Tag Archives: War

Diary entries which mention aspects of the war (other than naval and aerial warfare, which are separately tagged) which ALL noted but in which he had no direct involvement.

4 November 1914; Wednesday

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Pretty busy at work. Went down to Mr Chadwick’s meeting at night. Mr Chadwick had been called away from home to his little daughter who is away and seriously ill. Mr Kettle spoke in his place. Pretty fair meeting. Played ping pong afterwards with Willie Peake, Joe and our Charlie.

The Allies progressing favourably. England declared War on Turkey1.

  1. Many sources suggest that the formal declaration of war on Turkey (by both Britain and France) actually came on 5th November, not 4th. See for example The Great War Timeline at greatwar.co.uk and Timeline of World War I at Wikipedia. ↩

3 November 1914; Tuesday

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Pretty busy at work. Went up to the Garrison Field at night with Joe to join the scouts†, but they were out so we went to Green Street Hall and watched the Athletes’ Force drilling. Went to the choir practice late. Played one ping pong game and lost. Came up late with Charlie and Joe Edwards†. Received news that some German ships have been off Lowestoft1 and dropped mines which sank a Submarine2 and fired on a steamer Halcyon3.

Dardanelles forts bombarded by French & British ships4.

  1. “Lowestoft”: Wikipedia notes a Raid on Yarmouth, about 10 miles north of Lowestoft on the Norfolk coast. This raid took place on 3 November 1914. ↩

  2. “Submarine”: The submarine was the HMS D5, sunk by a German mine laid by SMS Stralsund. ↩

  3. “Halcyon”: Yarmouth coast was patrolled by the minesweeper HMS Halcyon and the old destroyers HMS Lively and Leopard. Halcyon had spotted two German cruisers, which she challenged.  ↩

  4. “Dardanelles forts bombarded…”: On 3 November 1914, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the opening of hostilities between Ottoman and Russian empires. This attack actually took place before a formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire. ↩

1 November 1914; Sunday

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At chapel and School as usual. Mr Chadwick preaching. Managed pretty well at School. Stormy day. Sacrament at night. Had only short walks. Received news of the loss of the Hermes1 off Dover. Sunk by a submarine.

Germans sink “Good Hope” & “Monmouth”2 off Valparaiso.

  1. HMS Hermes: cruiser, the first RN vessel to be fitted for carrying and launching seaplanes; she had delivered some to Dover on 30 October, and while returning to the Solent next day was torpedoed by U-27 off Ruylingen Bank, in the Straits of Dover. ↩

  2. HMS Good Hope and Monmouth: heavy cruisers sunk at the Battle of Coronel, W. of Valparaiso; there followed (8 December) the Battle of the Falkland Islands (a British victory). See 5 November for news of these events reaching ALL. ↩

29 October 1914; Thursday

October 1914, , ,

X Wednesday X Mr Aitken took Willie into the room and gave his notice X
 Finish on Saturday first. He tried to induce Willie to enlist. A good deal of excitement caused by this step. I had a slight cold so stayed at home at night and read and looked up some words.

Turkish battleships bombard Theodosia1 in Black Sea without formal declaration of War.

  1. Theodosia: in Russia, at the E. end of the Crimea. There was long-­standing rivalry between Russia and Turkey, both because of Russia’s ambitions to replace the crumbling Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, Romania and Bulgaria, and because Turkey, possessing the Dardamelles, still controlled access to the Black Sea and thus to the Crimea and southern Russia; indeed the failure of the Gallipoli expedition (1915) to open seaborne access to southern Russia was arguably a significant factor in the economic, and then political, collapse of Russia in 1917. ↩

25 October 1914; Sunday

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At chapel and School as usual. Managed pretty well in School. 2 new scholars. Wet afternoon and night and no walks. Marmie and Joe and Dorothy to tea at Willie and Lily’s. Got news that the Badger1 had rammed a German submarine off the Dutch coast.

  1. HMS Badger: a torpedo boat – only 990 tons – and this was said to be the first successful attack by an Allied ship on a German submarine (the U-19): Wikipedia says that this ramming occurred on 24 October. ↩

24 October 1914; Saturday

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Finished early. Had a tooth stopped by Mr Porteous. Walked round town with Charlie. Went to the Teachers Training Centre at night. Called for Willie Whittaker with Charlie and walked round the town a bit.

Portugal brought into the War1 by the invasion of Angola, Portuguese West Africa, by the Germans.

  1. Portugal didn’t officially enter the war until 1916 but the events alluded to here did give rise to reports that it had. See for example The Independent on October 26 1914. ↩

17 October 1914; Saturday

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Very slack at work. Finished at 1 o’clock. Walked up town in the afternoon with Father and then went to Porteous and Got last tooth out. Went up town again at night and saw them bring in some wounded. About 100 wounded arrive & more taken to the infirmary and Children’s Hospital. All the district military divisions† and ambulance men were engaged and a lot of soldiers and policemen kept back a large crowd who cheered loudly the first arrivals.

News last thing that 4 German destroyers had been sunk off the Dutch Coast1. Capt. Fox got his own back2.

  1. This was the Battle off Texel, a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel where a British squadron consisting of one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol encountered the remnants of the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats, which was en route to the British coast on a mission to lay minefields. The British forces attacked and sank the entire German flotilla of four torpedo boats. ↩

  2. Captain Cecil Fox led the British squadron in HMS Undaunted. ↩

16 October 1914; Friday

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Busy at work. Directors’ meeting. I had a few letters and managed them all right. Very late for dinner.

Got news that the “Hawke”1 had been sunk by a submarine off Scotland with heavy loss of life. Went up town at night to see Belgian wounded come in, but none arrived. Wrote to Ernie.

  1. HMS Hawke was an old cruiser (launched 1891), on patrol in the North Sea with sister ship Theseus, at which submarine U9 aimed a torpedo, which missed Theseus and hit Hawke; 524 out of 594 crew were lost. In 1911 Hawke had had the distinction of having her bow sheared off in a collision in the Solent with RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, slightly smaller but at that date still the largest liner afloat. ↩