Diary of Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 1915

Places
Accession Number RCDIG0000396
Collection number 1DRL/0053
Collection type Digitised Collection
Record type File
Item count 1
Object type Diary
Physical description 106 Image/s captured
Maker Armitage, Harold Edwin Salisbury
Place made Ceylon: Colombo, Egypt, Ottoman Empire: Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli
Date made 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copying Provisions Digital format and content protected by copyright.
Description

Carbon copy of a diary relating to the First World War service of Lieutenant Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 10th Battalion. The original diary was kept by Captain Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage between 20 April 1915 and 24 November 1915. The diary describes his departure from Adelaide and voyage to Egypt via Fremantle and Colombo, where there was disruption because only the officers had leave. Armitage also describes playing sport on the voyage over, preparing for action, the Gallipoli landing and the suffering of troops facing extended periods in the trenches. In an entry for 25 May 1915, Armitage states that "Cairo is absolutely rotten - Bean's statements are correct in every detail". The diary also describes Armitage's feelings on having to lead "absolute strangers" and to leave behind the men he had commanded up until then.