Manuscript Second World War 'Air-Raid Log [Air-Raid Warnings]' in Liverpool, begun in September 1939, while in the Lower Sixth of Liverpool Boys' School, by the future naval historian Captain Anthony Birch Sainsbury.

Author: 
Captain Anthony Birch Sainsbury (1925-2010), MA, VRD and Bar, RNR, naval historian, vice-president of both the Navy Records Society and the Society for Nautical Research [Liverpool Boys' School]
Publication details: 
Liverpool. September 1939 to June 1941.
£280.00
SKU: 12811

61pp., 4to. In ruled notebook with green cloth covers. In good condition, lightly-aged. Sainsbury has written 'AIR-RAID WARNINGS' on the front cover. The first page is titled 'AIR-RAID LOG. | 3/9/39 - IR', with 'Anthony B Sainsbury | Lower VI | LBS' in the bottom right-hand corner. An interesting document, providing valuable information from a reliable source, with the young Sainsbury already exhibiting the preference for 'clarity and precision' noted by Professor Derek Law in his obituary: 'He was at his best and happiest when imposing order on the disorganized.' The warnings are tabulated on the rectos, in seven columns: No.; Date; Day; From; To; Mins.; Notes. The first two entries, each for twenty minute warnings, have notes: 'Evacuated at Wrexham: not affected' and '[Evacuated] unknown, but at night'. The first full entry is the third, reading: [Date] 15/7/40; [Day] Monday; [From] 13.20; [To] 13.50; [Mins] 30; [Notes] School of, dinner-hour 30 mins late'. Sainsbury provides summaries of the information in the tables on the facing versos, the first reading: 'Opposite page: Warnings: 18. | Sleep lost: 640 mins. | Homework lost: - | School hours lost 30 mins | [total] 670 minutes, or 11.10 hrs, mins.' There are occasional notes in pencil, some regarding raids: on 31 October 1940, 'Wallasey Town Hall | Custom House | PRINCE OF WALES'; on 3 September 1940, 'Walton Gaol', on 24 September 1940, 'Gt. Howard St', and the following day 'Clayton Square | Church St'. On 26 September 1940 Sainsbury notes 'FIRST MAJOR RAID'. The last three pages of the volume carries a 'Monthly Account', kept up between July and November 1939, and noting a total of 15980 'Minutes lost to date'. Preceding the tables, on the second page of the volume, is a page relating to 'School Hours', including 'Homework is supposed to take: 45 mins. in the Lower School. | 1 hr. in the Middle School. | 1 1/2 hr. in the Fourth & Fifth Form. | 2 hrs (minimum) for Removes & Sixths. | Time is taken from 6.30, and is allowed for 2 hours per night. Homework is done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday nights.'