Mustafa Kemal
The reported horrors of the Dardanelles campaign did nothing to improve voluntary enlistment. In response, the government passed the National Registration Act in 1915, which set up a register of the remaining men, who were then targeted in a number of ways. Posters, public meetings, tales of German atrocities and the threat of public opprobrium were all used to put pressure on men to volunteer. The Derby Scheme – named after Lord Derby, who was appointed Director-General of Recruiting in October 1915 – used door-to-door visits to invite men to ‘attest’ that they would serve if needed. Thomas mentions filling in his registration form in August 1915 and fielding a visit from the Derby campaign.
A variety of groups in society rallied to the cause, encouraging men to volunteer and women to urge them on. The Women’s Social and Political Union, better known as the Suffragettes, decided that its members should give white feathers, a symbol of cowardice, to men who had not signed up. Theatre and music hall artistes, too, joined the campaign, and Thomas must have heard some of their routines and songs on his frequent visits to the theatre. Harry Lauder, for example, toured music halls recruiting men during the evening’s performance, while Marie Lloyd sang ‘I didn’t like you much before you joined the army’ and Vesta Tilley chorused ‘The army of today’s alright’.
None of these inducements would prove convincing enough to lure Thomas to the front, however, and he began 1915 in the bosom of his family.
Friday, 1 January
Had arranged to go to Coatbridge today, but we got word yesterday that Jean had diphtheria and Mr Crozier wasn’t well, so we couldn’t get. We would not have gone in any case, as Tommy was very ill nearly all day, sick etc. Castor oil put him right. It was a wet, stormy day. The battleship Formidable sunk in the English Channel by German submarine. About 600 lives lost. A bad start to the New Year.
Saturday, 2 January
Dirty, wet day. Agnes very ill. She bathed her feet, and I put hot flannels on her back as she was sore all over. I went out the messages at night. Agnes very ill indeed, so I am in the dumps. Tommy all right again.
Sunday, 3 January
Agnes seems worse today and still in her bed. I’m thinking of sending for the doctor. All Ibrox here at night to celebrate the New Year. They arrived 6 p.m., away at 10.15. Weather good.
Monday, 4 January
Agnes still very weak and can eat nothing, and can’t get up. Got her a bottle of port wine.1 Ella Gordon here all day and Mrs Gordon later on. Nice day. Bought a pair of clay pipes.
Tuesday, 5 January
Had to rub Agnes’ back and chest as she had such a cough during the night. Ella and Nannie Gordon and Isa Ferguson here today to help us. I was glad when they all went away. It was like a boiler maker’s yard. Agnes up a little today. Tommy has got a bad cough. Very wet, dirty day.
Wednesday, 6 January
My niece Isa here all day. Agnes up a little more today, and keeping a little better. Rubbed her at night.
Thursday, 7 January
Dirty, wet day. Agnes up now. Nellie here at night. Great French victory in Alsace-Lorraine.2
Friday, 8 January
Dirty, wet day. Agnes not so bad now, but still got a cough. Britain has a vast army now at the front.3
Saturday, 9 January
Very nice day. Father here in the forenoon, May Crozier here for a little, also. I took a constitutional to Queen’s Park in the afternoon. Agnes went out the messages, being her first appearance out since her illness. German plans for smashing up Britain are made. They will do it with Zeppelins and submarines, end of this month, so they say. 150 captured German guns landed in London to decorate our parks with.4
Sunday, 10 January
Thought I would take my wife and family out a walk today, so we got ready, and then the rain came on. We stayed in. Important successes by the Allies in France: Perthes captured.5
Monday, 11 January
Wet day today. Bought a new gas mantle, for which Agnes owes me four and a half pence.6 Josephine here at tea time. I did a little joiner work at night in connection with the ‘eight day’.7 Dunkirk bombarded by German aeroplanes.
Wednesday, 13 January
Very stormy, wet day. I have got a touch of cold now in the head. Turkey is going to invade Egypt and chuck Britain out, bless its innocent heart. Roumania is going to join in the war in spring.8
Thursday, 14 January
I saw the Glasgow Territorials 5th SR and Glasgow Highlanders leaving for the front in a soaking downpour.9 The Elder came here tonight and left about 11 p.m. Frightful earthquake in Italy. Thousands killed (24,200).10
A sergeant and bugler of the 1st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Friday, 15 January
Agnes and Tommy went to Moore, Taggart and Co. in the afternoon.11 She got an ornament for her hat and a pair of socks for me and a new jersey for the boy.
Saturday, 16 January
Very nice day. Took a walk to Ruglen after dinner and back by Dalmarnock and Glasgow Cross. When I got home my father was in. I walked him home about 10 p.m. Have got a very sore nose with the cold.
Sunday, 17 January
Very nice day, but cold and frosty. After dinner we took Burnside car and went to Rutherglen Cemetery to see poor Lily’s last resting place. We called in at 200 Main Street and had our tea there.
Tuesday, 19 January
Wet, showery day. Agnes met me at 5.30 and we went out to Sam’s. Donald and Josephine had to be there also, but they did not come as Donald is not keeping well.12 The rest of the Fergusons were there, with my father. John White was working late. We all met last year at Greenlodge Terrace, but Lily was there, and now it seems harder to realise that she is gone for ever.13
Wednesday, 20 January
Isa has got a situation.14 I went into the Stirling’s Library at night to get some devout literature. Another German ‘murder’ raid on the east coast of England, this time by Zeppelins. About six killed, and of course the airship got away.15
Monday, 25 January
Brilliant naval victory in the North Sea on Sunday, the first fight in history with Dreadnought cruisers. British cruisers the Lion, Princess Royal, Tiger, Indomitable and New Zealand met a German ‘baby killing’ fleet on their way to the English coast and attack them. The German ‘blighters’ turn tail and run. One German cruiser, the Blücher, is sunk with about 700 on board, and two get seriously damaged.16
A Dreadnought
Tuesday, 26 January
I put up new ropes on the pulleys and am making the boy a wee stool.17 Got a note from the factor putting up our rent by a pound in a year. The bleeding ‘Hun’, the flaming ‘blighter’.
Thursday, 28 January
This is the Kaiser’s birthday, so 20,000 Germans are sacrificed in honour of it in an endeavour to smash the Allies at La Bassée.18
Friday, 29 January
Very nice day. Not out at night. Agnes washed the marble staircase and I loafed about. Bought two new clay pipes and put a new string on the hatchet.
Sunday, 31 January
Wet forenoon. Took a walk to town before dinner. Mr Armstrong (upstairs man) was with me with his boy. We went into his shop as he had to wind up all the chronometers. German raid by submarine on west coast of England: three boats sunk.19 They say they are going to sink all our shipping. Ora pro nobis.
Monday, 1 February
Read the gas meter and duly appalled thereby. We are in for a hard time of it. Dear provisions, rent raised, future uncertain. Oh, help!
Wednesday, 3 February
The factor here today for his rent. As he had the law on his side it was duly paid.
Friday, 5 February
Very nice day, but very cold. Bread is up to 4d a loaf now, but butter is a penny cheaper, making it 1/5. Germany saying fierce things against Britain. We are in for it, so help me bob.
Saturday, 6 February
Rained all day. After tea we all went to the Art Galleries.20 We got home at
9.30.
Tuesday, 9 February
We got a postcard from Greenlodge asking us to entertain mon père for the evening. This was awkward as we got no time to reply, and we were going out to see Sam and family, so we took him with us. John White had bought a new air gun so we did some shooting to get us in readiness for ‘Der Tag’.21 We managed home at 11.45 p.m. John saw my father home.
Wednesday, 10 February
Very cold, dirty, wet day. Not out at night. Agnes amusing herself in the washhouse all afternoon. Most bloody bayonet fighting in the eastern part of the war with the Germans and Russians.22
Thursday, 11 February
Admiralty warn us that as from tomorrow aeroplanes will be flying over Glasgow for a time and we must not molest them in any way. I won’t.
Friday, 12 February
Cold day. Rain and sleet from morn to night. Got a phone message in the forenoon from Ibrox that Agnes’ uncle James Henderson, Montrose Street, died last night.23 Did not see any aeroplanes today.
Saturday, 13 February
Bitter cold day. After dinner we went up Montrose Street and saw Agnes’ uncle’s funeral leaving. It was a great turnout. We were glad to get home again in order to be thawed. Great British raid by aeroplanes (34) on Belgian coast.24 German fortified places all bombarded. Our men all got back.
Tuesday, 16 February
I went to Sam’s at night and licked him at shooting, just by the way. It’s getting near the 18th.25 I wonder what will really happen.
Wednesday, 17 February
Tommy got his hair cut and got his customary balloon. Great British air raid by 40 machines, assisted by eight French aeroplanes, on German fortifications in Belgium.26 On and after tomorrow we are as good as dead men; so says the Kaiser.
Thursday, 18 February
This is the day. From now onward, Germany is going to sink every boat that sails in British waters by submarine and mine. Nothing has happened yet, but they torpedoed a British boat yesterday (before their time).
Friday, 19 February
This is pay day. Coals are now 1/6 per hundredweight. We are getting alarmed at the high cost of living. Second day of blockade. A French vessel torpedoed but not sunk. Another Zeppelin wrecked.27 We are going to give Germany a real blockade.
Monday, 22 February
Took Agnes and Tommy to the Cinerama at night. Another boat sunk by German submarine. American boat blown up by German mine. Norwegian boat torpedoed by German submarine.
Tuesday, 23 February
Coal up to 1/8 a bag today. Bread 3¾ pence.
Thursday, 25 February
Very nice day. Germans sink a few more of our boats with their submarines.28 We make an air raid on Ostend and kill a few German sojers.
Friday, 26 February
Engineers’ strike getting serious.29 It should please the Germans. Still raining.
Saturday, 27 February
Heavy snow night and morning. Ground white at night. Went to the library in the afternoon for some religious literature. Agnes and Tommy did not venture out. Government interferes in the engineers’ strike: they must work.
Tuesday, 2 March
Agnes having a day in the wash-house and is knocked-up by night time. Britain has declared a real blockade on Germany.30 No supplies of any kind are to be permitted.
Wednesday, 3 March
Went to Gas Works in the morning and carried home half a hundredweight of ‘coke’ (cost 4d). It really weighed about 10 hundredweight. Never again. I’ll have 2d worth next time. The engineers strike is over now. They are going to be patriots.
Thursday, 4 March
My leg is strained with carrying the half ton of coke for 100 miles.31
Friday, 5 March
Dirty wet wild stormy day. Coals are 1/7 per hundredweight. I’ll need to get more coke.32 German submarine sunk off Dover by British destroyer.33
Saturday, 6 March
Very nice spring-like day. Went out in the morning for two pennyworth of coke. A big march-out of all the soldiers in Glasgow in the afternoon, so I took Agnes and Tommy to see them.
Tuesday, 9 March
Cold day. Out for 2d of coke in the morning.34 Carried it home on my head so I have now a stiff neck. The German pirates sink a boat near Ilfracombe.
Wednesday, 10 March
Out for 2d of coke in the morning. The boss intimated a small rise in my salary today. Bought a small saw.
Thursday, 11 March
Feeling strong now so got 3d of coke this morning (42 pounds). Tommy got a new pair of boots (4/6). I bought three collars and Agnes squared off the doctor. Every second gas lamppost is lit at night in Glasgow, scarce of coal in gasworks.
Friday, 12 March
Took my usual early morning walk to the place where they make coke and carried home three stone. French progress in Champagne. 10,000 Germans killed.
Opposite page Fingal, owned by the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company, was torpedoed by submarine U23 off the Northumbrian coast, on 15 March.
Sunday, 21 March
Took a walk through Queen’s Park and on to Pollok Estate. The German pirates’ bag for the week is 11 ships (eight sunk and three reached port).
Monday, 22 March
Italy on the verge of war. The place with the fancy name (Przemysl) at last falls to the Russians.35
Wednesday, 24 March
Allied troops landed at Gallipoli (Dardanelles). Russians get chased out of Memel (Prussia). Austrian army of 119,000 taken prisoners at the fall of Przemysl.
Thursday, 25 March
Very cold day. Agnes very ill at night. She had a sore back, neuralgia and a cold in the head. I had a bad headache all day and night. Altogether we spent a very pleasant evening. The Allied fleet has resumed shooting practice in the Dardanelles.
Troops landing at Anzac Cove in the Dardanelles.
Tuesday, 30 March
Two female conductors started as an experiment on the Glasgow tramways.36 Lloyd George is thinking of shutting all the pubs.37
Wednesday, 31 March
Two liners sunk by the German pirates. One of them, the Flaminian, bound for South Africa, contained £200 of cotton duck, shipped by my firm.38 Curse the pirates.
Thursday, 1 April
To encourage his loyal subjects, King George has sworn off the bottle.39 To encourage King George I will do the same. ‘God save the King.’
Friday, 2 April
Sorted the blind so that it wouldn’t fall down again on this earth. Tommy took a sleep in the afternoon, so Agnes says he will be after taking the measles.40
Saturday, 3 April
I went out to my tailor in the afternoon and got my new ‘breeks’ and renovated jacket (19/-).41 Came back in the car with Nellie Shearer, an old Ruglen friend of mine. We went (the wife, wean and I) to the 9 p.m. house of the Majestic and were duly entertained for the sum of 18 pence. We got a postcard from Hetty giving us permission to visit them on Monday.
Opposite page The seaside location and the ‘Kilmu’ sign suggests Kilmun, a coastal village on the north side of Holy Loch, near Dunoon, easily reachable by steamer from Glasgow.
Thursday, 8 April
Germans chucked over the Yser by the Belgians.42 German armed liner interned in Newport (USA).
Friday, 9 April
Got a phone message today from Hamilton from James Bell, an old office boy of mine, to say he was back from the war. Had been a prisoner in Germany and had been exchanged and was minus a leg. He is a sergeant in the Gordons. His day of the war is over.43
Sunday, 11 April
Stayed in all day except in the morning, when Tommy and I went out for a paper and at night I went out for another.
Monday, 12 April
Colder sort of day. Tommy out for a message today for the first time ‘all by hissel’.44 Rumour going about of a naval battle in the North Sea. British casualties to date 139,347.
Tuesday, 13 April
Great explosion at Lerwick, a street des
troyed and several persons killed.45 No particulars can be got. Very mysterious.
Wednesday, 14 April
A big fire at Eglinton Toll in some grain place or brewery, so we all went along and admired it. Agnes did some whitewashing today. Five persons killed in Lerwick explosion, Government stores on fire, gun cotton etc.
Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918 Page 8