Tommy’s War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918. Andrew Marr

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СКАЧАТЬ ²⁹ ‘Up the pole’ is a quaint term for being out of order or beyond use.

³⁰ Stirling’s library was the main public library in the city centre.

³¹ Lord Roberts of Kandahar was a distinguished Anglo-Irish soldier, who had made his name in India, Africa and Afghanistan. He was commonly known as Lord Bobs. He was a prominent advocate of conscription, and was head of the National Service League from 1905 until his death in 1914. ‘Sojers’ is how the word soldiers is often pronounced in Glasgow.

³² Thomas evidently has a set of false teeth, known as wally (ceramic or china) teeth.

³³ The Derby Stakes, run in the first week of June each year at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, is one of the most prestigious flat races for thoroughbred horses in the world.

³⁴ Thomas seems to be making fun of wedding notices, either on church noticeboards or in the press. The Latin phrase means: ‘Pray for us.’ The final sentence is the motto on the coat of arms of the city of Glasgow.

³⁵ The warships in the Clyde would appear to be an omen of the coming war. The phrase ‘Sweet Rothesay Bay’ is from the sentimental traditional song ‘Rothesay Bay’.

³⁶ The anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated each year on 12 July by members of Orange Lodges and other Protestant and Loyalist groups in Scotland and the north of Ireland. The phrase ‘the glorious 12th’ is usually applied to 12 August, the opening of the grouse-shooting season.

³⁷ Before the National Health Service was founded in 1948, people paid doctors for health care, and doctors or pharmacists for medicines. The National Insurance system, which came into effect in 1913, only covered the insured worker.

³⁸ This is likely to have been The Evolution of Man, by Ernst Haeckel, written in German and published in English in 1905 and often reprinted. Haeckel was a German biologist and naturalist who championed the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.

³⁹ The confused reports of the shooting show the speed at which gossip travels in close communities.

⁴⁰ Annie Shepherd Swan (1859-1943) was a Scottish romantic novelist who wrote around 200 popular books. She also contributed to women’s magazines. Book titles included: A Lost Ideal, Thankful Rest, The Guinea Stamp: A Tale of Modern Glasgow and A Divided House. The book was presumably for Agnes.

⁴¹ Agnes’ family, the Gordons, lived in the district of Ibrox on the south side of Glasgow.

⁴² We know that Thomas enjoyed reading and smoking his pipe. However, this is the first reference to alcohol.

⁴³ Tommy’s ‘glass of milk’ may well have been something stronger.

       1914

      The war makes its first appearance in Thomas’ diary on the day Austria and ‘Servia’, as it was sometimes written, were first at war, followed by reports of the armies of Russia, then Germany, then ‘all Europe’ mobilising. Britain entered the war when Germany invaded Belgium, since Britain and Belgium had a mutual defence treaty. On 4 August 1914, the British government declared war on Germany, King George V called out the Territorials and the government nationalised the railways. As the year progresses, Thomas charts the actions that made this ‘world’ war different from any other conflict. In August he notes that this is ‘the biggest war in the world’s history’ and that ‘a few million men’ are taking part in a battle in Belgium; in September he writes that British shipping is falling prey to German submarines but that British aviators have ‘fried’ a Zeppelin shed in Cologne; in October, he sees crowds of Belgian refugees in Glasgow and records ‘fighting by earth, air, water and under the water’; in November he notes that the war is costing Britain £1 million a day; and in December records the first of the German air raids on the east coast of England.

       Thursday, 1 January

A Happy New Year to you. On holiday today. All of us at Greenlodge Terrace.¹ There at 6 p.m. John and Lily² also there. Home 11.30 p.m.

       Monday, 5 January

Our ‘lum’ makes the most unholy noise when the wind blows, and the man below came up about 10 p.m. and said he couldn’t sleep for it.³ My oh my.

       Tuesday, 6 January

      Wrote a love letter to the factor about the lum. This is Epiphany.

       Friday, 9 January

      Man up today greasing the ‘whirly’ on our lum.

       Saturday, 10 January

Went to the library for some moral books in the afternoon. Wrote Duncan tonight.⁴

       Friday, 16 January

Very foggy and frosty. Not very well myself at night. Took some castor oil, so help me bob.⁵ Sat in front of the fire all night and made myself comfortable.

       Wednesday, 21 January

      Agnes very ill at night. Bathed her feet, gave her СКАЧАТЬ