Tag Archives: Ernie

Ernie was Arthur Linfoot’s elder brother. See also the Family page.

14 June 1914; Sunday

Sunday School Anniversary. Fine day. Mr Blaikie leading. Willie Marshall playing. Charlie sang a solo at night and a boy from St John’s Wesleyan choir sang two solos. He was very good. The service was successful. Good dinners at night. Decided to continue the service next week. Had walk at night with Ernie, Willie Whittaker, and Charlie. Sang the anthem “Send out thy light.”

16 April 1914; Thursday

Got up at 7 o’clock. Grand morning. Not very well. Easy1 day. Finished at 5 o’clock. Played the piano a bit. Read. Called at the dock at dinner time for father’s compensation money. Pupil came at night and I stayed with him. Wrote to Ernie and posted it last thing. Went to bed about 11 o’clock. Felt a bit dizzy.


  1. Illustrating the difficulties of transcription: ALL’s usual entry was “Busy day”, but the “b” and “s” strokes sometimes, as here, run together into almost a single arc: “s”. Elsewhere only a dot for the final vowel, after the stroke, is marked, though there should also be a dot before the stroke, for the first vowel; here, exceptionally, a first vowel is clearly marked, and for this reason, together with the ambiguity of the curved stroke and the fairly early finish at 5.00, I have transcribed the word as “easy”. (DL)  

13 February 1914; Friday

Got up about 7.20. Fine morning. In a bit trouble at work. Father shows signs of having got over cold. Dr Blair misses the morning. Went to the library and got out G.K. Chesterton’s “Defendant”1. Went to get hair cut. Played a bit and then went to Chadwicks’ and stayed until 10 o’clock. Called at General Post Office with parcel for Ernie. Wrote enquiring about business for sale2 in the Echo3.


  1. G K Chesterton (1874-­1936), St Paul’s School & Slade, writer & R. Catholic; best known now for Father Brown detective stories (as seen on TV, 2013). See also: The Defendant and Arthur Linfoot’s Library 

  2. “Business for sale”: the family planned to run a corner shop because Father had no wage since his accident. 

  3. “Echo”: the Sunderland Echo & Shipping Gazette, the Monday – Saturday evening paper.