Description
Object description
Pocket diary for 1940 with the early entries recording his civilian life as a young man in East Grinstead (Sussex) with an accountancy (?) job in London, his anticipation of being called up for active service in the Royal Navy (presumably as a volunteer reservist), call-up and reporting to HMS KING ALFRED naval training establishment at Hove in March 1940 as a Sub-Lieutenant, proceeding to HMS VERNON at Portsmouth in April for further training (but with very few entries for this) before joining the minesweeper HMS PLINLIMMON at Granton on the Firth of Forth the following month, with detailed entries recording the ship's preparations for and participation in the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk during 28th May – 4th June (Newbery also spent part of this time in the minesweeper HMS ORIOLE as replacement crew), returning to Granton and a largely uneventful schedule of patrols and sweeps from there; transcription of a letter (6pp ts) written to his parents shortly after Dunkirk, reproducing and elaborating on his diary entries for 28th – 31st May regarding his experience of PLINLIMMON's actions and events during the evacuations; a letter dated November 1940 (6pp ms) from 'Tony' in the minesweeper HMT FYLDEA to a Miss Fawell in East Grinstead, commenting on the inadequacy of blackout measures in that area and the consequent frequency of air raids, and his own experiences in the minesweeper in actions against German aircraft [both the author of the 1940 diary and of this letter appear to have been acquaintances of Miss Fawell, into whose possession the documents came].
Content description
Pocket diary for 1940 with the early entries recording his civilian life as a young man in East Grinstead (Sussex) with an accountancy (?) job in London, his anticipation of being called up for active service in the Royal Navy (presumably as a volunteer reservist), call-up and reporting to HMS KING ALFRED naval training establishment at Hove in March 1940 as a Sub-Lieutenant, proceeding to HMS VERNON at Portsmouth in April for further training (but with very few entries for this) before joining the minesweeper HMS PLINLIMMON at Granton on the Firth of Forth the following month, with detailed entries recording the ship's preparations for and participation in the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk during 28th May – 4th June (Newbery also spent part of this time in the minesweeper HMS ORIOLE as replacement crew), returning to Granton and a largely uneventful schedule of patrols and sweeps from there; transcription of a letter (6pp ts) written to his parents shortly after Dunkirk, reproducing and elaborating on his diary entries for 28th – 31st May regarding his experience of PLINLIMMON's actions and events during the evacuations; a letter dated November 1940 (6pp ms) from 'Tony' in the minesweeper HMT FYLDEA to a Miss Fawell in East Grinstead, commenting on the inadequacy of blackout measures in that area and the consequent frequency of air raids, and his own experiences in the minesweeper in actions against German aircraft [both the author of the 1940 diary and of this letter appear to have been acquaintances of Miss Fawell, into whose possession the documents came].
History note
Cataloguer SWW