Category Archives: April 1916

All diary entries written in April 1916

30 April 1916; Sunday

[The pages for 29 & 30 April, which face each other, are badly smudged, in part illegible.]

At church in the morning. Band of Hope and * anniversary. Went again in the evening with Green. At Inwoods’ to tea. Slipped away from church at night to see the men before they go. Draft went to France. 500 men and a few N.C.O.s. All Alnwick men<,> nearly went with them. Paraded 9.30. Marched off about 11 o’clock. Awful crowd in the town. Great excitement. Left station shortly after 12 o’clock. The band played them out and there was tremendous cheering. Shook hands with Jackson, Foot, Metcalfe, Plummer, Parkin†, and all the rest of them. Also Willie Hunter, and George Baglin†.

29 April 1916; Saturday

[The pages for 29 & 30 April, which face each other, are badly smudged, in part illegible.]

Men parading for their gear. Off in afternoon. Went into town and had a bath with Green. Met Bennett and went to Cinderhill1 café for tea. Some fun with the girls. Went to concert at night at Victoria Hall. Met Mrs Inwood and Franchie and a lot of RAMC men. I went with them to supper. Very good concert.


  1. “Cinderhill”: uncertain transcription, but there are Cinderhill Lanes both N. and S. of Sheffield, so it may have been used as a name for a business. 

25 April 1916; Tuesday

On parade in the morning. Bank holiday1 in the afternoon and allowed out. Walked into town with Leishman. Had a drop tea at the Y.M. Went to Inwoods’ for belts2. Arranged to go to Victoria Hall concert. I met Mrs Inwood and Franchie in the car and went down together. Pretty good concert. After concert big rush for cars3. Mrs Inwood, Green and Leishman got in and left Franchie and I outside. We walked up to the Town Hall before we could get one. Stayed to Inwoods’ to supper. A man got *4 knocked down by a car and I helped to pick him up. Mr Inwood wrote out the paper of the Dublin Rebellion5.

Lowestoft6 Naval Raid.


  1. Actually the preceding day, 24 April, was the Easter Monday Bank Holiday. 

  2. “Belts”: clearly written as plural; uniform belts were often taken off indoors: presumably others besides ALL had done so the previous day. 

  3. “Cars”: Meaning tram-cars, as usual. 

  4. “Shorthand looks like “regiment”; ALL interrupted while writing – “. . man from regiment knocked down . .”? 

  5. “Wrote out the paper…”: Possibly the Proclamation of the Irish Republic

  6. Lowestoft: this was intended to be a very big operation, and was timed to coincide with the Dublin Easter Rising, the Irish rebels having asked for German supporting action. Very briefly: 8 Zeppelins bombed Norwich, Lincoln, Harwich and Ipswich on 24 April, then a strong German naval force arrived off East Anglia, and by bombarding Lowestoft and Yarmouth hoped to draw divided Royal Navy forces to be attacked and beaten separately; the Germans correctly believed that the High Seas Fleet was widely divided, part of it trying to carry out a similar plan on the German coast, but some British ships had returned after colliding in fog, and were not where the Germans expected. The German leading battleship hit a mine, and all in all the whole operation was greatly disrupted and achieved nothing. 

24 April 1916; Easter Monday

Went across to Soldiers’ Home in the morning and played the piano a bit and a game called Badminton. Met Inwoods in the afternoon and went up the moors with Mr and Mrs Inwood, Franchie, Miss Yately, an Engineer, and Leishman. Had pleasant walk. Returned to Inwoods’ to tea. After tea Mr and Mrs Ford, Meyrick, Hunter, and Read. Played games and had a bit music. Had a good time. Forgot my belt.

22 April 1916; Saturday

On parade in the morning. Went to Mappin Art Gallery1 and saw Raemarker’s [sic] cartoons2. Had tea at the Y.M. and then went to the Victoria Hall and heard W.H. Jude3. He was very good.


  1. Mappin Art Gallery, now Weston Park Museum. See Sheffield map

  2. Louis Raemaekers (1869 – 1956) was a Dutch painter and editorial cartoonist for the Amsterdam newspaper De Telegraaf during World War I, noted for his anti-German stance. A collection of his cartoons is available at The Project Gutenberg. Carreras issued a set of cigarette cards showing Raemaekers cartoons in 1916. 

  3. William Herbert Jude (1851 – 1922) was a composer and organist – sometimes called “the most brilliant organist of his day”; wrote operettas, nautical and other songs, but especially hymn tunes and other sacred music. He was presumably giving an organ recital at the Victoria Hall, rather than speaking.