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Unlike the Second World War, this was not really a people’s war – not at least for the British, though it was for many Russians and Germans. The Zeppelin and Gotha raids and the occasional bombardments by German warships against east coast towns are recorded by Thomas but direct danger reached little of the civilian population. In this war, only around 850 civilians died in Britain, as compared to 60,000 in the later conflict. Yet the war affected Thomas and his family, and every other family, in multiple less dramatic ways. It was not simply the friends who left for the fighting, or the growing evidence that the Empire was not performing as well as people had expected. Britain herself rapidly became shabbier, duller and hungrier. Famously, Lloyd George insisted on weaker, more watery beer and introduced tough pub licensing hours to try to deal with the (very real) problem of low productivity caused by drunkenness. Tobacco, as Thomas finds, becomes harder to obtain. Unlike the later world war, this one passed mostly without rationing. Until halfway through it, the Liberal government remained wedded to small-state, free market beliefs and tried hard not to interfere too much. The result was a life of unpredictable shortages, fast rising prices and adulterated food, which provoked riots in some parts of Britain, though not Glasgow.
Yet when Thomas notes in the spring of 1917 that the Germans are trying to starve Britain he is quite right: he may not have known just how close they were coming to success. The U-boat campaigns in the Atlantic had been devastating and Britain came within weeks of having to sue for peace simply for lack of food and oil. It was only a late directive to try the convoy system which saved the day. Meanwhile government action would eventually result in rationing by 1918, while strenuous efforts were made to increase agricultural production at home. In the country, people turned back to snaring rabbits, raiding birds’ nests and growing their own vegetables but in the towns the population struggled with meagre, dull diets featuring the much-hated National Loaf, a soggy, greyish concoction which nevertheless contained more nutrition and fibre than the white loaf everyone preferred. Shortages were everywhere, from coal to clothing. To save energy, street lighting was conserved, theatres closed early and entertainment much restricted; it is notable that Thomas’ most frequent references to entertainment seem to be dubious books from the library, games of cards and walks in the park, rather than nights out in bars or at the cinema.
Women, meanwhile, got their first chance to break into male trades, whether they were the tartan-uniformed bus conductors on the Glasgow trams, or women police officers patrolling parks in search of vice, or female munitions workers. This clearly affects Thomas, as it did most traditionally minded men, though he rarely voices derision and seems to accept that the world is changing fast around him. His wife is often sick, as is his son, and he clearly has few domestic skills, but it is a small, tight, traditional family in which he does his best. Glasgow was notorious for its drunkenness and domestic violence, and indeed across Britain battered women rarely complained to the police about drunken husbands: when they did, they got little sympathy. By those admittedly low standards, Thomas seems to have been a good husband. His wife Agnes’ ill health was again typical. Ill health and medicines, mostly ineffective still, feature heavily in these diaries. Mortality rates, particularly in urban Scotland, were shocking. The ravages of so-called Spanish Flu, which took a huge toll of the world just after the war, are well known; but it was a time still when less exotic infections, from measles to whooping cough, killed many. Agnes struggles with mysterious internal pains, lumbago and toothache so excruciating that she talks of killing herself. That was life – sorer, rougher and more dangerous by a country mile than it is today. Thomas notes her troubles and does the heavy lifting, and the cleaning, and does not complain. He is hardly romantic or gushing in his descriptions of Agnes but that is not his style. It is eloquent that his diary suddenly ceased when she died. These were two undemonstrative people who needed and loved one another very much.
So here is a slice of Britain from below, during some of her darkest years, and seen through the prism of the empire’s Second City, and the pen of one of the countless millions who mostly went unrecorded, unsung and unremembered. The message is an individual, human one, the more moving and memorable because it does not fit neatly into a historian’s grand narrative. Here, amid the malfunctioning chimneys, boat excursions, bad food and worse news, the little domestic feuds and distant echoes of hectoring from politicians, is the story of one undistinguished, shrugging, perky, rather loveable man who just wanted to get on with his life, be kind to those around him and – if pushed – ‘do his bit for the Flag’ but please, not something too dangerous and please, not quite yet. Here clear and unmistakable is the voice of that fabled abstraction, the man on the street – not the man on the Clapham Omnibus, as it happens, but the mannie on the Kelvingrove Tram. He isn’t easily taken in. He is only a little sorry for himself. He is not noticeably religious or political. He stands aside from the great enthusiasms and lunacies around him; in his sensible, defiant ordinariness, he is almost Charlie Chaplin-esque. He is the man the rest of them are fighting for. And, luckily perhaps, I for one closed his diary realising that I liked him rather a lot.
Andrew Marr, June 2008
People and Places
Thomas Cairns Livingstone had a wide social circle and spent many of his evenings and holidays in the company of relatives, friends and neighbours. As well as writing about them by name, Thomas often uses their location as a shorthand way of referring to them. This guide to the people and places in Thomas’ diary should help untangle Ina from Isa, and Lily from Wee Lily.
200 Main Street, Rutherglen
Thomas lived here before he was married. During the years of the diary it was the home of Thomas’ Uncle Willie.
Alexander Baxter
Proprietor of Paterson, Baxter and Company, which employs Thomas. Their premises were at 170 Ingram Street, in the warehouse district of central Glasgow. They had other offices in Leeds, London, Cape Town, Oslo and Copenhagen.
Mary Carlyle (née Livingstone)
Sister of Thomas, born in Balmoral Terrace, Hill Street, Lurgan, County Armagh, in the north of Ireland, on 27 September 1884. Her mother died two weeks after her birth. Mary married Thomas Carlyle on 16 July 1904; he was 34, some 14 years older than her. He was a shirt-cutter, she was a shirt-fitter. None of the family witnessed the marriage, and the couple moved to Edinburgh shortly afterwards. They had four children: Thomas, Helen (or Ella), Jane (or Jean) Weir, and Dorothy. We know from Ella’s recollections that Mary and her family remained relatively close to their Glasgow relations well into Tommy Livingstone Junior’s adulthood.
Mr and Mrs Carmichael
Neighbours of Thomas and Agnes at 14 Morgan Street.
Clydebank
Home of Jenny Roxburgh and her family.
Coatbridge
Home of Agnes’ family, and also of the Crozier family.
Henrietta (‘Hetty’) Cook
Cousin of Agnes. She married Gordon Mossman in Glasgow on 18 December 1918 at the age of 23 (he was 26). They were married ‘by declaration’ (a civil ceremony) in front of witnesses, and by warrant issued by the Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire, a form peculiar to Scotland, regulated by the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1916. She was described on her marriage certificate as an engineer’s ‘clerkess’, living at 11 Leven Street, Glasgow. She was usually known as Hetty.
James Cook
Nephew or cousin of Agnes. Shot in the hand during the First World War, and nursed in the Victoria Hospital, a military hospital in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. He was a witness to the marriage of Hetty Cook in December 1918, described on the certificate as ‘mercantile clerk; sapper, Royal Engineers’.
James Crichton
Private James Crichton (41152) of the Scottish Rifles, Cameronians was killed in action on 21 March 1918. He was aged 21 and buried in the Poziers graveyard. James worked with Thomas at Paterson and Baxter and was one of the first of the company to join up. Thomas would have read the account of his death through the Glasgow newspapers as they usually printed Rolls of Honour about four weeks after the death.
The Crozier Family
Agnes’ Aunt Agnes married Robert Chapman Crozier in 1881. The Crozier family lived in the Blairhill area of Coatbridge. Robert or ‘Uncle Bob’ ran a grocers and spirit shop at 142 Bank Street, Coatbridge and then moved into the hotel trade, managing the Royal Hotel in Coatbridge after the war until his death in 1921. Robert and Agnes had four daughters, Margaret (possibly known as Daisy), Mary (May), Jeanie (Jean) and Henrietta (Hetty). Sadly, May died whilst on holiday at Rothesay from the Spanish ‘flu in 1918 at only 24.
Donald Ferguson
Married to Josephine, Thomas’ sister. He died of epilepsy and heart failure on 19 October 1916, at Beracah, Paisley Road, Barrhead, in what was probably a private nursing home, although his usual residence was 3 Greenlodge Terrace. On his death certificate, the occupation of his late father Samuel is given as ‘shepherd’.
Isabella McArthur Ferguson
Daughter of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ niece. Born 20 October 1900 at 204 French Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Also known as Isa.
Josephine Ferguson (née Livingstone)
Sister of Thomas, born in Silverwood, near Lurgan, on 13 August 1874. First born of Joseph’s children with Mary Cairns. First worked as a shirt-maker. Married Donald Ferguson in Glasgow on 10 June 1898 and honeymooned in Belfast. At the time of their marriage, Donald was living at 175 Gallowgate, Glasgow, and Josephine at 10 India Street, Rutherglen. Both Josephine and her husband worked in a grocery shop, possibly the Bridgeton branch of Cochrane’s, a Glasgow chain. They had three children, Isabella, Lily and Jack. Donald died of epilepsy in 1916, and Josephine continued working in the grocery business.
Jack Ferguson
Son of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ nephew.
Lily Florence Livingstone Ferguson
Daughter of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ niece. Born 4 May 1899 at 204 French Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Worked as a clerkess. Also known as Wee Lily.
The Gordons
Relatives of Agnes living in the Ibrox area of Glasgow.
Greenlodge
Thomas’ father Joseph lived at 3 Greenlodge Terrace, Greenlodge Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. His daughter Josephine and her husband Donald Ferguson also lived there with their children, a fairly usual arrangement at the time.
Andrew Hamilton
Former office boy in Paterson and Baxter. Married Nellie Pettigrew in July 1915, lived in Hickman Street in Govanhill, and had a son in 1918.
Ibrox
Home of Agnes’ family, and also of the Gordons, close family friends to Thomas and Agnes.
Agnes Smart Livingstone (née Cook)
Born in Braid Street, Glasgow (near St George’s Cross) on 10 November 1879 to James and Agnes Cook (née Henderson). Her parents were married on 7 November 1879 (three days before she was born) in the St Rollox district of Glasgow. Her father was a lithographer, and Agnes herself was a cardboard cutter at the time of her marriage to Thomas in 1910.
Duncan Graham Livingstone
Brother of Thomas, born in Balmoral Terrace, Lurgan, on 2 June 1880. Worked for Anchor Line Cruises and sailed the Glasgow-New York route aboard the TSS (twin-screw steamship) Columbia from 1908 to 1910. Fought in the Army Service Corps from 1918 to 1919. Lived between Belfast and Glasgow.
Joseph Livingstone
Father of Thomas, born in 1847 in Lurgan, County Armagh, in the north of Ireland, the son of John Livingstone, a teacher of English, and Mary Ann Livingstone (née Hare, she died near Rutherglen in March 1881). Lurgan is 19 miles south-west of Belfast, and was known as a centre of the linen industry. He was married three times: to Sarah Gilpin in 1867 in Seagoe Parish Church (she died in January 1873); to Mary Cairns on 3 October 1873; and to Jane Weir in January 1885 (she died in 1909). All of his children were with Mary Cairns, whom he married in Maralin (or Magheralin) in County Down in the north of Ireland. She had previously been married to a Mr McKinlay. She died in October 1884 shortly after the birth of her youngest daugher, Mary Livingstone, while still at the Lurgan residence of her father, Thomas Cairns.
Joseph Livingstone worked as a clerk for the Caledonian Railway Company from 1876, and later as a mercantile clerk. He moved to 10 India Street, Rutherglen, in the 1880s, then lived at 3 Greenlodge Terrace, Bridgeton, Glasgow. He was a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters, a friendly society, and the Carnbroe Loyal Orange Lodge, a Loyalist and Unionist ‘secret society’ with its origins in the north of Ireland. Carnbroe is a village to the south of Coatbridge.
Josephine Livingstone
Daughter of Samuel and Nellie Livingstone. Thomas’ niece. Born 28 April 1902 in Glasgow. Also known as Ina.
Mary Ann Livingstone (née Hare)
Mother of Joseph and paternal grandmother of Thomas. Died of chronic bronchitis on 7 March 1881 at 3 George Gray Street, Eastfield, Rutherglen.
Nellie Livingstone (née Muir Meikleham)
Married to Samuel, Thomas’ brother. Her parents were James Meikleham and Elizabeth Meikleham (née Muir).
Samuel John Livingstone
Brother of Joseph and uncle of Thomas. Born 1856 and worked as a railway clerk and as a coal merchant. He was married to Mary Elizabeth McColl, a draper’s assistant, in 1883 by a Church of Scotland minister at their home at 543 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow.
Samuel John Livingstone
Brother of Thomas, born in Balmoral Terrace, Lurgan, in 1878. Worked as a grocer’s assistant, then a grocer’s manager, in a branch of Cochrane’s. He was married to Nellie Muir Meikleham on 28 January 1902 at 217 Broad Street, Mile-End, Glasgow by a minister of the United Free Church. They had two children, Josephine (also known as Ina) in 1902 and Samuel John, in 1919.
Samuel Livingstone Junior
Son of Samuel and Nellie Livingstone. Thomas’ nephew. Born 1919.
Thomas Cairns Livingstone
Born 4 June 1882 at 10 India Street, Rutherglen, the only one of six children of Joseph and Mary Livingstone to be born in Glasgow. Josephine, Lily, Duncan, Samuel and Mary were born in Lurgan, County Armagh, in the north of Ireland. Thomas’ mother died in 1884 when Thomas was aged two, and he was raised by his father, his older siblings and his step-mother Jane. The family moved to 4 French Street, Bridgeton around 1900. He was schooled in Rutherglen and took extra classes in English and French.
Thomas started work in 1895 and began courting Agnes Smart Cook in 1903. They were engaged on 19 December 1908 and married on 10 June 1910 in Agnes’ home at 37 Whitefield Road, Ibrox, by the Reverend John Tarish of the Tron United Free Church.
Their first home was at 20 Morgan Street in Govanhill, where their son Thomas Cairns Livingstone Junior was born in 1911. They moved to a tenement house at 14 Morgan Street in 1913.
Thomas worked as a mercantile clerk at 170 Ingram Street in central Glasgow in the offices of the firm of Paterson, Baxter and Company, which manufactured linen and sailcloth. Given that this address was in the heart of the warehouse district of the city, manufacturing may have taken place at different premises.
Thomas Cairns Livingstone Junior
Born on 9 August 1911, the only child of Thomas and Agnes. Attended Victoria Primary School in Batson Street, Govanhill. At the time of his birth, it was the custom in Scotland to give a first son his paternal grandfather’s first name and his mother’s maiden name as his middle name. This happened with Thomas Senior in 1882, but when it came for him to name his son, he broke with tradition, choosing to continue his own mother’s maiden name rather than that of Agnes’ mother. Generally known in the diaries as Wee Tommy.
Claude Maxwell
Brother of Miss Maxwell, Wee Tommy’ teacher in Victoria Primary School. He joined the Royal Highland Regiment (the Black Watch) as a Private and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry. He was wounded but served the full term of the First World War.
Jenny and Kate Roxburgh
Sisters who lived in Radnor Street, Clydebank. Agnes probably knew Jenny through her earlier employment as they were both in the stationery trade, Agnes a cardboard cutter and Jenny as a stationery assistant. Later Jenny worked as a nurse on Maryhill.
Ruglen
The local pronunciation of Rutherglen.
John White
Married to Lily, Thomas’ sister. A telegraphist, he worked for the General Post Office.
Lily Florence White (née Livingstone)
Sister of Thomas, born in Hill Street, Lurgan, on 15 May 1878. She worked as a power loom weaver and on 9 November 1911 was married in Trinity Church, Anderston, Glasgow to John White. At the time, her address was 3 Greenlodge Terrace, his was 1054 Argyle Street, both Glasgow. She died on 28 October 1914 of uterine septicaemia, pleurisy and pneumonia, at her father’s home on Greenlodge Terrace, although her married residence was 44 Clincarthill Road, Rutherglen.1 She was buried in Rutherglen Cemetery.
1 Lily’s death certificate lists three causes of death, in order of likelihood. Doctors at the time tended to do this in the absence of a post mortem examination.
1913
The 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.
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