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I assume they used carbon paper when writing the diary. Was every diary written in duplicate?
Posted
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I believe one copy was for the War Office and 1 copy retained.
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
I don't know what the regulations were, but it makes sense that the diaries were written in duplicate so that one copy could be sent to the brigade and one kept for the battalion records.
Some of the diaries I have tagged were obviously clean copies written at the end of the month. There have been remarks that someone who was wounded later died or lost a leg. I actually think a lot of them must have been re-written before being submitted to superiors.
For anyone who has never seen carbon paper--after photocopiers became commonplace, it pretty much disappeared--it was a sheet of paper that had a sticky black coating on one side. You put it between two sheets of regular paper, black side down, and then either wrote or typed on the top sheet and a usually readable copy was made on the second sheet. You could even get a third copy in many cases; official forms were often required "in triplicate." Carbon paper was the origin of the term "cc," meaning carbon copy, used when more than one person is to receive a particular letter, or nowadays email.
You can tell that this diary page is a carbon copy by the smudges, like the one on the left margin, and the slightly fuzzy look to the writing.
Posted
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I think I can remember years ago when typing documents etc, using blue carbon paper as well as black.
The writing on the diary page appears to be blue and has signed initials in black. PS Also seen on the distribution list for orders - 1 of the copies to go to the War Office.
How technology has times has changed!Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
It is blue, isn't it? I didn't notice that. I don't recall ever using blue carbon paper, only black. Maybe it wasn't popular in the US. Although I do think I remember red.
I think the black initials are probably signed directly onto this page, rather than with carbon paper.
Posted
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The black initialed signature would have been inserted on the carbon copy.
You can buy blue, black and red carbon paper now. Link:
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=blue carbon paper
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ral104
moderator, scientist
Yes, each diary was supposed to be written up on the official form, with carbon copies taken. This didn't always happen, though, due to the unit not having the form in question (especially during the early part of the war). In that situation, I assume a copy must have been made, but it was probably done by hand.
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When we find those duplicates here, does this mean that they didn't get to their right destination?
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ral104
moderator, scientist
Not necessarily. It could just be that the copy was sent back to headquarters and the original kept by the battalion.
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by
cyngast
moderator
I have thought, when we see duplicate copies of diary pages, that sometime in the past 100 years the copy that went to the brigade or on up the line had eventually made its way back to the battalion records.
Posted
