Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 26 September 1914

Saturday 26 Sept 
Averil had to leave, Peggy being ill with a bad cold, Katharine and she went to Guisbro on Thursday.  Madge and I spent the day together.  She likes the place and is feeling better.  We went by train with Averil on her return journey to Warkworth and Madge and I walked back from there.  Miss de la Chemette [?] the Matron is most kind we had Peter to several meals during our stay, he is a dear little fellow.

Peggy Richardson was Averil's daughter. 
Katharine was the nine year old daughter of Major Stubbs and his wife Madge

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1874

 (Next year's calendar is pasted into the front cover, as you can see from the photograph above)

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 25 September 1914

Friday 25 Sept 
Averil, Madge and I went to Alnmouth a delightful little place very small and pretty, and we spent the afternoon quietly there.

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1873

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 24 September 1914

Thursday 24 Sept 
Another terrible day.  I don’t know how we got through it.  Many letters from friends but awful.  We arranged to go to Alnmouth over the weekend, Averil doing this through the matron of Peter’s school there.

Peter Richardson (1903-52) was the son of Averil, Madge Stubbs' sister, and her husband Willie Richardson of Guisborough

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1872

 No entries until February - and you can see why they were busy from the photograph below

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 23 September 1914

Wednesday 23rd September
I went up to the Camp and during the morning a telegram from the Admiralty announced that they deeply regretted our dear boy was not in the list of saved.  I returned and broke it to dear Madge and Katharine – I can hardly write of the next few days. 

I wired the Admiralty to ask Lieut Hughes the gunnery Lieutenant of whom Duncan had so often spoken to communicate with, I also wired Meakin, Willie and Dr Mackinlay asking him to tell them at Trafalgar Terrace, and I asked Averil to come, which she did at once and her presence helped poor Madge very greatly.  Everybody is most kind, the general telling me to take what leave I wanted.  Mrs Wilson wired her sympathy and that her boy was saved.

Lieutenant John Bernard Hughes was the son of Canon Walter Octavius Marsh Hughes of Tarporley, Cheshire.  He was born in 1888 in Houghton-le-Spring; his father must have been clergyman there at the time.
 
Mr Meakin was headmaster of Pembroke Lodge, the school that Duncan and his brother Hugh had attended on the South Coast.
 
Willie Richardson was a solicitor in Guisborough, husband of Madge Stubbs' sister Averil
 
Dr Mackinlay, family friend (grandfather of the late J L Mackinlay of Pinchinthorpe Hall and Simonstone Hall, Hawes.)
 
Trafalgar Terrace was the home of Major Stubbs' parents
 
Alistair Wilson was one of the 4 midshipmen of the Aboukir to survive.  He was posted to HMS Vanguard a month later and was killed on 9 July 1917 when one of her magazines overheated and blew up.  His head, found miles from the scene, was the only identifiable body part of any crew member to be recovered.