Diary of Thomas Cairns Livingstone, 1916

This material is held atGlasgow City Archives

  • Reference
    • GB 243 TD1969/4
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1 Jan - 31 Dec 1916
  • Language of Material
    • English
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume
      Manuscript

Scope and Content

Handwritten daily entries accompanied by line drawings and colour illustrations drawn by the author.

Subjects include: rent reduction after the Rent Restrictions Act (29 Jan); reported paper shortage (5 Feb); preparations for impending blackout in Glasgow (23 - 24 Feb); street lights painted for blackout (1 Mar); lamp posts painted white (22 Mar); watching "She" at the cinema (25 Mar); serious strikes of Clyde workers (29 Mar); report of first Zeppelin attack in Scotland (3 Apr); reference to John Maclean's imprisonment for sedition (13 Apr); Scottish Women's Hospitals flag day (15 Apr); uprising in Ireland (25 Apr - 8 May); at recruiting office (2 May); medical examination at recruiting office and assessed as medically unfit for active duty (10 May); introduction of Daylight Saving Time (21 May); the beginning of the Battle of the Somme (1 Jul); visiting friend wounded at the Somme (2 Aug); his visit to Belfast (2 - 10 Aug); visiting the cinema to see "The Battle of the Somme" (30 Aug); his son's first day of school at Victoria School (4 Sep); account of man throwing a bomb out of a window in Bridgeton (10 Sep); commemorative picture of Jack Cornwell for the Ward at the Star and Garter Home, Richmond (21 Sep); threatened water shortage (30 Sep); salary increase (6 Nov); burning of Victoria School (14 Nov); his wife attends a school teaching war cookery (15 Nov); government fixes the price of milk (21 Nov); arrival of Native Americans in Glasgow en route to the front (8 Dec); purchase of a war loaf (9 Dec) and visit to the Rogano (25 Dec).

Debits and credits for 1916 recorded at the end of the volume.

Access Information

No access restrictions apply.

Conditions Governing Use

Application for reproduction should be made to the Archivist

Bibliography

This diary is one of those which have been annotated and published as "Tommy's War: A First World War Diary, 1913 - 1918", Thomas Livingstone and ed. by Ronnie Scott (HarperPress: London, 2008)