Tuesday, 24 September
Tommy seems more like himself today, but still in bed. The Bulgarian rout continues. Serbians have advanced over 40 miles. Turkish rout continues in Palestine. Haifa and Acre entered.
Wednesday, 25 September
Doctor up. Tommy much improved and temperature normal. Don’t feel well myself tonight. I’m up the blinking pole. Sat at the fire and enjoyed myself. Think Tommy has ‘smitted’me.70
Thursday, 26 September
Stayed in bed all day. I can’t be feeling well. Serbs still advancing. British troops invade Bulgaria. Palestine lost to the Turks. 45,000 captured to date.
Friday, 27 September
Got tired lying in bed so went to my work today. Feeling not so bad but my nose ran awful at night. Tommy improving. Ella Gordon here at night. Fresh British advance on a wide front near Cambrai. Franco-American attack on 40-mile front in Champagne. 16,000 prisoners. Serbs have advanced miles altogether and captured 10,000 prisoners. British and French troops storm heights in south Bulgaria.
Saturday, 28 September
Terrific day of rain. Tommy up for a little. I am not well.
Above written by Agnes.71 I will now take up the pen. My nose running awful all day. Second British Army and Belgian army begin attack this morning in Flanders. 10,000 prisoners taken by British on Cambrai front, and 18,000 by Americans and French in Champagne. Bulgaria sues for an armistice.
Sunday, 29 September
Nice sort of day. I’m either getting better or just taking the influenza so stayed in bed all day. Took a dose of castor oil. Josephine and Pa here at evening. Put all the clocks back one hour tonight. ‘Summer time’ ended. British two miles from Cambrai and have now taken 12,000 prisoners.
Monday, 30 September
Nice day, and this is the autumn holiday. Not feeling any better, so stayed in bed till 4 p.m. Played Tommy and Agnes an exciting game of Ludo. Agnes in the wash-house doing her ‘white things’. Ten years ago on this holiday, Agnes and I went to Kilmun. Bulgaria out of the war. Unconditional surrender to Allies’ terms. A fatal blow to Germany. British on the outskirts of Cambrai.
Tuesday, 1 October
Went to my work. Feeling not bad now. Agnes in wash-house all day. Nellie Hamilton (Andrew’s wife) and her wee boy here at tea time. Hostilities cease today with Bulgaria. Germans fighting desperately to retain Cambrai.
* * *
Working week
Thomas worked for Paterson, Baxter and Company, linen and sailcloth manufacturers, of 170 Ingram Street, in central Glasgow. They had other offices in Leeds, London, Cape Town, Oslo and Copenhagen. The firm, which at the time of the diaries was owned by Alexander Baxter, traded from 1880 to 1964. Thomas’ office sat at the heart of what is now called the Merchant City, a revitalised and redeveloped area filled with up-market shops, restaurants, hairdressers, bars and flats. In Thomas’ time it was far less grand. William Power, writing in 1922, referred to the area as the ‘werrus’ or warehouse region, dominated by wholesalers of cloth and clothing, household goods and fruits and vegetables.72
In the 1910s, the majority of people in Glasgow were employed in physical labour, whether riveting together the hulls of great ships, packing shells for the front or working the machines that made textiles, tools, tramcars or tobacco. Thomas was among the elite of the working class: as a clerk he was paid monthly rather than weekly, his work did not involve physical exertion, and he was unlikely to be injured in the course of his employment. He had leisure time to visit the library, walk in the country, or enjoy a family sing-song. He could afford a piano, and had money for trips to the theatre and cinema, and holidays in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in the Clyde estuary, or in the north of Ireland.
One of the buildings in Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow’s centre of commerce.
As a mercantile clerk, Thomas was a junior member of the business community in the city, not the industrial working class. The centrepiece of the Glasgow business community at the time of Thomas’ diaries was the Royal Exchange, sitting in the centre of Royal Exchange Square. This building, which faces along Ingram Street, would have been familiar to Thomas from the outside. If he had penetrated its impressive portals, what would he have found? G. B. Primrose described the business of the Royal Exchange as he knew it in 1922:
If you are wishing to build an ocean liner, go into the Royal Exchange and you will meet members of several firms willing to make the steel plates for it. If you are wanting timber for its decks or sheets for its ventilators, you will almost instantly knock up against the people who can provide these needs. Perhaps you have a cargo of coal to send to south America. In the Royal Exchange you will find many men eager to ship it for you. Or perhaps you yourself are a shipowner, and are looking for a cargo. There is no place you are more likely to pick it up than on the floor of the Royal Exchange.73
The other nexuses of power in the city were the Glasgow Stock Exchange in St George’s Place, where shares were bought and sold, and the Corn Exchange in Hope Street and its near neighbour the Central Hotel, where grain trading and other agricultural business were conducted.
Thomas may not have moved in quite these circles, but he did wear a suit and a bowler hat, which marked him out as someone who did not make his living by the sweat of his brow. The workers wore flat caps, as Thomas did in his leisure time, but for work he donned the bowler that indicated his status among the business and administrative classes.
Thomas’ working week, like that of most people who worked in offices or banks, ran from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday, with a ‘dinner hour’ in the middle of the day, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Christmas Day, unless it fell on a Sunday, was just another working day. Banks, insurance companies and some offices that did business with England would be closed, but most offices, markets, factories and shops would be open as usual. New Year’s Eve, better known in Scotland as Hogmanay, marked the beginning of a two-day holiday during which people held family reunions, gave presents and visited friends and neighbours.
Agnes’ working week was perhaps less structured than her husband’s, though no less busy. His office job was not physically strenuous and his contribution to the household tasks was generally limited to joinery, painting, washing the windows, polishing brass pans and doorknobs and taking part in spring cleaning. Agnes’ week, however, involved at least one full day of heavy manual labour in the unpleasant surroundings of the communal wash-house. With no electrical appliances to make life easier, nor rubber gloves to protect her hands, this would have involved soaking the household’s clothing, bedding, towels, curtains, wash-cloths and other textiles in a wash-tub with hot water and soap, scrubbing them by hand on a washboard, then rinsing them and putting them through a mangle before hanging them to dry, either on the washing lines in the back green or on the kitchen pulley. This was heavy, backbreaking work, and Agnes often followed it up with an evening ironing, pressing hot and heavy tools that had been heated on the range across damp clothing or bedding until they were smooth and dry.
Whatever illnesses Agnes was otherwise susceptible to, this weekly ordeal would surely have exhausted and weakened her. And while Thomas was willing to help with some of the routine household chores, Agnes did the bulk of the domestic work. In addition to looking after the family’s washing and ironing, she would have shopped every day for perishable foods and cooked all meals from scratch, as well as making her own home bread and jam. She had a sewing machine to help repair clothes, but even so the weight and bulkiness of many of the family’s clothes would have made this heavy work. And once a week it was her turn to wash the communal stairs leading to the family home, using a stiff brush, harsh soap and hot water.
Thomas was also on hand to help with the spring and autumn cleaning, when he and Agnes would carry their carpets and mattresses outside to beat the dust out of them, and both of them were involved in re-painting their house when the need arose. With all other domestic tasks, however, when Agnes was too
ill to work her female relatives stepped in to the breach. Driving trams and packing shells may increasingly have been women’s work, but so was washing, cleaning and cooking.
* * *
Wednesday, 2 October
Rain fell gently all day long. Agnes in dire distress all day long with neuralgia. St Quentin taken by the French. Terrific battle for Cambrai. Damascus occupied by British.
Friday, 4 October
After tea time Agnes had a lie down, the pain in her face and head so severe. All out, hors de combat, dead to the world, up the pole, non compos mentis.74 I put Tommy to bed and sewed a button on my nether garments. British and Italian warships raid Durazzo, Austrian naval base, and destroy fortifications etc. Italian offensive in Albania. Haig captures 4,000 Germans at St Quentin.
Saturday, 5 October
Agnes’ head a little easier. Agnes went into Bow’s at night and came home with a waxcloth affair for the hearth and a candlestick. We are going to give up the gas. King Ferdinand abdicates the Bulgarian throne. Germans show signs of retreat from Belgian coast. The German army is smashing up.
Sunday, 6 October
Terrific rain all day and wind blowing a thousand miles an hour. We did not go out. About 7 p.m. Kate Roxburgh came up to see how we all were. She gave Tommy a bunch of grapes from Jenny. Poor Jenny is suffering constant pain now. More victories. Germans again retreating on British, American and French fronts. British about four miles from Lille.
Monday, 7 October
Wrote to Duncan tonight and we made up a parcel of food for him, as they evidently don’t feed him in the army. Put some canvas up side of scullery window to lessen the wind coming in. Germany sues America for an armistice to discuss peace.
Tuesday, 8 October
Went myself at night to Greenlodge and had a musical evening. Got home at 1.15 a.m. Agnes in desperation with neuralgia. Got very little sleep. Great British offensive on 20-mile front launched today between Cambrai and St Quentin.
Wednesday, 9 October
The Spanish Influenza getting serious in Glasgow. Agnes got some neuralgia powders today which eased the pain somewhat. Fall of Cambrai. British enter today. Enemy still retiring. President Wilson replies to Germany: ‘Must quit invaded territory.’
Thursday, 10 October
Another vile day of rain. Agnes and Tommy in town in the afternoon. At night Agnes went down to Clydebank to see Jenny. British making headway in Cambrai Battle. Yesterday’s victory: 12,000 prisoners. 200 guns. In seven weeks’ fighting, British have taken 110,000 prisoners and 1,200 guns. German army faced with disaster.
Friday, 11 October
Tommy got out to play today. I went to Langside Library at night. British capture Le Cateau. Argonne Forest won by American troops. French make progress on Chemin des Danes. Big Japanese liner Hirano Maru torpedoed off Irish coast, 201 lives lost. Irish mail steamer Leinster torpedoed off Irish coast, 600 lives lost. American steamer Ticonderoga torpedoed, 10 officers and 200 enlisted men lost.
Saturday, 12 October
We are to be allowed only one hundredweight of coal per week. My oh my. British past Le Cateau, now making for Douai. Great German retreat now started from Belgian coast to Verdun.
Sunday, 13 October
Took a walk into town in afternoon to see if there was any excitement over the ‘peace’ proposals. I saw no signs. In the evening we did a little singing. I thought I heard the neighbours going for the police or the fire brigade, so we gave it over. Germany says it agrees to Wilson’s peace terms.
Tuesday, 15 October
Dull day. Some rain at times. Agnes in the wash-house. Put some patches of waxcloth in scullery at night. 310 deaths in Glasgow last week from influenza. 10,000 prisoners taken in great battle in Flanders. American troops advancing north of Verdun. Socialists in Germany demanding Kaiser’s abdication. Wilson replies to Germany’s peace proposals: ‘Armistice on battle field.’
Wednesday, 16 October
Very nice day. Played Tommy at quoits tonight. Agnes ironed and otherwise enjoyed herself. In Flanders offensive we have captured 12,000 prisoners in last couple of days. Menin taken and now on road to Courtrai. Durazzo (Albania) captured by Italians.
Thursday, 17 October
The good weather continues. Father here at tea time. Says he came here to get warm as they have no coal in Greenlodge. Agnes went down to Clydebank to see Jenny. Lille taken. A British triumph. Heavy blow to Germany. Belgians capture Turnhout and are making for Bruges. New attack launched today by British on Bohain-le-Cateau front. Wild scenes in Berlin. Looks like revolution.
Friday, 18 October
Dirty wet day. Got a note from our Hun-factor increasing our rent to £4 per quarter. We take Ostend, Tourcoing and Roubaix. Belgian cavalry near Bruges. French cavalry near Thielt. The Germans would like to ‘negotiate’.
Saturday, 19 October
Dirty wet day. Tommy needs a new pair of gloves, so Agnes took him into town at night and got him a pair. Allies sweeping on. Bruges cleared of the enemy. Entire Belgian coast abandoned by Germans. Belgians reoccupy Zeebrugge. British capture Thielt.
Sunday, 20 October
Dull, dry day. Agnes and I both at church in forenoon (communion). Tommy stayed at home all by his little self. In the afternoon we took a walk through Queen’s Park, Shawlands and home by Cathcart. Having left some music at Greenlodge we all went there at night and had to walk home. America answers Austria’s peace appeal: ‘No negotiations or armistice.’
Monday, 21 October
Agnes and Tommy out at Coatbridge in the afternoon. I went to the Cross Station and met them there at 9.50 p.m. and escorted them home. Big British victory, River Selle. Heavy fighting. French break through Hunding Line. British army fighting a battle on 40-mile front. German reply received. Negotiations wanted etc. etc. Steamer Dundalk torpedoed between Liverpool and Ireland. 16 lives lost.
Tuesday, 22 October
Given up the ‘clay’ so I bought a new species of pipe yesterday. British closing in on Tournai and Valenciennes. French and Belgian forces launch attack in direction of Ghent. In the eastern theatre of war, Allied forces reach the Danube. British airmen bombing Germany. Good-oh.
Wednesday, 23 October
My niece Lily here at tea time with her boy, Private John Martin ASC (home on leave from France). We had a great night. They left after 11 p.m. Tommy started school again. Big British attack on Cateau-Solesmes front launched this morning. Franco-Serbian forces take about 3,000 prisoners. In the last three months, Germany has lost 5,000 guns.
Scottish soldiers home from France.
Thursday, 24 October
Agnes went down to Clydebank after tea time. Influenza very bad in Glasgow just now. Hard fighting Oise to the Scheldt. Germans well hammered. Mons next. Wilson’s reply to Germany. Armistice conditions: no negotiations with Germany’s present rulers. Demand for surrender.
Friday, 25 October
Father here about 8 p.m. I saw him home and had to walk back. Tommy got a bad cold once more.
75
Sunday, 27 October
Nice sunny day. In the afternoon I took a walk by Pollokshields, Dumbreck Road and back by Maxwell Park and Pollokshaws. We saw three aeroplanes today. British closing in on Valenciennes. British airmen still putting the fear of death into German towns.
Monday, 28 October
Our Kirk is going to be renovated, so there was a female up at night to see what we were going to do in the matter. We donated. Tommy saw three aeroplanes today. Great British and Italian offensive started against Austria. Four years ago today, Lily died.
Tuesday, 29 October
Agnes in wash-house all day and ironed all night. British enter Valenciennes. Germans still fighting in parts of it. Austria wants an armistice. So does Turkey.
Thursday, 31 October
This is Hallowe’en, so Tommy lit his lantern. We did not dook.76 C’est la guerre.77 Another ally lost to Germany. Turkey surrenders to Britain. Fightin
g ceases at noon today. Armistice signed. Austria next?
Friday, 1 November
Agnes washed the stairs at night and I cleaned the brasses. Agnes got three ounces of ‘thick black’ for me today. Eggs are now about 6/6 per dozen (not per 100). 300,000 British troops now available from Turkey.
Saturday, 2 November
Seeing the war is nearly over, we went to the Cinerama at night. More Allied advance in France. Thousands of prisoners. British take Valenciennes. Break-up of Austrian empire. Hungary in revolt. Republic in Budapest. Riots all over Germany. King of Bulgaria abdicated. Peasant ministry formed.
Monday, 4 November
Agnes spent the evening sewing and I did the usual sweet idleness. Austria out of the war. Armistice signed yesterday. Germany’s doom sealed.
Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918 Page 28