Doing their bit - part 1

D/CL 27/277/30 Image of a Northern General Transport Company bus, thought to be carrying First World War volunteers at Birtley in 1915

The First World War in County Durham has had a great response to its call for volunteers.  We took on our first set in August 2013, and this month we are holding our second series of induction sessions.  The majority of our volunteers are from the County Durham area, however, the fact that people can participate from home allows those who have connections to the county but live elsewhere to still be involved.

For the next few posts, you’ll be hearing about what some of our volunteers have been up to.  This piece has been written by Sue:

I recently retired as a teacher and having time on my hands I became a volunteer with Durham Record Office WW1 work and my first job was really to use my computer skills. I had to index the casualties of the DLI in WW1.

I was converting word documents to excel and was fascinated when I read surnames and recognised the place where they had lived or enlisted.

I had little knowledge of WW1 or the DLI and it inspired me to take a visit to the museum. Embarrassing to think I live in County Durham and had never been to the museum before.

My present task is to transcribe a diary written by a soldier and this has created a ‘bonding exercise’ in the house.

Brian dictates the pages and I do the typing. We source the place names mentioned in the diary as the battle front changes. It develops our understanding of the tragic events of the area, some of the villages he mentioned being totally wiped out.

Thoroughly enjoyed my new found hobby and would recommend it to anyone. 

Sue has been transcribing the diary from a scan that has been printed out.  The diary is one of several written by Private William Roberts, 18^th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (D/DLI 7/577/1-5).  The diaries begin in December 1915, and continue to a few days before he died of wounds in June 1917.