Diary of 1st Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment, 6th Brigade, 2nd Division, 31 Dec. 1914 to 30 Dec. 1915

• by cyngast moderator

  Has anyone else tried to tag this diary? I didn't come in right at the beginning, but it seemed to be sticking to the battalion's activities for the most part. The author has a very personal manner with lots of first-person usage, and a great sense of irony.

  Then he was tapped to be Staff Officer for the 6th Infantry Brigade at the end of February, 1915. I expected the 1st King's Liverpool diary to be taken over by someone else, but that has not happened. Instead, the original author has continued on. The subject matter has shifted to the 6th Brigade, except for a sojourn in England when the author was recovering from a broken leg. There is a gap of about two months at that point. He then returns to the 6th Brigade and continues on recording from that point of view.

  I'm stopping at this point, page 21 (page 53 as it appears on the diary page itself), because I'm not sure if I should continue on. Has this diary changed to become a Headquarters diary? Or will it go back to the 1st King's at some point? I have done only about 3 pages of the 6th Brigade H.Q. diary.

  Posted December 8, 2015 9:27 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  That's weird...I'll have a look tomorrrow to see whether this might be a personal diary included in the main one.

  Posted December 8, 2015 10:07 PM

• by cyngast moderator

  Yes, I thought weird was the right word for it. That's why I decided to pass it on to you.

  Posted December 8, 2015 10:42 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Thanks. I haven't been in the office today, but I'll check it out first thing tomorrow.

  Posted December 9, 2015 10:09 PM

• by cyngast moderator

  Don't rush on my behalf. I'm happily working away on the 2nd Highland Light Infantry now.

  But I admit I am curious.

  Posted December 9, 2015 10:45 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Okay, I've gone on a few pages now and it looks like the diary reverts back to the 1st King's Liverpool Regt at page 140 - it becomes a handwritten account on the usual form, rather than the typed pages you've been tagging. I think this is a personal diary, rather than the official brigade account. At one point, he notes that an official account of the action has been filed, so I'm guessing he kept two diaries in parallel.

  I see what you mean about his style - it's a real delight to read. Reminds me of one of my favourite authors so far - a forward observation officer for one of the artillery units - who managed to employ a really wry tone even when describing scenes of absolute horror.

  Posted December 10, 2015 10:27 AM

• by cyngast moderator

  How should it be tagged? Or should it just be hashtagged as #personaldiary?

  I was tagging it as a unit diary up until I stopped to ask you about it, but since he is now on the Brigade Staff (and I like his comment that he really didn't want to join them but would rather stay with the 1st Kings Liverpool) I would run into the same difficulties as with the other headquarters diaries.

  Posted December 10, 2015 5:54 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Yes, I think using the hashtag is probably the best course of action here. Classify it as a diary page too and if you happen to bump into any names then it would great if you could tag them, but unit activities and the like won't really be appropriate for brigade actions, so I'd leave them out.

  Sorry - should have mentioned that in my earlier post!

  Posted December 10, 2015 9:54 PM

• by cyngast moderator

  Thanks, Rob!

  I went ahead and tagged them as diary pages, but only tagged people, places, and the entry dates. There were a couple of really interesting bits in there, like the little girl evacuated from La Bassee who gave him a map of La Bassee that showed all the German gun positions!

  I think your page counts are different, though. The personal diary ended on page 25. And in fact, this portion of the 1st King's diaries ends at page 107, so it couldn't run to page 140.

  Posted December 11, 2015 4:17 AM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  That's a great story, isn't it?

  Page counts...our system gives us the National Archives' page number, which I assume must be the consecutive count across all the unit's diaries. Confusing 😄

  Thanks for tagging those details - great not to lose the info, even though that section doesn't entirely fit at battalion level.

  Posted December 11, 2015 8:52 AM