Category Archives: 1915

All diary entries written in 1915.

11 June 1915; Friday

June 1915,

At work all day and working again at night. Two Torpedo Boats sunk by German Submarine in North Sea, No 10 & 121.

  1. Two torpedo boats, ex-Cricket-class coastal destroyers, sailed from Harwich at midnight on the 9th June, on patrol off Thames estuary, searching for reported submarines with three other TBs and five destroyers. Both were mined on 10 June; mines laid by UC.11 two days earlier. TB12 (ex-Moth) was mined first (thought to have been torpedoed at the time) . TB10 (ex-Greenfly) suffered the same fate while trying to take TB12 in tow. See Naval-History.net. ↩

10 June 1915; Thursday

June 1915

At work as usual. Busy all day. Commenced overtime1 at night.

  1. “Overtime”: for some reason, Hendon Paper Works always had a non-fiscal-year accounting year, which meant that the office staff had to work overtime (for the year-end accounts) in June, when the evenings were longest and finest. ↩

9 June 1915; Wednesday

June 1915, ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Finished about 6 o’clock. Grand day. Had walk at night with Charlie. Played a bit. Mr Balfour1 announced the loss of a German submarine.

  1. “Mr Balfour”: Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, a Conservative politician who had  served as Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905, succeeded Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty following the formation of Asquith’s coalition government in May 1915.  ↩

8 June 1915; Tuesday

June 1915, ,

At work as usual. At practice at night. Directors’ meeting. I had one letter off Mr Lawson. Got work well up to date. Went to choir practice with Charlie and came up with him, Willie and Blaikie. Grand day. Got measured for suit of clothes at Stewart’s but cost 35/61.

  1. i.e. £1 15s. 6d. (£1.77½ – roughly equivalent to £180 in 2015.)  ↩

7 June 1915; Monday

June 1915, ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Took down summary. Fine day. Mr Lawson in at night.

Sub. Lt. Warnebrooke brought down a Zeppelin near Bruges12 . Success at Dardanelles.

  1. The name ‘Warnebrooke’ is clearly written in longhand, but appears to have been an error, on the part of ALL or of the report on which he relied, and should have been written as ‘Warneford.’ Sub-Lt. Reginald A J Warneford RNAS, based at Veurne on the Belgian coast and flying a Morane-Saulnier Type L over Ghent, on 7 June 1915 destroyed airship LZ37 by bombing it in the air. He was awarded the VC and Legion d’Honneur, but on the same day as receiving the latter (17 June) was killed in a flying accident. ↩

  2. More recently Reginald Warneford has been the subject of some controversy, apparently arising from a decision not to include him in the series of new memorials honouring those awarded the VC during the First World War which are planned to mark the centenary. According to The Telegraph, only VC winners born in Britain are to be included – Reginald Warneford was born in India. ↩

6 June 1915; Sunday

June 1915, , ,

At church as usual. Went down to Sunday School and met John Wilkinson and stayed to talk to him. Walked up Holmeside with him. He has joined the Flying Corps and is going away next week. Had usual walks. Fine day. Mr Chadwick preaching.

Air Raid on Hull1. 24 killed, 40 injured.2

  1. Internet accounts are unclear, but Hull suffered either 8 or 12 Zeppelin raids from 1915 to 1918, with raids in 1916 -­ 18 considered the worst; as the total killed is stated as 54, 24 on 6 June 1915 seems high. Zeppelins could carry 2 tons of bombs, eg 4 x 500lb, much more than aircraft then could, and could fly above the fighter aircrafts’ ceiling. ↩

  2. See also: Education Resources at the National Archive. The material on this page relates to the June 1915 Zeppelin raid on Hull and suggests a somewhat lower number of casualties. ↩

5 June 1915; Saturday

June 1915, , , ,

Busy as usual, finished about 2 o’clock. Had walk into town in the afternoon and bought a tie with Mother’s money for Charlie.

Russian Flag Day. Mr Churchill made a speech at Dundee1.

Had walk with Willie at night and a soldier stopped us in town and asked us if we thought of enlisting.

  1. The text of Churchill’s speech, seemingly defending his role in the Dardanelles, is available at WinstonChurchill.org. ↩

3 June 1915; Wednesday

June 1915, , , , ,

At work as usual. Had dinner at the office. Got well up to date. Went down to chapel at night and walked up with Blaikie and Willie Whittaker. Spoke to Billy Winter on the telephone and offered him to keep in touch about enlisting. Fine night. Kitchener received decoration of K.G.1

Turkish transport sunk by British submarine.

  1. From the London Gazette: “The KING has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of His Majesty’s Birthday, to appoint Field Marshal The Right Honourable Sir Horatio Herbert, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, K.P., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.S.I.,G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., to be a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.” ↩