Tuesday Oct 1 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie
The news continues to be splendid from all fronts. We have been doing another push and are now hoping it will last for a bit, so keen are we on the war. Reading: Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (from 1816)
T.E.Lawrence enters #Damascus w/ Arab troops, getting "a tremendous but impromptu greeting" from locals https://t.co/25DitntJy4 pic.twitter.com/4nSx90oZcY
— Tweets from WW1 (@RealTimeWW1) 1 October 2018
2/10/1918: Ltr from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Essie Today I have been out with Simpson to a town where I was when I first came out. It is all in ruins now.
I am writing this is a crowded mess with the table covered with the latest papers and everyone discussing the news.
Olive Harcourt’s diary 4th Oct 1918
Postchild and Perry so funny, throwing about a potato in the kitchen & playing up splendidly. In the evening I hold their hands and said Postchild was a great artist and I knew that because I had been much among them.
He looked at me very earnestly and said: “Miss ’Arcourt, you & me is one.” Convoy arrived yesterday.
[At the age of 22, Henry Postchild (born 1989 in Stepney in 1889) was living with his parents and working as a ‘carman’. By 1915 when he enlisted in the Suffolks (16617) he was described as a stevedore. In 1950 he was living in Tower Hamlets]
"If you this very night should ride to death, Straight from the piteous passion of my arms..." Forgotten female poet of WW1 Mary Borden to be honoured at armistice centenary https://t.co/K4AbnJSiJD @guardian @mariestopes1918 @LadyMonkswell @OliveHarcourt
— Voices from 1918 (@VoicesFrom1918) October 10, 2018
James Sansom: Sunday October 20th 1918 We have had three weeks at a village called Allouagne and although we have been hard worked we are out of the scrapping for a while
23.10.18 We move again this time 50k to Aseq. I go in a motor instead of marching. We remain here while taking in wounded and having air raids. We are billeted in an old chateau in a ruined village. Rumours of peace all the time though the fighting is just as heavy
How did I become a nursing orderly at Beaucroft ? It all started with a women’s demonstration in London.
— Olive Harcourt (@OliveHarcourt) 31 October 2018
Follow my story in Tommy’s Sisters Nov 9,10,11 in a double bill with The Gathering https://t.co/Q9y1tAAAdp @artsreach @artsdevco @StorytellingUK Wimborne tickets: 01202 886116 pic.twitter.com/DhGcoS5EVV
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Voices from 1918 has been developed by artists Sharon Hayden and Alastair Nisbet in partnership with Wimborne Community Theatre, Dorset History Centre and the Priest’s House Museum, Wimborne with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Thanks to all who have helped us with this project: Maria Gayton and staff at Dorset History Centre where we found Lady Mary Monkswell’s diaries; Joan Cocozza, ward of nursing auxiliary Olive Harcourt; Portland Museum where we found James Sansom’s diaries; the British Library and Wellcome Libraries; Priest’s House Museum in Wimborne and Gill Horitz from Wimborne Community Theatre.
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