A soldier’s forgotten story... diary from the Somme found in a barn
IT WAS a diary kept in the most trying of circumstances. Written in pencil amid the bloody conflict of the Battle of the Somme, the fact it survived is staggering.
Now the daily updates noted by a young British solider have been sold at auction. Experts said it might fetch hundreds of pounds. In fact, it sold for £2,600.
The diary by Private Arthur Edward Diggins was rescued from a barn. It gives a chilling insight into the 1916 battle which killed thousands of men.
The diary reveals extracts of daily life such as spending his 21st birthday away from home as well as a miraculous escape when a piece of shell from a German bomb landed on a candle in his living quarters.
The harrowing account also includes an entry from the first day of the battle – July 1, 1916 – in which he wrote: “Something awful. Never witnessed anything like it before.
“After a bombardment of a week the Germans mounted their own trenches and the infantry reckon that every German had a machine gun…”
Pte Diggins was one of the lucky few to survive the conflict before marrying his wartime sweetheart and going on to become a father in Islington, London.
Mystery surrounds how his diary came to be found in a Leicestershire barn where it had been stored alongside other military memorabilia for decades.
The small 104-year-old notebook was sold at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire.
Hansons militaria expert Adrian Stevenson said: “Unbelievably, it was discovered with several other unrelated militaria items in a box in a Leicestershire barn.
“The owner had no idea who any of the items related to but said his mother had been the recipient of old family heirlooms.
“It’s a complete mystery how this Somme diary ended up in the Midlands. I’m just relieved such an important piece of military history has been found and can now be preserved.”