Historical information

This diary was written by Cpl William Donald McDonald 3403 who served from July 1915 to November 1918. The diary covers the period August 5th 1916 to December 31st 1917.William McDonald was stationed in England mostly at the Salisbury Plain for the entire period. This item was mistakenly identified as as the J A G Brass diary, with 11Lieut J A G Brass being written inside the front cover of the diary. However J A G Brass was a distant cousin of W McDonald who still lived in Scotland and along with other names inside the front cover were contacts for the writer. Among the names are A W Hardy, J W Jolly, I J Windsor, Pte H A Jessop. The book itself is a modified British Service notebook, having been cut down by the author to make it a more manageable size.
William McDonald was 35 years of age when he enlisted and was a tailor before enlisting

Significance

This diary has historic significance as it records daily life during the first world war. It relates daily life in the army ranks. It also has strong links to local families.

Physical description

Modified Service notebook of the type issued for use in the British Army of World War 1. It would have originally measured 5” x 7”, but has been cut down by nearly removing the fly end of the pages to reduce them about 3.5”. The author, who was a painstakingly neat and fastidious man, has also re-rounded the corners, to prevent them ‘dog-earing’. The aim of the modifications is likely to have been to make the item easy to slip in or out of a tunic pocket.
Heavy light grey green card with rounded corners bound with two staples. 96 pages, each with 8 faint, light blue, vertical lines. Handwriting in ink and indelible pencil is across the lines.

Inscriptions & markings

The front cover of the Notebook (now the back cover of the diary) is annotated as ‘Army Book 136A’, effaced with an imperial crown of the ‘St James’? Pattern with a title inscribed in an ellipse, which would once have read - SUPPLIED FOR THE USE OF OFFICERS AND NCOS.