First and foremost I’d like to
thank all of you who have followed this Twitter and Blog feed recording the
First World War Diary of Peter Jack. This entry is simply a reflection on the
things I have learnt while carrying out this project, the first time I’ve
posted diary entries of any kind, and the lessons learnt for the future.
As many who have followed the
whole of the diary, Peter was not the most descriptive of men and on some days
wasn’t forthcoming with large amounts of information. One can only speculate as
to why this was. He may have been unaccustomed to expressing himself fully at
all, let alone in writing; there is very little in the way of emotion portrayed,
no colourful descriptions of the sites or sounds or smells of where he was
posted. He does not record any details on conversations or gossip amongst the
men he fought alongside, in fact I do not believe he mentions any of the names
of his fellow soldiers apart from a few regrettable deaths of officers. This
could have been out of respect for the privacy of those men or to prevent,
should his diary been lost, information falling into the wrong hands. Personal
diaries, unlike for those fighting in Europe, though not exactly encouraged
were allowed on the Mediterranean campaign. I am surprised however that Peter
was allowed to record, in sketches of admirable detail, the camps and defensive
positions of his squadron. Perhaps Peter’s medium of expression was in drawing,
rather than the written word. As I say; one can only speculate.
I would have therefore liked to
have augmented some of the less than fulsome diary entries with more maps
detailing the places Peter visited and information on the campaign he was
involved in. Unfortunately, as a small archive with a small number of staff,
time allowed for social media projects is sadly limited and so I was restricted
to simply to transcribing the diary and adding additional details when time
permitted. I’ve therefore learnt that in future I need to research and prepare
the project further in advance, to allow it to be a more immersive experience
for those following it and to better inform and educate people about the place
in history from which the material originated.
I have also learned not to try to
second guess or the writer’s meaning of words or phrases; to interpret them
with the speech of 1915 in mind, rather than from a perspective of 2012. There
were a couple of occasions I wrongly thought that Peter had misspelled or used
the wrong words, when in fact it was my modern day take on phrasing that was in
error. One must take what is written at
face value and trust the writer, because their voice is clearer and truer to
them, than when heard many decades later.
