Great War Diary

This material is held atNational Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

Reference
- GB 210 NLW MS 23924A.
Alternative Id.
Dates of Creation
- 1914-1916
Language of Material
- English Welsh English, Welsh.
Physical Description
- 53 ff. with insertions (ff. 15-21, 26-30 blank) ; 100 x 155 mm.
  Pocket notebook, cloth covers, pages gilt edged.
Location
- ARCH/MSS (GB0210)

Scope and Content

Notebook, 1914-1916, kept by Nursing Sergeant Davies of 'C' section of the 130th (St John) Field Ambulance unit, attached to the 38th (Welsh) Division of the British Army. It includes a diary, November 1914-June 1916 (ff. 1-12), describing duties in Britain before embarkation for France on 3 December 1915, and subsequent activities on the Western Front prior to the Battle of Mametz Wood.
A draft application for an army commission (ff. 45, 46 verso) suggests that Sergeant Davies was a native of Carmarthenshire and a former miner. The notebook also contains medicinal recipes (ff. 13-14, 44 verso, 45-6), ration tables (ff. 8 verso-9, 14), and poetry in both English and Welsh (ff. 22 verso-23, 31-44, 49-53). An additional folio, tipped into the volume (f. 16a), contains further diary entries, October 1916, and suggests the existence of a second volume, subsequently lost.

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