The diaries of William Baker 1907 to 1919 – Part 4. National people and events

Related blog posts

The diaries of William Baker 1907 to 1919 – Part 1. Introduction
The diaries of William Baker 1907 to 1919 – Part 2. The family entries
The diaries of William Baker 1907 to 1919 – Part 3. Local people and events
The diaries of William Baker 1907 to 1919 – Part 5. Woodside Iron works

The great and the good, disasters and murders

The diary entries that record national events are every bit as variable as those that describe events in William’s locality. Most of them were undoubtedly derived from reports in newspapers that simply took his fancy. Firstly there are simple reports of the birthdays of the great and the good – Henry Asquith in 1915 and 1917, David Lloyd George and Arthur  Balfour in 1917, and the Earl of Dudley in 1918. The death of Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Frederick Roberts the soldier in 1914.

Secondly a number of “disasters” are noted.

24/8/1907 John Goldie  the famous steeple jack fell from the highest stack in Great Britain which is 488 feet at Glasgow was …… smashed. (More details can be found here.)
4/3/1908 Hamstead Colliery Disaster (More details can be found here.)
14/4/1912 The Titanic struck an iceberg and was sunk (More here, and of course in very many other places.)
9/7/1912 Cadeby colliery disaster 87 lives lost including 3 government inspectors (More details can be found here.)
16/10/1913 The Welsh Mine Disaster (More details here of the Senghenydd colliery disaster.)
30/5/1914 Empress of Ireland sinking (More details can be found here.)

Figure 1 The Hamstead, Cadeby and Senghenydd disasters

There are surprisingly few mentions of the events of the Great War apart from those outlined in Part 3 about those who enlisted and those who died. There are three other mentions  in total.

7/5/1915 The Lusitania was torpedoes and sunk about 2.30.
8/9/1915 Public Houses and clubs not to be opened till 10.30am Morning  and closed at 9.00pm. Ordered in August in the Dudley district
11/1/1918 Armistice accepted by Germany

Murders and executions also clearly made an impression,

26/3/1907 Joseph Jones was executed at Stafford Gaol for the murder of Edmund Clark of Quarry Bank (More details can be found here.)
14/4/1909  Wednesday Joseph Edwin Jones was executed at Stafford at 8.00am for murdering Charlotte Jones his wife (More details can be found here.)
23/11/1910 Doctor Crippen was executed (More details can be found here.)
18/4/1912 H. Seddon was executed at Pentonville Prison (More details can be found here.)
26/2/1914 Ball was arrested at Liverpool for the murder of Miss Bradfield. The murder at Bilston near Wolverhampton was about January 2 (More details can be found here although the murder occurred in Liverpool and not Bilston.)
3/8/1916 Roger Casement was executed at Pentonville prison for Tuesday (More details of the Irish Nationalist who was executed for treason can be found here.)
22/12/1916 J. Ashman murdered his father

Figure 2 Dr. Crippen, Henry Seddon and Roger Casement

Finally there are a range of random facts that William clearly found interesting. A few examples.

18/5/1907 Music. The Organ in the Town Hall Birmingham belongs to the General Hospital but the Corporation undertake to look after it and pay the city organist. Weekly Post.
27/3/1909 The cost of a Dreadnaught ship is about £1,800,000 with her guns. Displacement 17,900 tons, when loaded 20,000 tons.
3/4/1909 Metal used for casting bells is 17 parts copper and 5 parts tin.
26/8/1909 It takes about 16000 pennies to the ton.
1/3/1912 National Strike. The colliers came out on strike.