Tag Archives: Pelman

Pelmanism was a popular system of memory training, using association of things and ideas.

8 May 1914; Friday

Got up 7.30. Busy all day. Finished about 5.30. Played a bit. Did some Pelman1. Had a walk. Wet stormy night. Charlie up all day. Willie went to meet Lily2.


  1. Pelman: see note on 6 January

  2. Willie was William Wormold Marshall; Lily was Elizabeth Jane Linfoot, second of the six surviving daughters of ALL’s uncle, Charles Poulter Linfoot, who with his youngest brother William Gaylard Linfoot and their respective families had emigrated to New Zealand in July 1912 (a 7 weeks’ voyage in the 11,500-ton SS Remuera). Recent (2020) information from descendants in New Zealand reveals that Willie had gone to see Lily in New Zealand, probably in 1913, and Lily, by then aged 22, had travelled back alone for the marriage recorded in ALL’s diary on 10 June. The Remuera had sailed from London’s Albert Dock (a Mr & Mrs Gaylard of Worthing were among those seeing it off), so perhaps that is where “Willie went to meet Lily”.

    See also Family page and all posts tagged Willie Marshall

4 May 1914; Monday

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

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

28 April 1914; Tuesday

Got up well before 8 o’clock. Busy all day. Finished about 6 o’clock. Read a little. Charlie got Toreador’s Song1 and I played it through. Did a bit Pelman2. Went to practice late. Decided on anthem “Send out thy light”. For the anniversary. Fine day.


  1. Toreador’s Song: Possibly the aria “Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” (“Your toast, I can return it to you”), popularly named The Toreador Song, from the opera Carmen, composed by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.

    This aria is for bass-baritone, which was Charlie’s singing register (see note on Charlie on the Family page). Presumably Charlie wished to sing it and had chosen ALL as accompanist on this occasion. 

  2. Pelman: see note on 6 January

17 April 1914; Friday

Got up about 7.45. A bit off form. Finished about 6 o’clock. Walked up Durham Road with Charlie. Got first 5 copies of the “History of the Nations” published by Hutchinson. They are very good. Commenced to take in “History of the Nations.”1 Went to bed about 11 o’clock. Received Pelman2 paper number 11.


  1. History of the Nations: see note on 11 April

  2. Pelman: see note on 6 January