Tommy’s War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918 - Andrew Marr

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descriptions of Agnes but that is not his style. It is eloquent that his diary suddenly ceased when she died. These were two undemonstrative people who needed and loved one another very much.

      So here is a slice of Britain from below, during some of her darkest years, and seen through the prism of the empire’s Second City, and the pen of one of the countless millions who mostly went unrecorded, unsung and unremembered. The message is an individual, human one, the more moving and memorable because it does not fit neatly into a historian’s grand narrative. Here, amid the malfunctioning chimneys, boat excursions, bad food and worse news, the little domestic feuds and distant echoes of hectoring from politicians, is the story of one undistinguished, shrugging, perky, rather loveable man who just wanted to get on with his life, be kind to those around him and – if pushed – ‘do his bit for the Flag’ but please, not something too dangerous and please, not quite yet. Here clear and unmistakable is the voice of that fabled abstraction, the man on the street – not the man on the Clapham Omnibus, as it happens, but the mannie on the Kelvingrove Tram. He isn’t easily taken in. He is only a little sorry for himself. He is not noticeably religious or political. He stands aside from the great enthusiasms and lunacies around him; in his sensible, defiant ordinariness, he is almost Charlie Chaplin-esque. He is the man the rest of them are fighting for. And, luckily perhaps, I for one closed his diary realising that I liked him rather a lot.

       Andrew Marr, June 2008

       People and Places

      Thomas Cairns Livingstone had a wide social circle and spent many of his evenings and holidays in the company of relatives, friends and neighbours. As well as writing about them by name, Thomas often uses their location as a shorthand way of referring to them. This guide to the people and places in Thomas’ diary should help untangle Ina from Isa, and Lily from Wee Lily.

       200 Main Street, Rutherglen

      Thomas lived here before he was married. During the years of the diary it was the home of Thomas’ Uncle Willie.

       Alexander Baxter

      Proprietor of Paterson, Baxter and Company, which employs Thomas. Their premises were at 170 Ingram Street, in the warehouse district of central Glasgow. They had other offices in Leeds, London, Cape Town, Oslo and Copenhagen.

       Mary Carlyle (née Livingstone)

      Sister of Thomas, born in Balmoral Terrace, Hill Street, Lurgan, County Armagh, in the north of Ireland, on 27 September 1884. Her mother died two weeks after her birth. Mary married Thomas Carlyle on 16 July 1904; he was 34, some 14 years older than her. He was a shirt-cutter, she was a shirt-fitter. None of the family witnessed the marriage, and the couple moved to Edinburgh shortly afterwards. They had four children: Thomas, Helen (or Ella), Jane (or Jean) Weir, and Dorothy. We know from Ella’s recollections that Mary and her family remained relatively close to their Glasgow relations well into Tommy Livingstone Junior’s adulthood.

       Mr and Mrs Carmichael

      Neighbours of Thomas and Agnes at 14 Morgan Street.

       Clydebank

      Home of Jenny Roxburgh and her family.

       Coatbridge

      Home of Agnes’ family, and also of the Crozier family.

       Henrietta (‘Hetty’) Cook

      Cousin of Agnes. She married Gordon Mossman in Glasgow on 18 December 1918 at the age of 23 (he was 26). They were married ‘by declaration’ (a civil ceremony) in front of witnesses, and by warrant issued by the Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire, a form peculiar to Scotland, regulated by the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1916. She was described on her marriage certificate as an engineer’s ‘clerkess’, living at 11 Leven Street, Glasgow. She was usually known as Hetty.

       James Cook

      Nephew or cousin of Agnes. Shot in the hand during the First World War, and nursed in the Victoria Hospital, a military hospital in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. He was a witness to the marriage of Hetty Cook in December 1918, described on the certificate as ‘mercantile clerk; sapper, Royal Engineers’.

       James Crichton

      Private James Crichton (41152) of the Scottish Rifles, Cameronians was killed in action on 21 March 1918. He was aged 21 and buried in the Poziers graveyard. James worked with Thomas at Paterson and Baxter and was one of the first of the company to join up. Thomas would have read the account of his death through the Glasgow newspapers as they usually printed Rolls of Honour about four weeks after the death.

       The Crozier Family

      Agnes’ Aunt Agnes married Robert Chapman Crozier in 1881. The Crozier family lived in the Blairhill area of Coatbridge. Robert or ‘Uncle Bob’ ran a grocers and spirit shop at 142 Bank Street, Coatbridge and then moved into the hotel trade, managing the Royal Hotel in Coatbridge after the war until his death in 1921. Robert and Agnes had four daughters, Margaret (possibly known as Daisy), Mary (May), Jeanie (Jean) and Henrietta (Hetty). Sadly, May died whilst on holiday at Rothesay from the Spanish ‘flu in 1918 at only 24.

       Donald Ferguson

      Married to Josephine, Thomas’ sister. He died of epilepsy and heart failure on 19 October 1916, at Beracah, Paisley Road, Barrhead, in what was probably a private nursing home, although his usual residence was 3 Greenlodge Terrace. On his death certificate, the occupation of his late father Samuel is given as ‘shepherd’.

       Isabella McArthur Ferguson

      Daughter of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ niece. Born 20 October 1900 at 204 French Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Also known as Isa.

       Josephine Ferguson (née Livingstone)

      Sister of Thomas, born in Silverwood, near Lurgan, on 13 August 1874. First born of Joseph’s children with Mary Cairns. First worked as a shirt-maker. Married Donald Ferguson in Glasgow on 10 June 1898 and honeymooned in Belfast. At the time of their marriage, Donald was living at 175 Gallowgate, Glasgow, and Josephine at 10 India Street, Rutherglen. Both Josephine and her husband worked in a grocery shop, possibly the Bridgeton branch of Cochrane’s, a Glasgow chain. They had three children, Isabella, Lily and Jack. Donald died of epilepsy in 1916, and Josephine continued working in the grocery business.

       Jack Ferguson

      Son of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ nephew.

       Lily Florence Livingstone Ferguson

      Daughter of Donald and Josephine Ferguson. Thomas’ niece. Born 4 May 1899 at 204 French Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Worked as a clerkess. Also known as Wee Lily.

       The Gordons

      Relatives of Agnes living in the Ibrox area of Glasgow.

       Greenlodge

      Thomas’ father Joseph lived at 3 Greenlodge Terrace, Greenlodge Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. His daughter Josephine and her husband Donald Ferguson also lived there with their children, a fairly usual arrangement at the time.

       Andrew Hamilton

      Former office boy in Paterson and Baxter. Married Nellie Pettigrew in July 1915, lived in Hickman Street in Govanhill, and had a son in 1918.

       Ibrox

      Home of Agnes’ family, and also of the Gordons, close family friends to Thomas and Agnes.

      

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