Description
Object description
Ms diary (49pp) and ts transcription with notes (101pp), written when he was aged 15, recording humorously his everyday experiences in Blackburn, Lancashire, and providing an insight into what it was like to be a young man growing up on the home front, 1 January – 6 September 1945, describing his activities at the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School as well as how he spent his leisure time, which primarily included going to the cinema and attending Army Cadets, where he took part in marches, parades and drills, learnt how to map read and shoot a rifle, outlining in particular detail a newsreel he watched reporting the atrocities of the Holocaust (3 May), how he celebrated VE Day and his stay at an ATS camp (21 – 28 July), also offering his opinions on major international events taking place in the final months of the Second World War, in particular the death of Hitler, the liberation of Belsen, the German surrender and finally the implications of the atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima; accompanied by various documents (34pp) relating to his Home Service during the 1950s and a small photograph album (8pp) containing images of himself, his school and where he lived in Blackburn.
Content description
Ms diary (49pp) and ts transcription with notes (101pp), written when he was aged 15, recording humorously his everyday experiences in Blackburn, Lancashire, and providing an insight into what it was like to be a young man growing up on the home front, 1 January – 6 September 1945, describing his activities at the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School as well as how he spent his leisure time, which primarily included going to the cinema and attending Army Cadets, where he took part in marches, parades and drills, learnt how to map read and shoot a rifle, outlining in particular detail a newsreel he watched reporting the atrocities of the Holocaust (3 May), how he celebrated VE Day and his stay at an ATS camp (21 – 28 July), also offering his opinions on major international events taking place in the final months of the Second World War, in particular the death of Hitler, the liberation of Belsen, the German surrender and finally the implications of the atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima; accompanied by various documents (34pp) relating to his Home Service during the 1950s and a small photograph album (8pp) containing images of himself, his school and where he lived in Blackburn.
History note
Cataloguer CLS