Diary of Gwen Wells

Manuscript diary of Gwen Wells, a young woman working as a civil servant in central London and living in Osterley Park in Hounslow. Contains a loose typewritten insert attached to front cover of the diary recording an account of a weekend trip to the Chilterns on 18 May 1918. Entries are largely recorded in pencil and are made each day until July, when she is on her honeymoon. Entries are irregularly recorded after October when the writer is suffering from influenza.

Gwen was working at an office near Ludgate Hill during the period she was writing the diary, possibly in an administrative role for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, etablished in 1916. Her fiance, later husband, Victor, also seems to have worked in central London, at the 'CRO', possibly Casualty Record Office, as she met him for lunch most days. Entries mention the names of some of her colleagues and also give some details about Victor's work. Gwen's home address is written inside the front cover of the diary as 'Berrymede', St Mary's Crescent, Osterley Park. The diary provides an insight into everyday life in London at the close of the First World War. Air-raids and bomb damage are both regularly mentioned, and there are also references to the effects of food rationing. Some diary entries also give news of Gwen's brother, 'Alf', who is on military service, and of friends and acquaintances who had been wounded or killed in the war. The diary covers the period immediately before Gwen and Victor married in July, and entries record preparations for the wedding. Entries for the second half of the year focus on Gwen's home-making efforts, including preparing and cooking meals for her new husband, and their plans to move into a home of their own. Many diary entries contain details of Gwen's social activities including meals at restaurants, visits to the theatre and cinema, walks in Richmond and at Missenden during a weekend trip in May, as well as a trip to Eastbourne in October. Illness is also a recurring theme, and Gwen often records details of periods of ill health. She also records some details of contracting influenza in November 1918, part of the global epidemic of 1918-1920, also known as 'Spanish Flu'.

Gwendoline Mary Wells was born on 11 May 1897. According to the 1901 and 1911 census, her father was a laundry proprietor, and her mother also helped with the business. The family were living in Packington Road, Acton at the time of the 1901 census, but by 1911 had moved to 'Berrymede', St Marys Crescent, Spring Grove, where they were still living at the time Gwen was writing her diary. Gwen had two older brothers, Louis and Alfred, and a younger sister Margaret, known as Peggy in the diary. She also had a younger brother, John, who was born in 1901, but he does not appear in the diary entries.

Gwen married George Victor Getgood on 6 July 1918. He was born on 3 January 1889, and he and his family were living at George Lane, Lewisham at the time of both the 1901 and 1911 census. His father's profession was given as 'designer for needlework'. Victor was working as an insurance agent in 1911. He had three brothers, John, Harold, and Leonard, and two sisters Mary Ethel, and Kathleen.

Although Victor was born in Lewisham he gave out, at least initially, that he was Canadian. He was for a time a Canadian Mountie who then volunteered for the Eliot Horse and fought, and was wounded, in the First World War. It was probably at this time at the front that he met Augustus John (1878-1961), war artist to the Eliot Horse, who later became a family friend.

Gwen and Victor had three children; Annette, born in 1919, Brenda, born in 1927, and Shelagh, born in 1930. Their marriage and their daughters' births were all registed in the Brentford registration district. Gwen died in 1967, and her death was registered in the Plymouth district.

Sources: Free Births, Marriages and Deaths available at www.freebmd.org.uk, accessed November 2009; 1901 and 1911 census available at ancestry.co.uk, accessed February 2015

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

Purchased July 2002

Please see full catalogue for more information.

Catalogued by Mark Eccleston 2009. Amendments by Helen Fisher 2015. Prepared in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997

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