Description
Object description
Pocket notebook containing the ms diary (97pp, transcript 16pp) of a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, the Rifle Brigade (8th Division) written during the two months after his capture on the Western Front in the Allied Retreat of April 1918; the entries contain much detail on the poor conditions in his first camp near Froissy (where he was held until June when he was moved to Velaunay) and there are useful references to Allied air raids and the generosity of the German soldiers to the POWs. Cruft, who in civilian life was an accomplished professional musician, also chronicles the difficulties that he had in adjusting to the hard manual labour expected of him on working parties and writes movingly of his affection for his wife and son and the home life that they had once shared. An obituary notice from the ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC MAGAZINE Vol LXXII No 3 is kept with the collection.
Content description
Pocket notebook containing the ms diary (97pp, transcript 16pp) of a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, the Rifle Brigade (8th Division) written during the two months after his capture on the Western Front in the Allied Retreat of April 1918; the entries contain much detail on the poor conditions in his first camp near Froissy (where he was held until June when he was moved to Velaunay) and there are useful references to Allied air raids and the generosity of the German soldiers to the POWs. Cruft, who in civilian life was an accomplished professional musician, also chronicles the difficulties that he had in adjusting to the hard manual labour expected of him on working parties and writes movingly of his affection for his wife and son and the home life that they had once shared. An obituary notice from the ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC MAGAZINE Vol LXXII No 3 is kept with the collection.
History note
Cataloguer AC
History note
Catalogue date 1984-07