An Extraordinary Pocket Dictionary

Not a blog post as such; more a note so that I don’t forget about this little book.

This little pocket dictionary was passed down to me earlier this week. It once belonged to my Great Uncle William Stewart, known by us all as Uncle Will. He was married to my Auntie Daisy who was my Nanna’s sister. As a child I knew Auntie Daisy and Uncle Will and would visit them with my Nanna, but actually know very little about their early lives.

This week I discovered that William served during WW1 in Egypt and that he looked after the horses.

It would seem that he must have taken this little book with him during his service as in the front is written his Regt No. and in the back the daily routine.

Given that the book is 100 years old+ it is in reasonable condition. The front cover has become detached but all the pages are intact except one and it is this page and what it may represent that I find very emotive.

This page contains the word ‘home’

and the reverse contains the word ‘horse’

It seems rather a coincidence that this page, and this one alone is very tatty, well used and detached from the rest of the book. What at first glance seems like a fairly ordinary book now seems rather extraordinary.