Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918
Page 12
Monday, 10 January
Wild day. More rain. British Naval losses to date. Battleships: King Edward VII, Bulwark, Triumph, Formidable, Irresistible, Goliath, Ocean, Majestic. Cruisers: Natal, Argyll, Good Hope, Monmouth, Aboukir, Hogue, Cressy, Amphion, Pathfinder, Hermes, Hawke, Pegasus.
Tuesday, 11 January
A gathering of the clans at Greenlodge, so Agnes went there about 6 and I straight from my work. Spent a musical evening and played divers foolish games. Agnes, Tommy and I got home at 12.15 a.m. Gallipoli completely evacuated by British and French. The Turks are top dog this time.
Wednesday, 12 January
Sat in at night and listened to the wind. Austrian successes in Montenegro, which means Montenegro will share the fate of Serbia and Belgium.
Thursday, 13 January
British victory at the Tigris.3 Kaiser very ill.
Saturday, 15 January
Cold, dull day. We went to see Hetty Cook and her ma at 5.30 p.m. We played dominoes and arrived home 10.45 p.m. Dykes burst in Holland; great damage.4
Sunday, 16 January
Weather like unto yesterday. This is Communion Sunday so went to church. After dinner Tommy and I went out a walk. Shortly after 8 p.m. Sam and Nellie gave us a visit. They went away at 10.30. Sam had on his armlet. Ex fuma fama.5 Tremendous fire in Bergen.6
Monday, 17 January
During 1915, nine spies were shot in the Tower.
Tuesday, 18 January
Nice mild day. We all went out a walk at night. Montenegro
sues for peace. British blockade of Germany to be tightened.
Wednesday, 19 January
Wet, stormy day. Austria and Montenegro arranging terms.
Thursday, 20 January
Thunder, lightning, hurricanes, rain, hail, sleet. Agnes cleaning
out the room all night. Negotiations broken off between Austria
and Montenegro. Fighting again.
Friday, 21 January
Dirty, wet day. Agnes in town in the afternoon. She bought me a new tie. Nannie Gordon here at night. British submarine wrecked off Dutch coast. Crew saved.7
Saturday, 22 January
Wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning. I went to Pollokshields Library at night. Great Russian victory in the Caucasus.8
Sunday, 23 January
Stormy sort of day. Donned my uniform and took Tommy out a walk. German aeroplanes raid Kent coast. One man killed.
Monday, 24 January
Dry day, but wild. Stormy night as per usual. Agnes baking at night. We entertain tomorrow night. British relief force held up on the Tigris. Heavy losses.9
Tuesday, 25 January
Wet, windy sort of day. Mr and Mrs Ferguson, Lily and Isa and Duncan here at night. We had a night of music and revelry. Nobody killed. They all went away at 11 p.m. German seaplane attacks Dover, but gets chased.
Wednesday, 26 January
Agnes went to Ibrox in the afternoon. I reversed the waxcloth in the lobby at night to make folk think we had new stuff. German air raid on Dunkirk. Five persons killed.
Thursday, 27 January
Dry sunny day. Total British casualties (all fields) to 9 January. Killed 128,138. Wounded 353,283. Missing 68,006. Total 549,427.
Friday, 28 January
Got my hair cut. Agnes indignant.
Saturday, 29 January
Paid the factor today. Rent reduced to pre-war times, according to the law.10 Dull day. I went to library in Langside at night. Austria has wiped Montenegro off the map.
Tuesday, 1 February
Went straight to Sam from my work. Agnes and Tommy there, then we all went to a church concert. Sam helped the choir to make a noise. Big Zeppelin raid all over England. 67 killed and about 100 injured.
Wednesday, 2 February
Nice day. Agnes in the wash-house all day. The missing liner Appam turns up at an American port with a German Prize Crew on board.11
Thursday, 3 February
Cold, wet day. When I came in at night, Hetty was in. Then May came. After tea Nannie Gordon arrived. This is the age of females: lady car drivers, lady car conductors, lady lamplighters, lady postmen, lady mail van drivers, lady railway porters, lady ticket collectors.
* * *
Women at home and at work
The Livingstones of Govanhill were a representative example of an upper-working-class family in Glasgow at the start of the First World War. Thomas was employed as a mercantile clerk, Agnes had resigned her job as a cardboard cutter after her marriage, and they lived in a typically working-class tenement flat. Their house had an inside toilet but no bathroom, so bathing would have taken place in a tin bath in front of the fire, filled with water boiled on the coal-fuelled kitchen stove. Thomas writes of visiting relatives to use their bath, using the bathing (not swimming) facilities at Govanhill Baths, and stopping by the ‘religious baths’ in the Gorbals, intended for Jewish people to purify themselves before attending synagogue.
When Wee Tommy started school, he attended Victoria Primary School, on the corner of Hollybrook and Batson Streets in Govanhill. This was opened as Victoria Public School in 1905 by the Glasgow School Board, regarded as one of the leading boards in Scotland. It set high standards by employing only qualified teachers, and taking over from a number of charities the responsibility for distributing clothing and footwear to needy children and eliminating half-time education – which allowed children under 13 to spend half their time in school and the other half working – before the law required it in 1918.
Thomas and his wife Agnes had parallel systems of finance, both funded by Thomas’ wages. Agnes’ share of the budget covered food and cleaning materials, clothing for herself and her son, replaceable household goods, such as gas mantles, and transport costs for her visits to friends and family. Thomas was responsible for rent, household insurance, gas and coal, his own clothing, transport, pipes and tobacco, newspapers, family outings to the cinema or music hall, holidays and meals bought outside the home.
Before the outbreak of war, the roles of men and women had remained essentially unchanged for generations. Men were expected to be breadwinners; women were expected to obey their husbands, cook, maintain a clean and tidy house, and raise their children. If they did work outside the home, women were expected to leave their jobs when they married and devote themselves to looking after their families. Some employers had this as an explicit policy and were unwilling to hire married women who might leave at inopportune moments to have children. The First World War changed much of this, however. With the success of the pals’ battalions that allowed men to volunteer and serve with friends and colleagues, women were called upon to fill the vacancies left by local men departing for the front. One such unit was Glasgow’s 15th Highland Light Infantry, or ‘Tramways Battalion’. As a result, in 1918, the number of women employed on Glasgow’s tramway system peaked at 2,388, of whom 308 were tram drivers. They also took the place of men in other trades, and in munitions work in factories. Thomas, at first mesmerised by the sight of women working as conductors in 1915, seems hardly bothered when one turns up to whitewash his ceiling in 1917.
A woman cabbie; a lift-girl; and serving food to ‘tired tommies’.
One of the unintended consequences of women working outside the home was the increased family income, which resulted in better fed and clothed children. Women’s increased independence, their experiences in working as a group in industry and their demands for voting rights were not accepted with equal approval across society, however. While women were deemed suitable replacements for men as clerks, shop assistants and teachers, male trade unionists in the heavy industries that predominated on Clydeside were exceptionally, even militantly, concerned about ‘dilution’ caused by women in the workforce. They feared that women would choose not to join unions or that they would provide softer targets for management pressure, thus reducing the unions’ power.
Women, meanwhile, were being encouraged by the Suffragist movement to de
mand the same rights as men to vote and to stand for parliament. The authorities who were happy to take advantage of women’s labour were not so keen on this challenge to the traditional social order. Just after Emmeline Pankhurst stood up to speak at a Suffragist meeting in the St Andrew’s Halls in Glasgow (the façade of which fronts the Mitchell Library in Granville Street) at 8 p.m. on 9 March 1914, the platform was charged by 120 Glasgow police officers, one of whom had a warrant for her arrest. One eye-witness, Leonard Gow, wrote: ‘After Mrs Pankhurst had been speaking for a very few minutes, the platform, which, please mark, was occupied solely by women, old and young, was rushed by detectives and policemen with drawn batons who laid out in all directions, hitting and felling women whose only offence was that they crowded around their leader evidently trying to protect her from violence.’
* * *
Friday, 4 February
Cold, dry day. Tommy not well. Zeppelin found wrecked in North Sea by a trawler. Being sensible men, they left Zeppelin and its crew to their fate. Great fire at Ottawa. Canada
House of Parliament burned down. Seven lives lost. Germans suspected.12
Tuesday, 8 February
Weather appalling. Up to the neck in snow, slush, rain etc. So I’ve got the cold. I went myself to Sam’s at night. Family re-union etc. Derby groups 10, 11, 12 and 13 called up for 29 February.
Wednesday, 9 February
Compulsion for the army is now law.
Thursday, 10 February
Tommy got new trousers today. Air raid on Kent by two German seaplanes. Two women and one child hurt.
Saturday, 12 February
I went to Govanhill Library in the afternoon. Glasgow is going to be in darkness on 1 March, so help me bob. British minesweeper sunk in the North Sea by German torpedo boats. Hoch!13
Sunday, 13 February
Rose about 7 a.m. this morning, in full possession of my faculties and went to Queen’s Park and did not hear the cuckoo. Hail, snow, wind and rain all day.
Monday, 14 February
Vile day of snow and sleet. I made a book case for the pantry on 17 July 1913. I broke it up on 14 February 1916 for firewood. The famous British cruiser Arethusa wrecked by a mine. Ten lives lost.14
Tuesday, 15 February
All unmarried men called to the colours. My turn next. Ora pro nobis.
Wednesday, 16 February
Vile, unholy weather. Snow, rain, everything.
Thursday, 17 February
Agnes did some ironing at night. I broke the teapot tonight. Great Russian triumph. Fall of Erzerum.15 Big blow to the Turks.
Friday, 18 February
Rained and snowed all day. Streets in a high old mess. Cameroons campaign ended.16 We have only to smash up German East Africa now, and Germany is without a colony. Once again, Roumania is preparing for war.
Saturday, 19 February
Very nice day. We all went to Ibrox at night. They have a new piano there, so I went to bless it, so to speak. We had an evening of song and music. This is pay day.
Sunday, 20 February
I took a walk to Bellahouston Park before dinner. In my absence, Tommy tried the edge of the shovel on his head, and lost.
Tuesday, 22 February
I took Agnes and Tommy to the Cinerama tonight. The French bring down a Zeppelin. Crew all killed. Six German aeroplanes shot down. Good business.
Wednesday, 23 February
Very cold day. Tommy went out a message himself today. I made a sort of blind for the bathroom in order to escape a £100 fine.17
Thursday, 24 February
Very cold day. Rain at night. Jenny Roxburgh here in afternoon to tell us not to come to Clydebank on Saturday as her father fell off a building. It’s a hard world. Everybody buying green blinds just now. My patent blind a failure, so I painted the globe of the bathroom gas, which was a great success.
Friday, 25 February
Tonight’s the night all Glasgow darkened. Took my life in my hands and went over to Greenlodge myself. Great German offensive at Verdun. Terrific battle raging.
* * *
The Battle of Verdun raged from February to June 1916, as the German forces made three prolonged and determined assaults on the French fortress of that name in north-east France. The Germans planned to burst through the Western Front here and make a fresh attempt to capture Paris, but they were resisted, at an enormous cost in men and munitions. The French sustained 550,000 casualties, while the Germans suffered 434,000.
* * *
Saturday, 26 February
Dirty, wet, cold day. Snow at intervals. Took Agnes and Tommy to the town at night in order to see the … illuminations? We came home duly depressed. Cuss all Zeppelins. This is a view of Morgan Street.
Sunday, 27 February
Dirty day of sleet and snows. I did not go out at all. Made myself comfortable and amused the wife and family. Large P&O liner Maloja mined in the English Channel. About 150 lives lost. Steamer that went out to assist her also struck by mine.18
Monday, 28 February
Broke some wood wherewith to light the fire. Titanic battle still raging at Verdun. Terrific German losses.
Wednesday, 1 March
Our only lamppost in Morgan Street has got a coat of paint on the globe to make it still darker. I’ll need to wear a collier’s lamp on my hat.
Thursday, 2 March
Military Act in operation today.19 A seaplane raids south-east coast of England. A baby killed. Verdun battle stopped meantime.
Friday, 3 March
First groups of married men called up for 7 April, groups 25 to 32. I’m in group 39, so I’m in the next lot.
Sunday, 5 March
Dull day. Nannie Gordon here about 4.30 p.m., so we all went out together. We took car to Ruglen and visited the cemetery where poor Lily lies. We went round Grey’s Road and got car home from Burnside. I saw Nannie all the way home as everything is so dark. Went up and had a cup of tea with them. Tommy went out for a paper today.
Tuesday, 7 March
Tommy out playing today. Germany going to blockade Britain for ever with submarines and mines.
Wednesday, 8 March
I took Agnes and Tommy to the Majestic. Streets most awful dark. Our lamppost at the corner has got another coat of black paint. German fleet reported in the North Sea.
Thursday, 9 March
Duncan has been commanded to report himself for service in a fortnight. Me next. Agnes kind of worried. Russians marching on Trebizond. Germany and Portugal nearly at war.
Friday, 10 March
Very cold weather. Nothing special to report. General Smuts makes a good start against German East Africa. Germany declares war on Portugal. ‘Gott Strafe Portugal.’ Since the beginning of the war, the Germans have murdered 127 British civilians by bombardment, 276 British civilians by air raids, and 2,750 British civilians by drowning.
Monday, 13 March
Cold, wet sort of day. I went at night and had a wash in the religious baths, which makes me doubly good.20 Tis reported my group will be called up on 17 April. So there you are, and where are you? British auxiliary steamer mined in North Sea: 14 lives lost. Russian torpedo boat mined in Black Sea.
Tuesday, 14 March
To ‘keep the Home Fires burning’ I broke some wood tonight.21 Agnes made jam at night.
Wednesday, 15 March
The government have postponed calling up my group for a little. Austria declares war on Portugal. Verdun battle resumed once more.
Thursday, 16 March
Von Tirpitz (Pirate in chief) resigns.22 German retreat in East Africa. ‘In this world, a man must be either anvil or hammer.’23
Saturday, 18 March
Agnes and Tommy away with the Carmichaels to a cake and candy sale. I went to the Langside Library. German losses at Verdun are said to be now 300,000.
Tuesday, 21 March
Wednesday, 22 March
Very cold day. Spring commences?! Lampposts in the town are being pai
nted white so that we will not knock them down at night.
Thursday, 23 March
Heavy fall of snow in the morning. Miss Galloway, our typist, home with me tonight. She is a singist, so we did some warbling. She went away about 10.30 p.m. To guard her life I saw her all the way home. Got home myself 11.45 p.m. Riots and mutiny all over Germany.