Second World War Autograph Diary of Mrs Sheila Stopford of Saxham, Suffolk, wife of Captain James Coverley Stopford, RN, mixing descriptions of day-to-day rural life with informed comment on the course of the war.

219pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn red-cloth binding. Closely and neatly written in a ruled exercise book, with frank and detailed entries throughout providing much information relating to the day-to-day life of women of the rural middle-classes ('country families') in wartime England. A few items including newspaper cuttings loosely inserted. Like her husband, Mrs Stopford came from a military family (her father was Captain G. Charles Sholto MacLeod (d.1915) of the Black Watch), and this well-written and intelligent diary shows a keen and informed interest in the development of the War. The previous year Mrs Stopford's husband had been awarded the OBE for his services at Dunkirk, and he features throughout this volume as 'C.', spending a disproportionate amount of time shooting. The first entry gives a good indication of the tone of the writing, with its mix of the domestic and the political: 'Wed: Dec: 24th. 1941. Saxham. Another lovely day & the house much too hot with the radiators as it really has been all this week. Giggas & Ralph Mansfield cried off at the last moment but Waters & Smart & a son came & helped shoot pheasants & rabbits & we had cold lunch & baked potatoes. Mrs. Hammond left afterwards & is not to come back until early Friday. Later took a pheasant (Whipp's price is now 13/ each!) & 2 rabbits to each of our own cottages. Some of C's C.M.P. came in the morning for 4 mammoth cockerels weighing 8lbs. each, produced by Gittas, & went on to Norfolk for 2 turkeys which C. managed to hear of - there are practically none to be had anywhere this Xmas = the controlled price is 4/6 a lb. George wrote that they have "old Gilber Hamilton staying: he lives at Ferndown Hotel near Wimborne & is a crock, so its a charity to have him. Otherwise we are by ourselves". He says they had a "secret debate in the House on Friday. Nothing much emerged from it, except a good deal of uninstructed criticism, but Roger Keyes made, I thought, an unfortunate speech, which, beginning with an attack (probably justified) on the higher direction of the War, lapsed into a statement of his own grievances & disappointments - a pity!" Alice writes that Sir Frank Newnes says that both the Govt. & even Churchill are very glad that Japan has decided to come in as for years she has been a festering sore in the side of other nations, & it is best the sore should burst. There is also a strong feeling that the Japanese Ambassador did not actually know the Military Party was going to attack whilst he was negociating with Roosevelt. The U.S.A. declare Manila an open town: much the Japs will care! Pearl Harbour said to have been rotten with Fifth Columnists.' Entries on 1 and 2 January 1942 contain references to Lt-Col. Geoffrey Keyes, the latter reading 'The Daily Telegraph says that Geoffrey Keyes' death has been confirmed in Cairo: he was only 24 & said to be the youngest Lt. Colonel in the Army. I think of him as a beautiful little boy watching a rehearsal of the Trooping of the Colours & as the perfect seat & perfect figure in a show-jumping snapshot in some paper - & his recent photographs look very like Eva & Bowlbys.' Interesting reference on 11 January 1942 to 'Barbara Hutchinson - if she calls herself that - I think her marriage was annulled - [...] her foolish father told them that Rudolf de Trafford, also just out of gaol, warned her to get away from that crowd, who live by the Black Market, if nothing worse. Marjorie declares that Victor sits under Artificial Sunlight lamps so as to cover up his white dissipated face, & looks spuriously tanned. Phil had a frightful time at [blank] with the most awful drunken, filthy, foul-mouthed A.T.S. recruits who stayed out all night & cared for nobody until she got an Ex-Guards Drill Sergeant, who really frightened, as well as smartened them up. Lurid stories of dead babies in tank traps & suitcases & how she wrote to the illegitimate father of one, a Lieutenant in the [blank] & got a letter back obviously composed in the Mess, saying what a noble fellow he was & incapable of such baseness & enclosing a note headed Harley St. (with no number) & signed Dick, which vouched that the writer performed a certain operation upon him 18 months before, consequently such a thing was impossible. And that also he was now missing in the East & his home & both his parents had been destroyed in an Air Raid. However, quite unmoved, Phil attacked Records & found, of course, that he is still in rude health!' 1 February 1942 begins: 'Woke to a white world. Marigold bicycled to Early Service & had a fall from her bicycle & tore her stockings (precious in these days of coupons) over a patch of old ice underneath the snow.' 25 February 1942 begins: 'By train to London & Dr. Bach gave me a gold injection. Asked at every shop for a 12 in: No. 10 knitting needle for Topsy to replace the one I broke but they aren't making any more.' Entry of 6 March 1942 indicates her social standing: 'Left with C. & we lunched at Cambridge & whilst he was at a Conference in Newmarket, I went to Lady North who now lives in the George Lambtons' Stud Groom's Cottage on the Fordham Road. Very ugly but she has some of the Kipling pictures & a roaring fire & Lord North's old soldier servant who has always stuck to them lives in an outhouse & is invaluable.' 16 April 1942: 'A charming letter from Sir Leonard Hill, the St. John Clinic, Ranelagh Road, mildly saying that medical inspections show that from 30 to 50 % of young women in industrial areas are infected with the head louse, which must be got rid of when there is danger of typhus reaching this country. Most girls refuse to have their heads deloused because of their perms'. 16 June 1942: 'To London by bus. Had to pick up my black hat at B. & H. where it had been reblocked as the last one that arrived in what had been a strong cardboard box looked as if a tank had been over it. [...] Lunched with Alice Butler & Sylvia Gleichen at the English Speaking Union Club: people say a South African was in command at Tobruk & the South Africans wouldn't fight & only a few Guardsmen hacked their way out: the Germans are putting that about too: others make out that everyone was at a Council of War & the enemy walked in upon them. Had my manipulation. Rows of buses standing in the Park between Marble Arch & Stanhope Gate all the middle of the day to economise petrol.' On 16 October 1942 she writes from Roundham Hall: 'Harold Musker, 2 Vannecks, (one the ex-husband of the Duchess of Leinster) the Duke of Grafton (who apparently never uttered) & Tim Nugent came to shoot, bringing their own sandwiches. [...] The Chief Constable Vanneck much derided by the others for talking of how he shot with the King [...] & Tim Nugent [...] said he had never done so & hoped he never would as H.M. lost his temper so frightfully over games - really a disease that he was hardly accountable for.' 15 November 1942: 'Church bells rung all over England to celebrate the victory in Egypt: they have been forbidden since Jan: 1940.' 17 November 1942: 'Heard from Lady Wigram that my diamond & opal brooch fetched £75 at the Red Cross Sale.'