Durham County Record Office: the official archive service for County Durham and Darlington
- Home >
- Learning Zone >
- World War One >
- Leisure >
- Reserve >
- Transcript of the Diary of Rev. J.A.G. Birch, June 1915
- Accessibility statement
- Contact us
- About Us
- Our Records
- Visit Us
-
Family History
- Birth, marriage and death records
- Census records
- Parish registers
- Place names index
- Nonconformist Church Registers
- Wills
-
More Family History Sources
- Adoption
- Army Records
- Bankruptcy
- Bishops' Transcripts
- Cemeteries and crematoria
- Coal Mining
- Directories
- Divorce
- Durham Obituaries
- Education
- Electoral Registers for County Durham
- Emigration/Immigration
- Family History Organisations
- Guild Records
- Hearth Tax Returns
- Jewish Community
- Land Tax Assessments
- Law and Order
- Libraries
- Marriage Licences, Bonds and Allegations
- Medical Records
- Military Records
- Missing Persons
- Newspapers
- Photograph collections
- Poor Law
- Salvation Army Church
- War Memorials
- Gypsy Roma Travellers
- Learning Zone
- Shop
- Collections Search
- Website Help
- Legal Information
-
Exhibitions
- 'Adventurers and Pirates' - Hetton Coal Company, 1820
- Looking back at Consett Steel Works
- Celebrating Gala Day 2020
-
County Durham remembers VE Day 1945
- 'We have come through' - Remembering VE Day 1945
- 9th Battalion DLI: From D-Day to Berlin
- 9th Battalion DLI: VE Day
- 9th Battalion DLI: In Berlin, June - September 1945
- Berlin Victory Parade, 7 September 1945
- Victory Parade at Belsen, 8 May 1945
- The Northern Echo, Victory edition, 9 May 1945
- VE Day and Durham Schools
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Burma 1945
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Rangoon Victory Parade, 15 June 1945
- VE Day and the Durham Miners' Association
- County Durham celebrates VE Day
- Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
- Soldier: Victory Souvenir edition, 8 May 1945
- Parade: European Victory edition, 26 May 1945
- VE Day not forgotten by one Spennymoor family
- County Durham celebrates VJ Day
- Victory Day, 8 June 1946
Transcript of the Diary of Rev. J.A.G. Birch, June 1915
Please remember that all transcripts show what is written on the page; spelling and grammatical mistakes are not corrected.
(D/DLI 7/63/2)
"Old Windmill, Flanders
... hill to the village it was a lovely
morning, we walked the horses nearly
all the way and it took us from 11
to 12.30 we got back about 2 very
hungry. I expect we go on Friday
if the men as we expect get in tonight
they will rest tomorrow, and go on next day. It is extraordinary
how the men find amusement, there is a pond here, and they
catch coarse fish, quite nice ones, and last night they got two
big eels 2ft 6in long and such a thickness awful looking
beasts like a conger, most are caught with a fine wire loop
at the end of a pole, snatching. Robbins is great at it and
seized the eel in the mud with both hands. When I returned
from my ride I found him in the middle of the pond sitting
in a round tub, most dangerous as it was deep and full of
mud, but he was a great hero with the rest, who all gave him
advice as to how to manage it. We have just had our usual
nine shells, all over us. One I hear caught a
waggon on the Onderdomm road they
fancy they come from
a gun on rails. June 24th
I am over with the Regiment about a quarter of a mile from
my Bivouac. I came over at 9 for Breakfast they had it ..."