Description
Object description
Five well written and detailed ms diaries (1057pp), for the periods August 1914 - April 1915, and September 1916 - March 1918, together with a ts transcription (590pp) covering his enlisting as a volunteer soldier in the Cape Town Highlanders while at college in South Africa, matriculating in December 1914, working at a Detention Barracks in Wynberg (January - April 1915), attending the School of Instruction at Wynberg, before proceeding to German South West Africa, with interesting views on the merits of the Boers as soldiers, sailing to the UK in May 1916 and receiving a commission in the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards (1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division) seeing active service in France and Flanders, on the Somme (September 1916), at the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) (July 1917), where he was slightly wounded, at Cambrai (November – December 1917), and Arras (January and February – March 1918), until his death in action on 27 April 1918 during the Battle of the Lys. The diaries contain almost daily entries giving details of his routine life in the trenches, his leisure time, and action he saw, with lengthy entries concerning a raid near Proven (July 1917), for which he won the Military Cross awarded at Buckingham Palace (January 1918), and the Cambrai advance (November 1917), as well as recording the living and working conditions of the officers and men of his battalion, the characters of the men, his apparent bravery, music listened to, sporting activities, and his thoughts on philosophy and Christian beliefs following the death of friends. Together with: two photographs of St Leger; a ms indent submitted by St Leger for thirty coils of wire, written on the day of his death, with ms cover note (April 1918); ts letter from the office of the High Commissioner in London for the Union of South Africa including a report on St Leger's service in the Coldstream Guards (June 1918); five ms letters from Captain Butler-Thwing to Jenny St Leger about the copying of her brother's diaries and praising his gallantry (June 1918 – August 1921); and a ms letter from Major General Sir Cecil Pereira to Mrs Annie Beatrice St Leger about her son's diary, and praising his qualities (July 1921).
Content description
Five well written and detailed ms diaries (1057pp), for the periods August 1914 - April 1915, and September 1916 - March 1918, together with a ts transcription (590pp) covering his enlisting as a volunteer soldier in the Cape Town Highlanders while at college in South Africa, matriculating in December 1914, working at a Detention Barracks in Wynberg (January - April 1915), attending the School of Instruction at Wynberg, before proceeding to German South West Africa, with interesting views on the merits of the Boers as soldiers, sailing to the UK in May 1916 and receiving a commission in the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards (1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division) seeing active service in France and Flanders, on the Somme (September 1916), at the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) (July 1917), where he was slightly wounded, at Cambrai (November – December 1917), and Arras (January and February – March 1918), until his death in action on 27 April 1918 during the Battle of the Lys. The diaries contain almost daily entries giving details of his routine life in the trenches, his leisure time, and action he saw, with lengthy entries concerning a raid near Proven (July 1917), for which he won the Military Cross awarded at Buckingham Palace (January 1918), and the Cambrai advance (November 1917), as well as recording the living and working conditions of the officers and men of his battalion, the characters of the men, his apparent bravery, music listened to, sporting activities, and his thoughts on philosophy and Christian beliefs following the death of friends. Together with: two photographs of St Leger; a ms indent submitted by St Leger for thirty coils of wire, written on the day of his death, with ms cover note (April 1918); ts letter from the office of the High Commissioner in London for the Union of South Africa including a report on St Leger's service in the Coldstream Guards (June 1918); five ms letters from Captain Butler-Thwing to Jenny St Leger about the copying of her brother's diaries and praising his gallantry (June 1918 – August 1921); and a ms letter from Major General Sir Cecil Pereira to Mrs Annie Beatrice St Leger about her son's diary, and praising his qualities (July 1921).
History note
Cataloguer SJO