The secrets of that diary begun on January 1st 1918

Now I have to say that when my friend Ann sent me a picture of a diary from 1918 I had no idea where the story would lead.

Back in December I reported the find in a story with the promise of more to come.*

I thought that when she got round to sending me more pages there would be the usual mix of diary style comments about New Year’s resolutions, a hint of Christmas excesses and the odd reminder of things to do in the forthcoming months.

And it being 1918 there might have also been a reference to the Great War about to enter its fourth year.
But none of these things, instead we have a bizarre diary with more than a little history and a plenty of speculation about its owner.

For here was the “The Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders’ Pocket Diary, 1918" price 2 shillings and sixpence, published by the Locomotive Publishing Company of 3 Amen Corner London EC 4.

The Locomotive Publishing Company was established in 1899 by two brothers who had been apprentices at the Stafford Works of the Great Eastern Railway and had begun trading in amateur photographs of railways.

From 1896 along with another brother they had launched Moore’s Monthly Magazine which a year later was renamed The Locomotive Magazine and the company continued until 1956 when it was bought by another specialist railway publisher.

And in 1992 the entire archive of pictures was acquired by the National Railway Museum.
So less a diary and more a bit of our train history.

All of which takes me back to Ann's priceless little booklet which amongst other things has a a collection of railway adverts and a list of the “British, Colonial and South American Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendents."

Sadly the owner did not vouchsafe to reveal any personal comments about his or her life but instead there are a list of French trains, locomotive numbers with dates and times.

Now the date of the diary might be a clue to the identity of the owner and I suppose the easiest conclusion was that he or she was involved in the war, or perhaps had a railway connection.

I am not sure we will ever know but I travel in hope.

Pictures; The Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders’ Pocket Diary, 1918, from the collection of Ann Love

*Starting a diary on January 1st 1918, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/start

Starting a diary on January 1st 1918

Now I have never been good at keeping diaries.

I would start with good intentions but never got past January 15th.

Of course the great diaries of history reveal much about life in the past and with that in mind one day I shall visit the unabridged writings of Samuel Pepys.

But diaries come in all shapes and sizes and do not have to be written by the great and the good to offer up insights into the past.

Last year my friend Elaine passed over a small diary written by a neighbour covering the single year of 1946.

It was a present from his mother and is the size of one of those old driving licenses and went with our young man all the way to Egypt.

The opening pages vividly record army life, from the cleaning of equipment, to inspections, and plenty of marching exercises, interspersed with going to the cinema, listening to the radio and trying to get into dances.

It is I guess the everyday preoccupations of a young man in the services.

But running through the first part of the diary is that sad reference to the woman he had fallen for.  In early January he writes that “I still love her” and this remains a a constant through the early part of the diary, getting shortened to “I.S.LH” and although she went off and married someone else she remained special to him.

I promised myself I would read the whole diary and in the fullness of time write more about his experiences of life in army in the 1940s.  Of course I didn’t having got distracted by other projects but I rather think it is time to do so.

And this is partly motivated by my friend Ann who has passed over this image of another diary and who I am hoping will tell me something about the person who owned it.

Picture; diary from 1918 courtesy of Ann Love

* The lost diary ............ life in the British Army in 1946, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-lost-diary-life-in-british-army-in.html