. Had hair cut.

Russian Victory in Galicia.

  1. “Naval engagement…”: The Battle of Coronel, which took place on 1 November and which ALL subsequently also noted in his diary entry for that day. Both vessels mentioned were in fact sunk; Good Hope was Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock‘s flagship. ↩

  2. SMS Yorck was returning from the raid on Yarmouth of 3 November, made a navigational error in heavy fog and accidentally sailed into a German minefield. ↩

4 November 1914; Wednesday

November 1914, , , , ,

Pretty busy at work. Went down to Mr Chadwick’s meeting at night. Mr Chadwick had been called away from home to his little daughter who is away and seriously ill. Mr Kettle spoke in his place. Pretty fair meeting. Played ping pong afterwards with Willie Peake, Joe and our Charlie.

The Allies progressing favourably. England declared War on Turkey1.

  1. Many sources suggest that the formal declaration of war on Turkey (by both Britain and France) actually came on 5th November, not 4th. See for example The Great War Timeline at greatwar.co.uk and Timeline of World War I at Wikipedia. ↩