DISCOVERED: THE DIARY OF A WW1 GUNNER
In the collection in our care at Loughborough Carillon we have hundreds of documents and papers. It is always exciting when something previously unexplored is uncovered, and this is what happened with an anonymous-looking little pocket diary belonging to WW1 soldier William Fox White, who was mobilised in October 1916 and served as 125313 Gunner White.
The diary was donated to the Carillon museum around 1989 but it is only recently that any close attention has been paid to it. However, one of our researchers, Neil Hardie, has painstakingly read and transcribed Gunner White’s diary and shed much valuable light on the training of a WW1 artillery man. Full details of the discovery can be seen at Diary-and-Training-Notes-of-125313-Gnr-White-with-hyperlink.pdf
There were of course official training manuals available on the use of artillery, but the value of the diary is that it shows how ordinary soldiers were taught and how they recorded the information in a way they could understand.
A valuable and unique resource
Gunner White made his notes, presumably during sessions of instruction, and accompanied them with little drawings and complicated mathematical calculations. They would have made sense to him but probably not to anyone else and, with many abbreviations used, are almost a kind of shorthand.
Other sections of the diary record details of Gunner White’s army life but only the most basic facts of it. “Strafed Fritz. Began at 3 o’clock in the morning” and “Walked to Velu for bath” are fairly typical entries.
The real value of Gunner White’s dairy is in the training notes, which are we think a unique primary source showing the way in which artillery training was delivered and experienced by the ordinary front line soldier. They shed light on how training led to “all arms warfare”, a term used by historians to describe how the British learned to integrate infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft, ultimately leading to the success of the 100 days offensive in 1918.
Who was 125313 Gunner White?
It is known that he was born in 1884, to parents Edward Inge White and his wife Ellen, and was brought up in Kent. He married Florence Gertrude “Gertie” Mitchell in Penge in 1909. He worked as a clerk, and his diary shows good clear handwriting and spelling, so he must have had a reasonably sound education. He survived the war and was discharged in May 1919, classified as 30% disabled. He and Gertie did not have children.
Can you help?
As previously noted, the diary came into the collection in our care in about 1989, along with Gunner White’s Victory Medal and Royal Artillery cap badge. It’s not known who made the donation.
Any further information about Gunner White, his diary or how it came to be at the Carillon War Memorial Museum would be very welcome indeed. If you can help, please get in touch. carillonmuseum@gmail.com
