Tag Archives: Joe

Joe Wiseman was a close friend of Arthur Linfoot and was married to his elder sister, Mary, known to the family as “Marmie“. See Family page.

9 May 1914; Saturday

May 1914, ,

Got up about 8 o’clock. Wet morning. Busy all morning. Finished about 2 o’clock. Played the piano and shaved. Went across to Miss Keedy’s with Charlie and Charlie tried two songs over. Bought new tie and pair of new suspenders1. Went to town with Joe again at night. Went into Dale’s and Joe bought a stick. Lily came back home with Willie. They arrived about 9 o’clock. She is to stay at Whittakers’ until they are married.

  1. Suspenders were to keep socks up – not braces for trousers, as in the American usage. ↩

4 May 1914; Monday

May 1914, , , , ,

Got up about 7.45. Busy all day. Alf off work. Finished shortly after 5 o’clock. Played the piano, read Everyman, did a bit Pelman1, and had walk last thing. Went to the Berlitz with Joe and got copies of the prospectus. Berlitz2.

Read about Alsace-­Lorraine3 & Maeterlinck4 in Everyman5. Charlie came home bad6. Dorothy not well.

  1. “Pelman”: See note on 6 January. ↩

  2. Berlitz: ALL refers at the end of some diaries to ‘improvement’ in French and German, he attended evening classes in German at some stage, and as entries in the 1917 and 1918 diaries show, he studied French both privately and in Army classes; curiously, however, while he occasionally used German jocularly in later life, he never spoke French. ↩

  3. Alsace-­Lorraine: Germany’s seizure of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine in 1870 after the Franco-­Prussian War was (with the possible exception of the financial reparations also demanded by Germany) the greatest single cause of resentment in France towards Germany before WW1. This anger also led to France’s first attacks in WW1 being aimed, disastrously, at recovering these provinces. [Quite irrelevantly – my brother CWL told me when very young that our grandfather CWL had his arm broken when playing at school at ‘the Franco­Prussian War’; he was 14 in 1869/70.] ↩

  4. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 – 1949) was a Francophile/francophone Belgian dramatist and essayist (copies of his “The Life of the Bee” and “The Blue Bird” are still found) who lived all his adult life in France – though not in Alsace-­Lorraine. ↩

  5. Everyman: see Everyman and Arthur Linfoot’s Library. ↩

  6. “Bad”: in North-Eastern English idiom means ill or unwell. ↩

29 April 1914; Wednesday

April 1914, , , , ,

Got up about 7.45. In good time for work. Mr Aitken in rather bad temper and Frank the same. Finished in good time. Aunt Mary to tea. Did a bit Pelman1. Played very little. Went down to meeting with Joe and Mr Chadwick called upon me to pray in the meeting. Walked round with Joe and talked about Pelman course. Had a bath. Went to bed shortly after 11 o’clock.

  1. Pelman: see note on 6 January. ↩

21 April 1914; Tuesday

April 1914, , ,

Got up shortly before 6 o’clock. Went for ride1 with Alf first thing. Went up Lady Byron’s Walk and back up the Stockton Road. Fine morning. Finished early at night. Played and read a bit. Went down and saw Mrs Scott about her son who has joined the Sunday School, and talked to her a good bit. Went to choir practice and it was rotten.

Charlie had a tooth out. Joe had his moustache shaved off.

Discussed choir practice for * Monday.

  1. “Ride” would of course be a cycle-­ride. There are a Byron Road & a Byron Street in Sunderland, but N. of the river; Lord Byron’s wife was Annabella Milbanke, of Seaham, so Lady Byron’s Walk (if correct) may have been in or near Seaham Harbour. ↩

6 April 1914; Monday

April 1914, , , ,

Busy at work. Finished about 5.30. Got missionary money squared up. Sat with Joe with his pupil. A letter in the paper referring to George’s and saying that the baths were to be opened as usual. I went along to Chadwicks’ last thing. Talked with him until after 10 o’clock. Read an interesting article on Frederick the Great and Voltaire1. Father ill again. Gertie went for Dr Blair and he came down again.

  1. “Frederick the Great and Voltaire”: although – or perhaps because – he had had only very basic formal education, ALL made efforts throughout his life at ‘self-­improvement’; as shown in notes at the end of his diaries on his ‘progress’ in various studies and activities, and notes on authors to be read. ↩

3 April 1914; Friday

April 1914, ,

At work as usual. Went to the Home Life Exhibition in the skating rink at night with Charlie and Willie. Had a bit sport in the yard with Charlie and Joe. Some excitement at work owing to the news that the baths have opened late. George and I wrote letters to the Echo.

Got up at 6.30.