Civil Wars: From Dublin to South Russia… Diary Pages 1-7

I have started posting the diary pages daily on Twitter and I will do a round up of the week’s pages every Sunday. the pages this week cover the dates october 30th to November 11th 1919. This week we left Dover on the Maid of Orleans, stayed at Boulogne Rest Camp, took a 48 hour train jourey to Marseilles (where a ‘real good time was had‘) and embarked on the Porto for Constantinople. En route we saw a whale spout, passed Sicily and Etna and read granddad’s memory of the Messina disaster of 1908. We landed in Malta where the flash and colour of the harbour with it’s vendors in small boats – most likely the colourful ones still seen today – surrounding the ship and boys diving for coins shines through. Granddad and co went ashore but not much is said about that. After a day they set sail again. The first anniversary of the armistice was marked onboard ship with a concert. Next week we’ll reach Constantinople and the gate to the east.

Click on image to embiggen and navigate through the pages.