Fairly busy at work. Went to the Green Street Store hall and drilled at night. Came down to choir practice late. Our Charlie at the practice.
More soldiers in town. Horses in old market.
Tag Archives: Charlie
14 November 1914; Saturday
Finished about 2 o’clock. A remarkable amount of work. Belgian Flag Day. I purchased one in the office at work and Charlie and I were tannered1 again up the town and I had to get them too. Walked up to the Workhouse Field and saw the Athletes2 drilling. Everybody in the town wearing Belgian flags. Went to the lecture at Trinity3 at night, and afterwards went to Roker out with† Willie and Mr Peake. The cars4 not working from Roker to the lower end of Roker Avenue. Fern. Motte called at the office. Bought a pair of new boots at the Store. The “Niger”5 a small gunboat had been sunk by a German submarine off Deal. No lives lost.
“tannered”: the transcription seems to be correct, and if so probably means that ALL and Charlie had again been caught by a seller of flags, for which the going rate was a “tanner”, meaning 6 old pence, equivalent to 2½p.” ↩
Athletes: the Athletes’ Force? See 6 November. ↩
“Trinity”: possibly Holy Trinity Church, Bishopwearmouth. ↩
Cars: tram-cars. ↩
HMS Niger: built as torpedo gunboat, converted to minesweeper; sunk by U-12. This was the first Allied casualty from submarines based in Belgian ports. ↩
7 November 1914; Saturday
Not much to do at work. Finished at Porteous with teeth. Walked round town in the afternoon. Walked to Whitburn with Willie Whittaker and Charlie at night. Got new pair of trousers from the Store. Received letter from New Zealand. First one for about 6 months1.
4 November 1914; Wednesday
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.
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. ↩
3 November 1914; Tuesday
Pretty busy at work. Went up to the Garrison Field at night with Joe to join the scouts†, but they were out so we went to Green Street Hall and watched the Athletes’ Force drilling. Went to the choir practice late. Played one ping pong game and lost. Came up late with Charlie and Joe Edwards†. Received news that some German ships have been off Lowestoft1 and dropped mines which sank a Submarine2 and fired on a steamer Halcyon3.
Dardanelles forts bombarded by French & British ships4.
“Lowestoft”: Wikipedia notes a Raid on Yarmouth, about 10 miles north of Lowestoft on the Norfolk coast. This raid took place on 3 November 1914. ↩
“Submarine”: The submarine was the HMS D5, sunk by a German mine laid by SMS Stralsund. ↩
“Halcyon”: Yarmouth coast was patrolled by the minesweeper HMS Halcyon and the old destroyers HMS Lively and Leopard. Halcyon had spotted two German cruisers, which she challenged. ↩
“Dardanelles forts bombarded…”: On 3 November 1914, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the opening of hostilities between Ottoman and Russian empires. This attack actually took place before a formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire. ↩
24 October 1914; Saturday
Finished early. Had a tooth stopped by Mr Porteous. Walked round town with Charlie. Went to the Teachers Training Centre at night. Called for Willie Whittaker with Charlie and walked round the town a bit.
Portugal brought into the War1 by the invasion of Angola, Portuguese West Africa, by the Germans.
Portugal didn’t officially enter the war until 1916 but the events alluded to here did give rise to reports that it had. See for example The Independent on October 26 1914. ↩
23 October 1914; Friday
The rumours at work increasing. Went down to Wanless’s at night with Joe. Had walk round with Charlie. Mr Scott asked me what I thought of the words of the song “Fall in”1.
Perhaps “Fall in and follow me”, from the song “The King’s Shilling”, subsequently used in the 1969 musical “Oh what a lovely war”; in view of poor trade at the Paper Mill, Mr Scott was presumably hoping to reduce staff costs – see 26 October. ↩
22 October 1914; Thursday
Still slack at work and talk of reducing the staff. Mr Scott talking to George Crawford about it. I went to Endeavour meeting at night and there were only a few there. Mr Kettle spoke. Sister Madge played. I played ping pong afterwards. Saw the fire engine going to a fire at Cooper, Bells’†, but it was soon out. A big fire at Robert Barrow’s† in the morning. Charlie saw it.
21 October 1914; Wednesday
Stayed in at night and read and played. Clara Butt’s1 Concert in Victoria Hall2. Charlie on platform in his evening dress suit.
Dame Clara Butt (1872 – 1936): contralto of international renown, great vocal range and remarkable stage presence (6’2”); Sir Thomas Beecham said of her that “On a clear day, you could have heard her across the English Channel.” ↩
Victoria Hall: see note on 10 January. ↩
12 October 1914; Monday
At work. Fairly busy. Stayed in at night except to go to the post with a parcel for the negro1 with picture papers in it and a letter to the insurance people confirming the interview. Father went to see Mr Wanless and showed him his hand.
Full news of Antwerp. Various opinions – certain amount of depression.
If ‘the negro’ is a correct transcription, which it may not be, it would refer to one Isaac Abadu, somewhere in West Africa, who had written out of the blue to Charlie, possibly at the Post Office, and was his pen-pal for a considerable time. Picture papers might well have been sent to him. Isaac remained a topic of conversation for many years. See also entry on 1 February 1915. ↩