Diary of Charles Herbert Taylor, 1918

Place Europe: Western Front
Accession Number AWM2016.30.46
Collection number PR03112
Collection type Digitised Collection
Record type File
Item count 1
Object type Diary
Physical description 82 Image/s captured
Maker Taylor, Charles Herbert
Place made At sea, France, United Kingdom
Date made 1918
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Diary relating to the First World War service of 908 Private Charles Herbert Taylor, 34th Battalion. The entries within the diary span the period 1 January to 31 December 1918, in which Taylor records his daily routine, as well events relating to his battalion and the battalion band, himself a bandsman. He records the conditions in the trenches as well as his thoughts about the conscription referenda. Taylor also records significant events, such as playing at parades before Generals Pershing, Monash and Birdwood, and the fighting at Hangard Wood on 30 March 1918, noting the deaths of three of his comrades: Joseph Miller Stubbs, Robert Charles Daly and Robert William Bruton. Only a few days later, on 4 April 1918, the battalion helped defeat a major German drive on Villers-Bretonneux where Taylor records being wounded in action. His last complete entry is on 19 May 1918, having just arrived in England for recovery. This diary appears to be a duplicate of his other 1918 diary.