Tag Archives: Sheffield

Diary entries written while Arthur Linfoot was in Sheffield during his basic training and while waiting for his deployment to Northern France. See also Sheffield map.

22 April 1916; Saturday

April 1916,

On parade in the morning. Went to Mappin Art Gallery1 and saw Raemarker’s [sic] cartoons2. Had tea at the Y.M. and then went to the Victoria Hall and heard W.H. Jude3. He was very good.

  1. Mappin Art Gallery, now Weston Park Museum. See Sheffield map. ↩

  2. Louis Raemaekers (1869 – 1956) was a Dutch painter and editorial cartoonist for the Amsterdam newspaper De Telegraaf during World War I, noted for his anti-German stance. A collection of his cartoons is available at The Project Gutenberg. Carreras issued a set of cigarette cards showing Raemaekers cartoons in 1916. ↩

  3. William Herbert Jude (1851 – 1922) was a composer and organist – sometimes called “the most brilliant organist of his day”; wrote operettas, nautical and other songs, but especially hymn tunes and other sacred music. He was presumably giving an organ recital at the Victoria Hall, rather than speaking. ↩

20 April 1916; Thursday

April 1916,

Parade with the duties for Lower Gate Guard. Wrote some letters. Had a sleepy easy time. A sergeant of S company told me I should not have allowed two men away for pay at the same time. Wrote up diary. Managed all right. Went to bed about midnight and slept rather badly.

On Lower Gate Guard.

18 April 1916; Tuesday

April 1916,

Paraded at 9 for field day1. I was in charge of the transport waggon and an ambulance van. Managed dinner2 better this go†3. Walked into town at night with Green. Wrote some letters at the Wesleyan room.

  1. “Field day”, now usually used metaphorically to describe a good day, is used here in its original, literal sense to mean a day spent in field activities. ↩

  2. “Dinner” means lunch. ↩

  3. Presumably better than on 11 April. ↩

15 April 1916; Saturday

April 1916, ,

On parade in the morning. Major inspected and complimented our room.

Inspection by G.O.C1.

We paraded on the square and formed in line. Afterwards formed a square while he made a speech. The band played and it was quite a flash affair. Walked around Ecclesall2 way in the afternoon with Plummer. Called in the Mappin Art Gallery3. Tea at Lyons’ café4 and afterwards went to Victoria Hall with Plummer. Good concert. Miss Eva Rich’s5 choir. Walked round market place afterwards.

  1. “G.O.C.”: General Officer Commanding. ↩

  2. “Ecclesall”: SW. suburb of Sheffield, 2½ miles from city centre. ↩

  3. Mappin Art Gallery, now Weston Park Museum (marked on map). See Sheffield map. ↩

  4. J. Lyons & Co., the same company as also famously imported tea, had a large and very successful nationwide chain of cafés. There would have been a Lyons’ café in most large towns at this time. Interestingly, though irrelevantly, Lyons was also the first company anywhere to incorporate computers into its business operations, which it did in the early 1950s. Lyons’ computing efforts were so successful that its computer business was later spun off, eventually forming part of ICL, now owned by Fujitsu. ↩

  5. Miss Eva Rich: The “Musical News & Herald” of 21 October 1922, regarding a performance of ‘Lohengrin’ by the Sheffield & District Grand Opera Society the previous week, observes that “Miss Eva Rich’s reappearance, after two years’ retirement from public singing, as Elsa, caused intense interest, and resulted in a personal as well as an artistic triumph.” She is also mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008, not with an entry of her own, but as a teacher of the Sheffield-born operatic baritone Peter Glossop (1928-2008). ↩