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Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918

Page 24

by Thomas Cairns Livingstone


  1918

  Tuesday, 1 January

  A Guid New Year. We opened the ball by first-fittin’ the Carmichaels. After a sleep we got up, dressed etc. and got the 2.51 train from the Cross to Coatbridge. We spent the afternoon in the various bosoms of the Crozier family. Had a nice day, and then away for our train. The 9.20 p.m. train very busy, so we went class the one. Guatemala destroyed by an earthquake. 2,500 lives lost. Two British vessels torpedoed and sunk. HM minesweeping sloop Arbutus and HM armed boarding steamer Grive.1

  Wednesday, 2 January

  Went to my work at 10 a.m. and away again at 1.45. We all went to the Palace at night. Peace talks broken up between Germany and Russia. British have captured on Western Front during 1917: 74,349 prisoners. Hoch!

  Thursday, 3 January

  Fine day. Andrew home on leave so he gave us a look up at night. Submarine losses heavy this week: 18 big ships down, and three smaller ones.

  Friday, 4 January

  On to our sugar rations today. One and a half pounds to do a week.

  Saturday, 5 January

  Got a note from the tribunal letting me know that they would consider next Friday why I should not be in the army. Here’s luck! Tommy and I out in afternoon to Ruglen.

  Sunday, 6 January

  After dinner we boarded tram car for Clydebank, and visited Jenny Roxburgh and her folks. Enjoyed ourselves so well that we stayed overnight at their earnest request. It was a wild night so I didn’t need much coaxing.2 25,000 Germans revolt in Russia.

  Monday, 7 January

  Travelled in from Singer Station this morning with Kate Roxburgh.3 Agnes and Tommy spending most of the day there. When I got home at night, Agnes and Tommy just arrived before me. All of us very well pleased with our little holiday. We herewith accord Mr and Mrs Roxburgh a hearty vote of thanks (carried unanimously; loud applause). It looks as if Russia will fight Germany again.

  Tuesday, 8 January

  Invaded at tea time by crowd from Greenlodge Terrace: Pa, Josephine, Lily, Isa and Jack. Tommy got a picture book, and Josephine presented Agnes with a ‘peeny’ for state occasions and myself a new pair of ‘gallowses’.4 Put thermometer outside scullery window at night. It fell to 24°.5 It is cold!

  Wednesday, 9 January

  Agnes went to Ibrox after tea time. British hospital ship Rewa torpedoed in Bristol Channel.6 All on board saved except three Lascars.7

  Thursday, 10 January

  When I got home at tea time, visitors at the door, Tommy inside by himself. So he did not open in case it might be burglars. Agnes came in shortly afterwards. Germans are digesting ours and American peace terms, which they don’t like.

  Friday, 11 January

  I appeared before the Tribunal today, with our lawyer. They heard me for one minute, then told me to go and be ‘graded’, in other words get medically examined once again. Here’s luck! The daft wife upstairs set the house on fire today. We got the water.

  Saturday, 12 January

  Jenny Roxburgh here today. We toasted ourselves in the room. She gave Tommy a box of chocolates. Great scarcity of beef now.

  Sunday, 13 January

  Duncan here at night. The tank Julian arrives today from Edinburgh to collect money for War Loan.8 Edinburgh collected £4,342,825 in a week. British destroyer Racoon founders in snow storm off north coast of Ireland with all on board.

  Monday, 14 January

  The arctic weather continues. Tried the temperature this morning. It was below 18°9 – don’t know how much as my thermometer stops there. Agnes baked a cake for tomorrow night. The tank took up its position this forenoon in the square for a week to collect a few million pounds.10 It gave a display in the Green of demolishing trenches, barbed wire etc.11

  Tuesday, 15 January

  Snow lying very deep now. The Clyde frozen over. Sam, Nellie and John here at night. Very hard to get coal now. Coal men refuse to carry coal up. Cuss them. Great queues at the tank today. Yarmouth bombed by U-boat. Karlsruhe bombed by British airmen.

  Coalman with cart.

  Wednesday, 16 January

  Got a note from the military that they would be pleased to examine me once more from a medical point of view on the 26th at 11 a.m. prompt once again. Here’s luck! Agnes and Mrs Carmichael carried up a hundredweight of coal today in clothes baskets. In three days the tank has drawn £5,000,000, the record so far. British aviators drop tons of bombs on German factories.

  Thursday, 17 January

  This is SOS Week in Glasgow. Save our souls. Sink or swim. Stew or sausages. Steal or starve. Save or starve. Sew our shirts. Have your choice.12 I helped a neighbour up with a hundredweight of coal. Agnes and Tommy in seeing the tank, so I got them home. The tank has now drawn £6,613,395. Kiel mutiny. U-boat crews kill officers. Only eight boats sunk last week by the pirates.

  Friday, 18 January

  Snowed solidly all day. Two British destroyers sunk in storm off Scottish coast. All on board lost, except one man.

  Saturday, 19 January

  A thaw on this morning. Rain then heavy snow then very heavy rain. The roads in a terrific mess. No men to sweep up. Fitted kitchen gas with a new mantle and nozzle. Tank’s total up to last night: £8,671,658. A record!

  Sunday, 20 January

  Dull mild day. Some heavy rain. Lit a fire in room and made myself comfortable. Agnes took a turn over to see Nellie Hamilton and her baby. Glasgow beats all records with tank drawings. Total for week £14,503,714. Other totals: Birmingham £6,703,439; Edinburgh £4,764,639; Manchester £4,450,029; Bradford £4,050,000; Newcastle £3,932,324; Liverpool £2,060,512; Sheffield £1,297,698.

  Monday, 21 January

  Got a letter from the military today. Bless the military!! British naval victory in Dardanelles. Cruiser Breslau sunk and battleship Goeben beached. Strikes in Austria. War works all closed. Demonstrations against Germany.

  Tuesday, 22 January

  Had to go to military headquarters today with some information they desired. Crisis in Austria. 1,200,000 workers on strike. They actually want to stop the war!

  Wednesday, 23 January

  I got two boxes of matches in town today. Agnes went over at night to see how Andrew’s baby was keeping. British airmen bomb German towns.

  Thursday, 24 January

  May Crozier and Hetty Cook here at night. Seven boats sunk by the pirates last week. British airmen bombing away at the Goeben.

  Friday, 25 January

  Mrs Gordon here in the afternoon to see if I’m in the ‘sojers’ yet. I’m not. Germany defiant yet. Refuses the Allies’ peace terms. We will maybe get on with the war now.

  Saturday, 26 January

  I went up to Sauchiehall Lane to be overhauled by the Medical Board. They marched a dozen of us to an Orange Lodge in Cathedral Street and studied my anatomy there. Not having the development of Sandow, I was passed ‘Grade 3’.13 I don’t suppose I’ll have to fight. We all went to the Majestic at night.

  Sunday, 27 January

  I went to Divine Service in the forenoon. After dinner I went as far as Govan and saw the boats. The boats are all ‘camouflaged’ in a wonderful manner. Like this. The food controller says that in one week in December the Germans sunk 3,000,000 lbs of bacon and 4,000,000 of cheese. Got strafe the Huns.

  Monday, 28 January

  Dirty wet day. Agnes in the wash-house. Tommy had a bit of a cold so he stayed in and watched the house. Cunard Liner Andania torpedoed north coast of Ireland, but got towed to port.14

  Tuesday, 29 January

  Provisions getting scarce, so I hunted the town today and got ¼lb of tea, ¼lb of cheese and ½lb of margarine, total cost 2/6. Big German air raid on London. 47 killed, 169 injured. German aeroplane down in flames. Berlin workers strike. 100,000 out.

  Shocked air-raid victims make their way to shelter in London.

  Wednesday, 30 January

  We all went to Sam’s house at night. Another air raid on London. Three killed, 10 injured. 750,000 strike
rs out in Berlin, so they say. The Clyde workers want peace or they ‘down tools’.15

  Thursday, 31 January

  As my shaving brush is getting bald-headed, I got a new one today for 1/6. Agnes did a pile of ironing at night. Big shipping losses last week. 15 boats down. Mutiny and strikes all over Germany. Air raid over Paris.

  Friday, 1 February

  Meant to put varnish on the soles of my boots, but couldn’t get the shiny stuff in Govanhill.16 It is evidently as scarce as beef or matches. Berlin in a state of siege owing to the strike. Between 20,000 and 30,000 deserters in Switzerland from the various armies. Some of them British.

  Saturday, 2 February

  We all went out in the afternoon. I got some varnish and a box of matches. Great joy. Put a coat of varnish on Tommy’s boots to make them watertight. British captures for January: 171 prisoners, seven machine guns and three trench mortars. Rebellion crushed in Germany.

  Sunday, 3 February

  Took Tommy down to the docks after dinner and let him see the pie-bald boats.17 When we got home Agnes was dressed ready for Kirk. She went herself. In her absence, Andrew (the ‘sojer’) dropped in. His son and heir was Christened at Kirk today, so he had got leave for a day. His advice to me: ‘Keep out the army.’

  Monday, 4 February

  I tried to get lard (what you need to make apple cakes with) but got none in the town. We were delighted when Jenny Roxburgh came in at 9 p.m. She is nursing a sister in Maryhill. I saw her all the way home. Two British aviators get 10 years penal in Germany for dropping tracts.

  Tuesday, 5 February

  Went into the library at Miller Street for some godly literature. Got a little note this morning from the City of Glasgow Local Tribunal. Notice of hearing to be considered at the place and date indicated. Nature of application or of question raised: G39 L40 R1. Date, Friday, 8 February 1918. 2 p.m. At 249 George Street in Committee Room 204.18 Now we know what to do.

  Wednesday, 6 February

  Dirty, wet, cold day. To brighten up our lives we took seats in the Palace tonight, situated in the Gorbals. Agnes got a quarter pound of real butter today. Britain threatens stern reprisals on Germany if she does not give proper treatment to the captured aviators. Since the war began Germany has murdered by air raids and U-boats 14,120 British civilians including women and children.

  Thursday, 7 February

  Received today from the Ministry of Food an application form for food tickets. We are going to be starved. I have to fill up aforesaid form. Tuscania (Anchor Line) sunk: great Clyde liner torpedoed off Irish coast. 2,000 American troops aboard. 209 on missing list. 2,187 persons saved.

  Friday, 8 February

  I went to the Tribunal today and the military man wanted to make me a clerk but I got exemption. What they call ‘conditional exemption’.19 Great relief in the home circle. U-boat that torpedoed the Tuscania meets a like fate by a British destroyer.

  Saturday, 9 February

  At 11 p.m. Agnes was presented, as a slight token of esteem, with a nice silk blouse by Mrs Carmichael, the ‘munitioneer’.20 Lord Jellicoe warns us that we are in for a bad three or four months with the U-boats. He’s a cheery bloke.

  Sunday, 10 February

  After breakfast, Agnes and Tommy went to church. Germany seems to be massing troops on Western Front.

  Monday, 11 February

  Horse flesh is now an official ration. Ora pro nobis. Russia throws up the sponge. All Russian armies demobilised. So Roumania is left in the lurch.

  Tuesday, 12 February

  I got a love letter from Jenny Roxburgh today saying they were coming out on Saturday. HM destroyer Boxer sunk by collision in Channel last Friday. One boy lost. (An old destroyer dated 1894.) Wilson warns Germany: ‘America will never turn back.’

  Wednesday, 13 February

  Got a note from the Tribunal this morning telling me to join the Volunteers. We went to the Palace at night.

  Thursday, 14 February

  Got our food ticket today for butter or margarine, and tea.21 Now we are going to starve. To fulfil the majesty of the law, I went out tonight to join the Volunteers. Not being a ‘one’ man, they let me off.22 Nothing doing. Cleaned the windows when I came home. Heavy losses this week by the U-boats. 19 boats sunk.

  Friday, 15 February

  Very busy tonight. Polished the jam-maker and parlour pokers etc. Washed the lobby floor. Agnes put curtains on room windows. Bolo, the arch-traitor in France, sentenced to die.23 British captures last year: 168 heavy howitzers, 68 heavy guns, 438 field guns, 1,055 trench mortars, 2,843 machine guns.

  Saturday, 16 February

  Rose this morning at 5.20 and washed the blinking floor. Jenny Roxburgh and her three sisters here at 3.30 p.m. We had a lively time. I saw them all off by 10.17 tram from the Cross. German submarine fires a few shells into Dover. One child killed. German destroyers raid the Straits of Dover, sink eight trawlers and drifters and kill 30 of our men. The war is costing us £6,384,000 per day.

  Sunday, 17 February

  Dull, cold day. After breakfast I took a seven-mile walk in the country by Ruglen and Croftfoot. We favoured Ibrox at night with our company. Air raid on London: 11 killed, four injured.

  Monday, 18 February

  Was delighted? to get a ’phone message from Lily that she and her Ma would be here at night. Lily here at tea time and Josephine on or about 8 p.m. I saw them to the car about 10.30 p.m. We start on our beef ration card today. Another air raid on London. 19 killed and 34 injured. Germany again at war with Russia.

  Tuesday, 19 February

  Broke a few sticks at night. Another air raid on London gets turned back.

  Wednesday, 20 February

  We all went to the Palace tonight. British air raids into Germany. German patrol warship strikes mine in Baltic. Crew drowned. Germany wants indemnity from Russia of £800,000,000.

  Thursday, 21 February

  Oiled our ancient sewing machine thoroughly and filled a few spools. Broke some sticks, also a small hammer.

  Last week’s U-boat losses: 15 boats down, 12 large steamers and three small. British advance from Jerusalem, four miles from Jericho. Our mercantile losses last year – 1,302 ships; 824 over 1,600 tons, 296 under 1,600 tons, 182 fishing boats. 666 unsuccessful attacks. D … the Germans.

  Friday, 22 February

  Mended the wee hammer I broke last night. Washed floor tonight. General Allenby reports that Jericho was occupied by us yesterday morning. Cavalry reach Jordan. Germans advancing through Russia. Italian air squadrons bomb Innsbruck.

  Saturday, 23 February

  All Ibrox here about 6 p.m. After tea Mrs Gordon, Mrs Livingstone and the Misses Gordon favoured the company with a few songs, the accompaniment being tastefully rendered by TCL. Number of recruits accepted for service in the army during 1916 was 1,190,075.

  The Livingstone family was musical, and often entertained one another with renditions of popular songs such as this one by Irving Berlin.

  Sunday, 24 February

  Wild wet day. I did not go over the doorstep today. Sunday is a day of rest anyway. Between 5 December 1917 and 19 February 1918, British airmen have raided German territory 20 times and dropped bombs on the beast to the weight of 48,706 pounds.

  Monday, 25 February

  Russia surrenders abjectly. Humiliating peace.

  Tuesday, 26 February

  Agnes spending the day in the wash-house. Tommy taking photographs now (of a kind). Germany making for Petrograd.

  Wednesday, 27 February

  We all went to the Palace to see the pictures. Got a note in letter box when we got home. Sam had evidently tried to get in. Sorry! Union Castle Liner Glenart Castle (hospital ship) sunk in Bristol Channel by U-boat. 150 lives lost.

  Friday, 1 March

  Took a run out to the shop to see Sam at night to arrange about the concert etc. Japan to watch over Allied interests in the Far East.

  Saturday, 2 March

  In the a
fternoon I took Tommy by the hand and we walked out to Rutherglen. I saw my tailor on the possibility of a new pair of ‘culottes’ for myself. Our captures during February on Western Front: 312 prisoners and 20 machine guns. German torpedo boat and two minesweepers sunk by mines in North Sea.

  Sunday, 3 March

  After dinner I took a walk through Queen’s Park. Russian capital removed to Moscow. Bolsheviks reported to have seized Vladivostok.

 

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