Parade with the duties for Lower Gate Guard. Wrote some letters. Had a sleepy easy time. A sergeant of S company told me I should not have allowed two men away for pay at the same time. Wrote up diary. Managed all right. Went to bed about midnight and slept rather badly.
On Lower Gate Guard.
Bath parade in the morning. Off duty in the afternoon and wrote a letter to Betty and cleaned billy-can. Walked to the town at night with Green and turned in early.
Russians capture Trebizond1.
Paraded at 9 for field day1. I was in charge of the transport waggon and an ambulance van. Managed dinner2 better this go†3. Walked into town at night with Green. Wrote some letters at the Wesleyan room.
“Field day”, now usually used metaphorically to describe a good day, is used here in its original, literal sense to mean a day spent in field activities. ↩
“Dinner” means lunch. ↩
Rain nearly all day. Mostly N.C.O.s’ lectures. In town with Green and he bought a watch.
At church as usual. At Inwoods’ to tea and supper after writing part of a letter to Betty. Franchie away for the weekend. Millard and two Engineers there.
On parade in the morning. Major inspected and complimented our room.
Inspection by G.O.C1.
We paraded on the square and formed in line. Afterwards formed a square while he made a speech. The band played and it was quite a flash affair. Walked around Ecclesall2 way in the afternoon with Plummer. Called in the Mappin Art Gallery3. Tea at Lyons’ café4 and afterwards went to Victoria Hall with Plummer. Good concert. Miss Eva Rich’s5 choir. Walked round market place afterwards.
“G.O.C.”: General Officer Commanding. ↩
“Ecclesall”: SW. suburb of Sheffield, 2½ miles from city centre. ↩
Mappin Art Gallery, now Weston Park Museum (marked on map). See Sheffield map. ↩
J. Lyons & Co., the same company as also famously imported tea, had a large and very successful nationwide chain of cafés. There would have been a Lyons’ café in most large towns at this time. Interestingly, though irrelevantly, Lyons was also the first company anywhere to incorporate computers into its business operations, which it did in the early 1950s. Lyons’ computing efforts were so successful that its computer business was later spun off, eventually forming part of ICL, now owned by Fujitsu. ↩
Miss Eva Rich: The “Musical News & Herald” of 21 October 1922, regarding a performance of ‘Lohengrin’ by the Sheffield & District Grand Opera Society the previous week, observes that “Miss Eva Rich’s reappearance, after two years’ retirement from public singing, as Elsa, caused intense interest, and resulted in a personal as well as an artistic triumph.” She is also mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008, not with an entry of her own, but as a teacher of the Sheffield-born operatic baritone Peter Glossop (1928-2008). ↩
On parade in the morning. Major’s inspection and our room complimented. Pay parade. Usual after dinner parades.
On parade in the morning. Route march in the afternoon but didn’t go very far. At Inwoods’ at night.
On parade in the morning. Bath parade. Had good splash. Off in the afternoon. Wrote letter to Betty. Received one from Ranald MacDonald. Had hair cut. Went into city and straight back. Wrote up diary at soldiers’ home.
Field day1. Cooked our dinners2 in the field. Out from shortly after 9 o’clock until after 4 o’clock. Good day and enjoyed it.
“Field day”, now usually used metaphorically to describe a good day, is used here in its original, literal sense to mean a day spent in field activities. ↩
“Dinners” means lunches. ↩