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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Elsie Corbet


barkalotloudly

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I have been fortunate to be able to purchase the original manuscript diary of the lady very neat but small writing not cheap but she is not going yo write anything else!

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forgive my ignorance... who is this lady???? 

 

M.

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13 hours ago, Mike Cross said:

I assume that you mean the Elsie Corbett of Spelsbury, Oxforddshire.

 

MC

yes that is the lady 

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Perhaps this Elsie Corbett?

Copied , as I don't know how long lasting the link will be. AbeBooks

 

Elsie Corbett was the daughter of Archibald Corbett, 1st Baron Rowallan (1856-1933), and sister of a Governor of Tasmania. She joined the Red Cross during the First World War, and met Kathleen Dillon, a member of the notable Dillon family of Ditchley, while seabound for Serbia. Kathleen Dillon owned Spelsbury House in Oxfordshire, together with a large part of Spelsbury village, and the two women lived together at Spelsbury until Dillon's death. The diary is written on 171pp., 4to, in a burgundy morocco binding, marbled endpapers. Internally in good condition, with one loose leaf; the binding is worn and has the front hinge sprung. The diary is written in a vivid, intelligent and entertaining style, giving much information regarding the work of the Red Cross in wartime Serbia, and reflecting Corbett's strong personality (as a teetotaller she would force the village pub at Spelsbury to close, and after Dillon's death she took in abandoned animals at Spelsbury). The period covered by the diary is dealt with on pp.102-141 of Corbett's book 'Red Cross in Serbia 1915-1919' (1964, hereafter referred to as RCS), which is subtitled 'A personal diary of experiences'. Much of the material in the dairy serves as a basis for Chapter 5 of RCS. The unpublished diary begins with Corbett in England on leave, followed by a year during which she was 'Based at Yelak for twelve months': it contains descriptions of 'Christmas and social events' in Serbia, and ends during the Battle of Dobro Pole, at the start of what Corbett calls 'the Advance' the Vardar Offensive by French and Serbian forces against the Bulgarians, supported by the British Salonika Force (BSF). The first page of the diary is headed 'Brown's Hotel, Dover St., London' (where Corbett's father, whom she describes as 'an M.P. and a philanthropist', was living). The first entry is dated Monday 9 July [1917]; and the last Monday 16 September 1918. By far the greater part of the present item remains unpublished, much of it filled with information and of high interest. Corbett chooses for publication descriptions of noteworthy incidents rather than descriptions of day-to-day activities, and her use of the diary in RCS is selective: what material she does use summarised, and the published extracts (including the final ones written at the time of the Vardar Offensive) are abridged, paraphrased and amended. (Corbett's of editorial method can be assessed by comparison of the original five-page diary entry describing 'the 9th Regiment's "Slava"' on 11 January 1918, with the version as published in RCS on pp.122-124.) An example of the material omitted from the published version is the entry for 2 December 1917: 'No journey, but walked up to the Grumpies with K. after lunch, - & have arranged to clandestinely meet a bad stretcher-case at the masked road to-morrow morning, & take him straight down to Skotchivir, - saving him the last 3 kilometers carried by hand, & the wait & about at the dressing-station here | We could so easily fetch all the stretchers from there, - or indeed everybody from the Ambulance itself, if only would let us, & would cause just 100 yds or so of the road to be mended. Can't think why he won't; - just administrative apathy I suppose. - & meanwhile the patients come jogging down on mules, - exposed to wind & rain & snow.' The following extended extract from the diary, reproducing part of the entry for 13 September 1918, gives a good example of the style and content. The extract is followed for comparison by the completely recast and heavily abridged version published by Corbett in RCS, which misdates the events described to two days earlier. The unpublished diary version (13 September 1918) reads: 'The Clagayanik's Sister arrived last night, & has been up here most of the day as the unit's been rigging her out in S.W.H. uniform! She hasn't cut her hair, & brought a Gotch with her, but it's got a bit dilapidated. She hadn't been helping the spy, & she hadn't killed an. 

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/British-Red-Cross-Serbia-First-World/22850793057/bd

[ British Red Cross in Serbia in the First World War. ] Autograph diary (largely unpublished) of nurse Elsie Corbett, describing twelve months based at Yelak.

 

Also the author of Red Cross in Serbia. 1915-1919. A personal diary of experiences 1964

Cheers

Maureen

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