Tag Archives: Mother

Diary entries which mention Arthur Linfoot’s mother, Dorothy Linfoot (née Wilkinson). See Family page for more details.

8 September 1916; Friday

September 1916, , , , ,

Up shortly after 6.30. On duty all day. Received long letter from Joe and one from Mother telling me that George Crawford1 had enlisted. Fine day and good news from the front.

Fire at the house at the hospital. We were out all night at it. I got a job to watch the stuff we carried out of the ward. Got to sleep about 5 o’clock.

  1. George Crawford, of the Hendon Paper Works office, mentioned frequently in the 1914 diary (see footnote on 30 January 1914), according to an address in the 1917 diary entered the Army Veterinary Corps. See also all posts tagged “George Crawford” and George H. Crawford at Lives of the First World War. ↩

7 April 1916; Friday

April 1916, , , ,

Went out with Mother in the morning. Visited Granny and Whittakers and Uncle George and Aunt Mary. Stayed in and played duets all the afternoon. Left by the 6.38. All family to see me off, and Willie Whittaker, Uncle Jack and Hilda1 and Whittaker family. Joe travelled with me to Pallion. Met Shepherd at Durham and travelled by a through train. Got car into city and arrived at barracks about mid night.

  1. See Hilda disambiguation page. ↩

4 April 1916; Tuesday

April 1916, , , ,

Lay in late. Went down to see Ernie. Out with Mother and over the water1 to see the damage done by the Zeppelin raid2. Out late in afternoon. Called at Whittakers3. Called for Ernie at night. Went over with him to Whitburn later. Had photo taken at Eccles’† in Holmeside4.

  1. “over the water”: phrase commonly used by ALL and his contemporaries (usually rendered as “ower the watter”) for “across the Wear to north Sunderland”; nothing to do with the Jacobites’ “King over the water”.  ↩

  2. “Zeppelin raid”: Presumably the raid on Sunderland of 1 April noted in that day’s diary entry. ↩

  3. “Called at Whittakers”: Willie Whittaker‘s family. Willie might not have been there, having enlisted in November 1915, although he was present a few days later. ↩

  4. Holmeside was (and remains) a shopping street in the middle of Sunderland. Perhaps “Eccles” was a commercial photographer? ↩

29 January 1916; Saturday

January 1916, , ,

Got off duty at 10 o’clock. Went into town before dinner. Met Father and Mother at the station about 2 o’clock. Had dinner in town and then walked through the deer park. Came back by the lane bridge and the bottom of the camp. Back into the café for tea and then to the station. Fine day. Left by the 6.43 train.

Visit to Alnwick of father & mother.

Met Misses Mack at the station and set them up. They afterwards walked up the road with me until 10 o’clock because I had a late pass. Spent a pleasant day and night.

8 November 1915; Monday

November 1915, , , , , ,

Got up at 9 o’clock. Played the piano and then walked into the town before breakfast. In the afternoon played duets with Marmie and then walked out with Gertie. Called at Lily’s, Grandmother’s and Whittaker’s. Had tea at home, and then got 7.30 train. Father, Mother, Marmie, Gertie and Dorothy saw me off. Met Metcalfe at Newcastle. Fell in with two decent chaps too.

Left home for Alnwick.

27 July 1915; Tuesday

July 1915, , , ,

At work as usual. Mother not well first thing. Busy all day. Bid goodbye to the people at the office last thing. George Crawford gave me a Testament. Mother Got new purse, new glass1, new nail brush, handkerchiefs, and so on. Went to the station at night and made enquiries about the train. Willie Whittaker up. Went to bed late. Had a bath.

  1. “Glass”, if correct, is probably “mirror”. ↩

5 June 1915; Saturday

June 1915, , , ,

Busy as usual, finished about 2 o’clock. Had walk into town in the afternoon and bought a tie with Mother’s money for Charlie.

Russian Flag Day. Mr Churchill made a speech at Dundee1.

Had walk with Willie at night and a soldier stopped us in town and asked us if we thought of enlisting.

  1. The text of Churchill’s speech, seemingly defending his role in the Dardanelles, is available at WinstonChurchill.org. ↩

14 April 1915; Wednesday

April 1915, , , , ,

At work as usual. German Air Raid on North East Coast1. One Zeppelin passed over Blyth, Wallsend and South Shields and over the sea again. No lives lost, very little damage done. Mother and Gertie down at Rowe’s. Joe and I went out for a walk and found that all the electric lights were out and the cars2 stopped in the streets. Charlie working until after mid-­night and brought us news what it was.

  1. Wikipedia’s summary of Zeppelin raids in 1915 notes only that “two Navy raids failed due to bad weather on 14 and 15 April.” ↩

  2. “Cars”, as noted previously, means “tram-­cars” at this period – powered through overhead electric cables. ↩