Lady Mary’s diary: Monday Oct 13th 1918

What may this week bring! It is almost paralysing to read the Spectator and the Observer to take in that we have won the war: the wicked cruel enemy asking for peace (see vulgar poem) I must take it slowly. No more thought of invasion, no more air-raids and I hope very soon, no more U-boats. Every morning I hope to mark on my map the rapid retreats and hear of immense masses of prisoners guns and material captured. The most immediate anxiety is of our precious prisoners Godfrey Phillimore Jack Mellon.

[According to the IWM Lt Godfrey Phillimore (above) went missing presumed dead on the Western Front on April 5th 1916. (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205387095 …) Godfrey, 2nd Baron Phillimore, served with the Highland Light Infantry, was captured in 1916 and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp. He wrote a book about his time in captivity entitled Recollections of a prisoner of war (Arnold 1930)]