Читать книгу Tommy’s War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918 - Andrew Marr, Andrew Marr - Страница 8
1913
ОглавлениеThe great War may have begun with ‘the shot heard around the world’ when the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on 28 June 1914, but the roots of the conflict lay in the previous century. In broad terms, its origins involved the national politics, culture and economies of the combatant states, and a web of alliances struck between the leading European nations during the nineteenth century, following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 and the Congress of Vienna in 1814–5. In response to the murder, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia on 28 July, which put into action a web of treaties that brought Germany and the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and France, Belgium, Britain, Russia and Japan behind Serbia.
In 1913, when Thomas’ diaries begin, there were clear signs that the great European powers were preparing for war. In April he saw ‘the Great Territorial March Out’ and on 5 May he noted that Earl Roberts of Kandahar, a distinguished former military commander, was on a recruiting visit to Glasgow. The Territorial Force was formed on 1 April 1908, with a strength of around 269,000 men organised into 14 infantry divisions and 14 mounted yeomanry brigades. The force was set up by Secretary of State for War, Richard Burdon Haldane, under the terms of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907.
Wednesday, 1 January
Got 11.29 train from Glasgow Cross to Langloan1 and spent the day in the bosom of the Crozier family. Very nice day. We went out for a walk in the afternoon. Jean, Hetty, Meg, Agnes, Baby and I.2 Hetty and Meg saw us off by 10.9 train (Caledonian). Were home at 11 p.m. Some little showers fell but on the whole good weather.
Sunday, 5 January
Fine day though dull. After dinner I took car to Cathcart and walked from there to Clarkston and on to Giffnock, through by the quarries to Cathcart again and car home.3 Wee man sneezing all day. Agnes not well at all. Wee man very cross in morning. Did not go to church.
Monday, 6 January
Cleaned the range tonight, including the flues. Dirty job. Agnes washed the floor after. Wee man still sneezing. Wee man got a new frock.4
Tuesday, 7 January
Lit the kitchen fire this morning, but it was a failure. Called at the factor and cussed him, so the men put a new ‘whirly’ on today.5 13 public houses in Ward 21 (Govanhill).6 19 licensed grocers.7 Population 35,082. Municipal electors 7,813.8
Wednesday, 8 January
Knocked the kitchen blind down, so had to knock it back up again. We are going to flit.9
Thursday, 9 January
Agnes out in forenoon looking for a new house. Out again after tea time to see one in 14 Morgan Street. I was not out. Agnes doing a washing tonight. I minded wee Magintey.10
Friday, 10 January
Cold east wind today. Factor here in afternoon to see about a house we wanted. Agnes ironed tonight, I cleaned the brass rail and jelly pan.
Saturday, 11 JANUARY
Cold disman day of sleet and rain. We went househunting in afternoon but didn’t find a good enough house.
Sunday, 12 January
Rain and snow all day long. Went and saw Dr Gardiner at 5 p.m. and made him my doctor, to fulfil the requirements of the law.11 Agnes not very well today.
Monday, 13 January
Went and saw the factor at 5.30 and booked a new house at 14 Morgan Street, 2 up left.12 Got my boots mended today for a bob. Nobody came tonight to cheer our loneliness.
Tuesday, 14 January
Horrid cold frosty day. Not out at night. Youth up today putting a board up at our window.13
Anderston Library reading room.
Wednesday, 15 January
Went to library tonight for my usual volume of sermons.14
Friday, 17 January
Lifted the room carpet tonight and the waxcloth around thereof.15 Agnes did a big ironing.
Tuesday, 21 January
Agnes met me at 170 Ingram Street16 and we went to Brig’ton.17 Sam and Nellie and the weans18 there. Got home at 11.40. Got the keys to our new house in the letter box.
Thomas and his family – and indeed everyone in the United Kingdom until 14 February 1971 – used a monetary system based on pounds, shillings and pence. A pound was worth 20 shillings, and a shilling or ‘bob’ was worth 12 pence. The sum of one pound, three shillings and sixpence was written as £1 3s 6d, with the letters ‘s’ and ‘d’ derived from Latin. Sums of money were also given in shillings, with a ‘solidus’ (forward slash) after the number of shillings, such as 3/6 (three shillings and sixpence) or 30/- (thirty shillings, with the hyphen used to indicate that there were no pennies).
Thomas’ wallet and Agnes’ purse would have held farthings (there were four farthings to a penny), half-pennies, pennies, three-penny bits, sixpences or ‘tanners’, shillings, florins (two-shilling pieces) and half-crowns (worth 2/6). They would also have notes valued at 10/- and £1 and, on rare occasions, £5 and £10. In broad terms, we can multiply any prices mentioned by Thomas by 83 to arrive at a modern equivalent.
Wednesday, 22 January
Took a turn up to our new house in the morning. Mr Gordon up at night and fitted up kitchen and room gas in our new mansion.19 All the Ibrox crowd up. Mr McCort did the whitewashing for 30 pennies.20 Bought three new mantles for 9 pence. Heavy snow at night.
Thursday, 23 January
Got away today at 11 a.m. to flit myself and family. Called in at Bow’s Emporium21 and arranged for a man to fit in the room grate. Went up to the new house in afternoon and whitewashed the kitchen press and bunker. The flitting starts tonight. To help we had Sam and Donald, Mr McCort, Mrs and Miss Gordon and Josephine.22 We ceased operations at 10.30 and had supper.
Friday, 24 January
Putrid wet day. Man came up and fitted in room grate. It was a hard job and he lost his chisel, so Agnes gave him a ‘tanner’. Cost of grate fitted in was 4/6. The piano was removed for 4/-. The plaster men [came] in the morning. Man up to measure us for a gas stove. Agnes got a gas stove from her aunt.
Saturday, 25 January
Agnes at the painter in the forenoon arranging about our kitchen. Went up to the old house in the afternoon and took off the Yale lock, name plate and letter box. Man here sorting the kitchen gas. At night whitewashed ceiling and walls of the closet and put up the kitchen pulley.
Saturday, 1 March
Out at the Barrows23 before tea and bought an awl and a wee wally bow-wow24 for the cherub.
Wednesday, 12 March
Today’s advertisement: ‘Children’s Fancy Dress Ball. Mr J. B. McEwen’s Juvenile Pupils, St Andrew’s Halls, Granville St, at 5p.m. Carriages at 9.30 p.m. Spectators’ tickets 1/6. Tickets to be had at 29 St Vincent Crescent.’25 I did not manage to the above.
Monday, 24 March
‘Men must either be the slaves of duty or of force.’ (Or the wife.)
Tuesday, 25 March
Was at library at night for my usual good moral book.
Monday, 14 April
Cold, wet day. National strike started in Belgium today.26 King of Spain shot at yesterday.27 He was not hurt.
Wednesday, 16 April
Got a note from the factor. Cuss him that the rent is raised 22/- in the year. Now we’ll starve.
Monday, 21 April
Telephoned the factor about the rent and found to my delirious joy it was only advanced 4/- in the year, to wit £3 15s 3d per quarter.28
Friday, 25 April
Fresh sort of day. National strike in Belgium fizzled out. Agnes still got toothache. Poor Agnes. Her bottom teeth are up the pole.29
Saturday, 26 April
Very cold and windy. Wet. In the afternoon I went to the Stirling’s Library30 and on my way back saw the start of the Great Territorial March Out. I went into a doorway and saw it all. Rain coming down in buckets. Poor ‘sojers’. They were wet.
Monday, 5 May
Lord ‘Bobs’ in Glasgow today to make us all ‘sojers’.31
Wednesday, 7 May
Paid the cussed factor his cussed rent. Cussed cold and cussed windy.
Saturday, 10 May
Took the wife of my bosom and my son also heir out for a walk by Hangingshaws and back by Mount Florida. Saw the Boys’ Brigade inspection on our way home.
Friday, 16 May
Beautiful summer day. Took the wee man a walk to Queen’s Park at night. Agnes met us there. Saw the recruits drilling in the recreation grounds.
Sunday, 18 May
Played hymns on the piano and amused our good selves in divers ways.
Sunday, 25 May
Broke the clasp of my wally teeth today.32
Tuesday, 3 June
I went straight from my work to the man who pulls teeth and got my renovated set. Seeing it was my first offence he charged me nothing. I did not press the good man.
Wednesday, 4 June
Lost my usual bob on the Derby.33 Got my hair cut. This is my birthday.
Thursday, 5 June
‘Every step of life shows how much caution is required.’
Tuesday, 10 June
This is the anniversary. ‘Marriage notice. 10 June 1910. At 39 Whitefield Road was spliced Agnes Smart Cook, spinster, to Thomas Cairns Livingstone, bachelor. MOSC.56 SCA. 7,053. God save the King. Ora Pro Nobis. Let Glasgow Flourish.’34
Thursday, 26 June
[On holiday in Rothesay.] We saw two blessed warships, one of which anchored in Sweet Rothesay Bay.35
As well as the war clouds gathering over Europe, in 1913 there was another battle raging in Britain as the supporters of equal votes for women staged spectacular protests to win publicity for their cause. On Wednesday 2 June, Emily Wilding Davison ran onto the racecourse at Epsom during the Derby and was struck by Anmer, King George V’s horse, and its jockey Herbert Jones. The seasoned campaigner may have intended simply to disrupt the race and to unfurl the banner of the Women’s Social and Political Union, but she died of her injuries and became a Suffragette martyr.
Friday, 27 June
Rothesay’s full of sailormen now.
Saturday, 12 July
This is the Glorious 12th.36
Saturday, 9 August
The wee man’s birthday. Two years old now, bless his little heart.
Thursday, 14 August
Dull sort of a day, cooler.
Not out a night. Agnes’ eyes annoying her. Gave my music stand a coat of varnish.
Thursday, 21 August
Wet all day and extra special wet at night. The doctor got paid tonight (12/-).37 Got myself a new pair of boots today (10/6).
Monday, 25 August
Bought a book tonight called The Evolution of Man for some deep study.38
Friday, 24 October
Got a notice from our beloved factor raising our rent 6/- in the year. Heard two revolver shots about 11.30 p.m. A man round the corner shot his girl and then committed suicide. Foolish fellow.
Saturday, 25 October
Man that shot himself last night is dead. Girl is not dead.39
Wednesday, 5 November
This is Guy Fawkes day. The factor was here for his rent. Not having any gunpowder handy, he got it.
Monday, 10 November
Agnes’ birthday.
Saturday, 15 November
At library in afternoon for an ‘Annie S. Swan’40 and a book for myself.
Wednesday, 19 November
Working late, home 9.30 (stocktaking). New carpet for kitchen tonight (5/11).
Sunday, 23 November
Wet forenoon, cleared up in the afternoon. After dinner, just to enliven up proceedings, we took the car to Cathcart Cemetery and admired the tombstones etc., and came back in the car.
Wednesday, 3 December
Rained in buckets all day long. Think I’ll make an ark.
Wednesday, 10 December
Agnes and Tommy at Ibrox.41 They got home at 10.15 p.m. I sat in and enjoyed myself in divers ways.42
Monday, 22 December
Nice day. Addressed all the Christmas cards tonight.
Thursday, 25 December
A Merry Christmas. Got away [from work] at 12.35. Took Agnes and Tommy into the town and admired the shops.
Wednesday, 31 December
On holiday today. After dinner we took 3.22 train to Coatbridge via Blairhill, and spent the time in the bosoms (collectively and allegorically) of the Crozier family. I went down to the hotel and had a glass of milk? with Mr Crozier.43 Tore ourselves away in time for the 10.12 train via Glasgow Cross. Sat up and saw the New Year come in, and so ends this year.
1 Langloan was a village in Old Monklands.
3 Dinner was the midday meal. The car was a tramcar, rather than a motor car.
4 Until around 1920, young children of either sex wore dresses over their nappies.
5 Thomas detested the factor, who represented the owner of the property. Tenants paid rent to the factor, and relied on him for repairs. The ‘whirly’ was a metal cowl on the chimney pot, with small ‘sails’ that spun in the wind and drew smoke up the chimney. If it malfunctioned, the whirly could force smoke and soot back down the chimney and into the house.
6 Govanhill was one of the wards, or electoral districts, of the city.
7 Licensed grocers were the only businesses, except public houses, that were allowed to sell alcoholic drinks for use off the premises.
8 In 1913, the parliamentary voters’ roll was made up of men aged 21 or over who either owned or lived in property with an annual rental value of £10 or more.
9 Flitting is a Scottish word for moving house.
10 An affectionate name for a child. Its use may come from Thomas’ Irish relatives, or his own upbringing in Scotland by an Irish immigrant family.
11 The National Insurance Act 1911, which took effect on 13 January 1913, provided insurance for workers against ill-health and injury. Registration with a family doctor was compulsory. Thomas appears to have beaten the deadline for registration by seven hours. Under the scheme, each worker contributed 4d a week, his employer added 3d and the state 2d.
12 The apartment on the second floor, with the door on the left of the second floor landing.
13 The board advertises a ‘room and kitchen to let’. This type of house, typical for a tenement, consisted of a front room or parlour, which was for entertaining guests, and a kitchen, which had one or more bed recesses, curtained areas that contained the household’s bed or beds. The Livingstones’ new house had an inside toilet; many were less fortunate and had to share a toilet on the landing between floors.
14 Thomas is probably being ironic.
15 The front room would have been floored with waxed cloth, a type of linoleum, with a carpet in the centre.
16 Thomas’ work address.
17 Bridgeton.
18 Thomas’ brother and sister-in-law.
19 Mr Gordon extended the house’s gas supply to the lighting fixtures in both the front room and the kitchen. The Ibrox relatives were members of Agnes’ extended family .
20 Probably Daniel McCort, a decorator who lived at 20 Morgan Street.
21 Bow’s Emporium was a department store on the corner of High Street and Bell Street, just north of Glasgow Cross.
22 Sam and Donald were Thomas’ brother and brother-in-law, respectively. Josephine was Thomas’ sister.
23 The Barrows was an open air market where people could hire static barrows on which to sell everything from fresh food to household ornaments. It was to the east of the city centre, it later became formalised in roofed enclosures known as Barrowland.
24 A wally bow-wow was a ceramic ornament in the shape of a dog. Many city mantelpieces were adorned by a matching pair of wally dugs (china dogs).
25 Thomas has evidently seen a newspaper advertisement for a children’s entertainment. St Andrew’s Halls, to the west of the city centre, were among the most prestigious public halls.
26 The national strike, which lasted until 24 April, was called to demand the vote for all adults.
27 José Sancho Alegre, a young Spanish anarchist from Barcelona, shot King Alfonso XIII of Spain at a military parade in Madrid. He was found guilty of the attack, and sentenced to death. The king commuted the sentence to life imprisonment,
28 Thomas presumably telephoned from work, since he does not have a phone at home. The rent is expressed quarterly. See ‘Housing and Factors’,.
29 ‘Up the pole’ is a quaint term for being out of order or beyond use.
30 Stirling’s library was the main public library in the city centre.
31 Lord Roberts of Kandahar was a distinguished Anglo-Irish soldier, who had made his name in India, Africa and Afghanistan. He was commonly known as Lord Bobs. He was a prominent advocate of conscription, and was head of the National Service League from 1905 until his death in 1914. ‘Sojers’ is how the word soldiers is often pronounced in Glasgow.
32 Thomas evidently has a set of false teeth, known as wally (ceramic or china) teeth.
33 The Derby Stakes, run in the first week of June each year at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, is one of the most prestigious flat races for thoroughbred horses in the world.
34 Thomas seems to be making fun of wedding notices, either on church noticeboards or in the press. The Latin phrase means: ‘Pray for us.’ The final sentence is the motto on the coat of arms of the city of Glasgow.
35 The warships in the Clyde would appear to be an omen of the coming war. The phrase ‘Sweet Rothesay Bay’ is from the sentimental traditional song ‘Rothesay Bay’.
36 The anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated each year on 12 July by members of Orange Lodges and other Protestant and Loyalist groups in Scotland and the north of Ireland. The phrase ‘the glorious 12th’ is usually applied to 12 August, the opening of the grouse-shooting season.
37 Before the National Health Service was founded in 1948, people paid doctors for health care, and doctors or pharmacists for medicines. The National Insurance system, which came into effect in 1913, only covered the insured worker.
38 This is likely to have been The Evolution of Man, by Ernst Haeckel, written in German and published in English in 1905 and often reprinted. Haeckel was a German biologist and naturalist who championed the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.
39 The confused reports of the shooting show the speed at which gossip travels in close communities.
40 Annie Shepherd Swan (1859-1943) was a Scottish romantic novelist who wrote around 200 popular books. She also contributed to women’s magazines. Book titles included: A Lost Ideal, Thankful Rest, The Guinea Stamp: A Tale of Modern Glasgow and A Divided House. The book was presumably for Agnes.
41 Agnes’ family, the Gordons, lived in the district of Ibrox on the south side of Glasgow.
42 We know that Thomas enjoyed reading and smoking his pipe. However, this is the first reference to alcohol.
43 Tommy’s ‘glass of milk’ may well have been something stronger.
