Our Family History
The Genealogy of the Story Family
Lt. Col. Robert Story
1854 - 1924 (70 years)
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Lt. Col. Robert Story - Diary notes 1895
Notes from Robert's diary by MN D-W
He is back to Lett's Rough Diary
January 1895
"The New year finds me spending Christmas with my Mother. We have just suffered a great shock in the news of Arthur's death which arrived on Xmas day. I am fairly well in health & Vida is rapidly growing a strong fine and health girl, as well as being well up in her school work.
Fran & Charlie are at Bordighera, & Oswald & Olave at Ghent. Lou at Highgate and I have my house at Winchester."
There was some snow about, Robert bought a great-coat. He stayed at Clifton till the 15th when Robert & Vida went via Swindon and Reading to stay at The Oaks (Uncle Nevile & twin cousins Cara & Margaret) near Sunbury. They spent some days visiting etc. Robert called on his old tutor at the crammer. Then on the 22nd Vida went back to school and Robert went home. It was still very cold - hard frost & snow - Robert stayed indoors, then he went to look at the skating at Winnal Moor and as the ice stayed good he went skating several times towards the end of the month, and shooting once. A thaw came on Feb 2nd.
February 1895
Feb 4th. "Stayed in all day. Letter from Miss Harman about Brady of Virginia who is being boycotted, sent a telegram to Tatlow about it." Next day he heard from Tatlow on the same subject and wrote to him. He was trying to let his house (for the summer?) which caused his cook to give notice, but she later relented! It froze again, hard enough for more skating.
Feb 9th. "Stayed in most of the day. Skated a little even. on the canal and frozen fields. The intense frost still continues. No such cold has been recorded during the century."
Feb 14th. "Skated a little, got an oil stove. My water supply is cut off by the frost."
22nd. "Thaw. No water as yet." It did not come on till March 7th, though he and Liversidge (the gardener) tried to thaw the service pipe.
March 1895
March 8th. "Taken with a very bad fainting fit at the Club. Gen. Oldfield took me home. (Here follows a bit of Persian script). " He felt so seedy he had the Dr. in but then he got a telegraph from Miss Jollie saying she would be in town the next day.
March13th. "Took the 10.42am train & came here (St. George's Club). Called on Miss Joillie at the Metropole after lunch and sat with her for an hour till Mrs. Haggie her cousin came in."
March 14th. "Called on Miss Jollie morn. and went for a walk with her, Mrs.Haggie & Angus. After lunch we went with them to Olympia and then to Norwood - saw Vida and came back by the 7.09pm train a very roundabout way from the High Level Station."
He went to stay with his friend Peyton in Brighton on the 16th and th next day "Went with Peyton morn. to see the church parade. Miss Jollie to lunch and went for a drive with us after."
March 18th. "Went out with Frank Peyton & met Miss Jollie, he drove to his hairdresser while I went for a walk with the ladies. Tea with Mrs Haggie at the Metropole."
On the 22nd he went to stay in the Citadel, Dover visiting army friends. It was wet & foggy. He went home via London on the 27th visiting Vida en route.
March 30th. "Got some incandescent burners for the drawing room."
April 1895
On April 2nd Robert went to stay in Whitburn, Sunderland, where, guess what - Miss Jollie was staying! He went for two walks with her, to Marsden and Sunderland, and the next day he walked on the beach with her. On th 6th he went o stay at the White Heart in Hexham & visited old Bingfield, taking some photos. He also saw the Moot Hall, the Keep and Dilaton Castle. He went home via London on the 10th taking Vida with him for the Easter holidays.
April 10th. "Got Vida a hen canary and mated it with one of hers."
April 15th. "Found that the kitchen boiler had gone wrong. Sent for Humby to see it. He had to pull the range to pieces to get it out, when he found out it was cracked.
April 16th. "Vida and I went for her first ride with Blake through Twyford and home over the downs near Morestead." They often rode together after this. Robert got a Gardner typewriter and tried it. He was writing to the makers within a week and for typing paper a few days later.
May 1895
May 3rd. "Saw a rather curious accident at St. Cross morn, a horse got the lower half of its collar into its mouth & fell, half choked. I helped a little with the harness etc."
May 8th, "Recd a handsome handkerchief for Vida from Wazir & sent it to her. Am elected to the 'Senior' United Services Club. Got here (Aldershot) just as the recruits under Boultbee arrived. Found no furniture ready for me & went to Whites to get some. Got some spurs at Flights & ordered some boots. Wrote to Miss Jollie before leaving. Our camp is just below Sawn Inn Plateau on our old parade ground of days gone by."
May 15th. "Took the 11.54am train to London. Lunch at the 'Senior'. Then at Mrs. Turnbull's to meet Mrs Haggie and Miss Jollie after they had been to the drawing room. Back by 6.20pm train. Strong N. wind and cold night."
May 16th. "Strolled down the Lynchford Road morn. and got some toothe brushes and 'Frog in the Throat'. Went aft. to the club, and on into Aldershot to get a piano for the mess with Fitzgerald. Bitterly cold night and strong gale. Took the mess stove into my tent at night. Slight snow towards morn."
May 17th. "Went on parade morn. with the recruits, very cold day. Mrs Haggie and Miss Jollie came to lunch and spent the afternoon, going home be the 4.47pm train. Lyson & Fitzgerald also lunched with us."
May 19th Sunday (Robert put a star * by the date). "Big church parade morn. at Marlborough Lines church - the Duke of Connaught was there & shook hands with me. Wrote to Aunt Carrie & Vida. Took an evening train to town and dined with Mrs Haggie and Miss Jollie - Proposed to Miss Jollie after dinner and she accepted me !!! Slept at Jermyn St."
From now on Robert refers to Miss Jollie as May. They wrote to each other nearly every day. She was travelling and he was busy with parades and musketry. There was a review on Lafflan's Plain on the 24th to mark the Queen's Birthday - "Rather a noisy evening, the young officers being somewhat uproarious."
The weather suddenly became so hot that several men fainted at the church parade on Cove Hill on the 26th. "I felt bad but held on to the end." He went to the Regimental Dinner in London but May was away. The weather was now both hot and thundery.
June 1895
Robert wrote to his mother about May on the 1st June.
June 5th. "Big review on Laflan's Plain before the Shahzada Nazur Ulla Khan of Afghanistan, 17,700 men were present. Not a very laborious affair."
Robert went home on the 9th, saw his tenant Mrs Murray and fetched his typewriter.
10th. "Pleasant cool day. Amused myself with my typewriter morn. & wrote to Vida with it." But alas two days later "Sent the carriage of my typewriter to Manchester to be put right."
14th. "Parade at 8.30am and marched to Norris Hill via wharf bridge, ourselves, 5th R.B., 1 squadron of the Greys & 1 battery R.H.A. formed a force to escort a convoy to Farnborough - fought over Lafflin Plain to No. 4 Bridge. Cool pleasant day. Got the carriage of my typewriter back from Manchester - found it worse than ever & sent it away again. Heard from & wrote to May."
22nd. "Rain about 4am, got up at 5am & put my kit together. Breakfast 6.30am, left at 10am for Fanborough in command of Rt. Half Battn. Wrote to May. Paid off my men. Took the 5.10pm train from Barnet via King's X to Praed St. and Paddington. Dined there and got the 9pm express, to Mother's about 1am, Florie let me in."
25th. "Florie came with me morn. to Desprez and we chose a ring for May. (What was it like? He never says) I lunched early & took the 2.15pm train to Bath, frove to the Ferns (Mrs Mathers) & spent the afternoon with May."
26th. "May came over from Bath vy the 11.14am train & I met her at Bristol 11.35am. She spent the day at Salisbury Lodge & I saw her off on the 6.42pm train."
For the next two weeks Robert indulged in a round of gaiety with May. She was staying in London with friends & Robert stayed with his Aunt in Jermyn St. or with Uncle Nevile at Hanworth. They met every day, usually with Miss Good as a chaperone. They had tea and dinner at the Empire of India Exhibition, went to morning service at Westminster Abbey, had Vida out to lunch with them at the Crystal Palace, went to his tailor for new clothes & the specialist who passed him as fit & healthy, the Grafton Gallery, Mme Tussaud's and the Globe Theatre to see 'Charlie's Aunt'. Robert comments "Good fun', tea after at an ABC in the Strand - man in a fit there."
July & August 1895
On July 11th May sailed for New Zealand on the Gothic. Robert saw her off and was about to leave Uncle Nevile's for Clifton on the 15th when Os turned up and bore off to Weymouth where his ship HMS Boscawen was stationed. He stayed with Os for 10 days, walking on Portlamd Is., sailing about and visiting an Italian fleet of 4 ships; on evening the Channel Fleet came in and put on a searchlight display.
Robert went back to Clifton and pottered about. He enquired about passages to N.Z., Voda came for the holidays, they took a boat trip from Bristol to Clovelly one day. He was still in trouble with his typewriter - the jeweller Desprez was trying to fix it as the suppliers had gone into liquidation - "Wrote to them about it." He took quantities of photos and Charlie developed them for him. This was just as well as he lost a purse with £7 in it. On the 23rd a whole party of them drove to Berkely Castle for the day. "Saw the room where Ed. II was murdered."
August 25th. "Gothic arrived in Wellington (presumably he saw it in the paper).
August 26th. "Recd my typewriter carriage back from Coy and found it as bad as ever. Wrote to them about it."
29th. A telegram from May saying "Come". Next day Robert replied "Ionic" which was the next ship to N.Z. Now followed a whirl of activity! "Telehgraphed to engage a passage to NZ & Company. Wrote to Mrs. Oakshott & Gudgeon about giving up Highfield & to Mary Lay and Cook giving them notice & to Os saying my telegram had come." Vida now had a pocket Koday and Robert bought nher some film spools and a developing dish, he was also in correspondence with Cheltenham College about Vida going there.
September 1895
At the beginning of Sept. Robert, Vida and Florie went to Highfield to pack and say goodbye. there were also people calling to engage the cook. Then Vida went back to school and Robert was left to clear up, pay bills, see people about the house etc. On Sept. 19th he met Helen Beckwith at a friends house and told her of his engagement, he gives no hint of her reaction.
The rest of September was very hot and Robert was busy all the time with men in packing boxes and china and sending off the furniture. He finally gave up the keys on the 30th and went to London.
October 1895
He and Vida sailed on the S.S Ionic on Oct. 3rd, it was rough and Vida was seasick but soon recovered. She only went as far as Plymouth and then was put ashore by tender.
As soon as things got organised on the ship Robert was out on the Sports Committee. Now his typewriter came into its own as he could type out all the notices. They reached Santa Cruz on the 10th and went ashore with other passengers; "Very bad lunch and very bad wine." The weather here was very hot, but seems to have cooled off afterward when they caught the S.E. Trades. The time went pleasantly, playing peg quoits, cock fighting or just sitting on deck and at night sometimes a concert. They crossed the line on Oct. 16th and spent a day in Cape Town on the 25th where Robert bought a feather fan for May (£4) and a melon seed necklace for Vida.
November 1895
In November the Ionic was crossing the S. Indian Ocean. It got so cold the passengers got out their thick clothes. They had hail & snow and such heavy seas that one lifeboat broke loose and the ship's railing was damaged. On the 3rd they passed an iceberg (Lat. 44.48s) and on the 8th & 9th saw Aurora Australis at night.
Thay had a day in Hobart on the 13th but Robert got no letters as he had hoped. It became warmer and sunnier as they crossed the Tasman Sea, Robert sighted Mt. Egmont 90 miles away on the 17th.
18th RMS Ionic. "On deck at 4.30am to see the coast. Got up at 6.45am as we entering the heads. Anchored until the Dr. and Harbourmaster came on board. Got alongside the wharf about 8.30am - Mr Turnbull brought me a letter from May giving me a hearty welcome." It was too late for him to set out for Patea that day so he did some shopping and spent a pleasant musical evening with some friends.
19th. "Got up at 5am and took the 6.30 train to Patea. Arrived about 5.30pm & was met by Ted & May who drove me to the house. Rather tired. (Isn't he maddening!)"
20th. "Ted and I mended the hydraulic ram morn, putting in a new valve, Musical evening; had a long talk with May before going to bed."
As an engaged couple Robert & May were free of chaperones and had a lovely time rushing about visiting. They went into Patea nearly every day, shopping, calling on friends, or watching tennis or cricket. Robert made himself useful - "Put the electric bells in order, did some glueing, dug out one of the springs for the ram tank. Sent Mother a picture paper on Fiordland & Geyserland. Made a new handle for the diningroom coal shovel, soldered the bottom of the bath." They went to Hawera to hear Mark Twain speak in the Town Hall.
December 1895
6th. Robert, May & Mrs. Jollie went to New Plymouth by train and too the steamer Glenelg for Auckland.
7th. "On deck 6.30am, fine view of the coast. Crossed the Manukau Bar 12.30pm (Where the HMS Orpheus was wrecked). Went on by train to Auckland from Onehunga."
9th. "Went out into the town morn. with May and Mrs. Jollie. Got the wedding ring and some scent bottles for the bridemaids. (They were silver). Also got an inlaid table for May. Mrs. Young came in to say that we can start for the Bay of Islands tomorrow." However he did not go next day, he was busy doing such things as enquiring about their passage back to England on the Ionic, and visiting the Katoomba where they had tea,
11th. "Got myself a saddle swag and May a greenstone paper knife. Saw May & Mrs. Jollie off on the train for Drury. Mr. Young came to lunch, then he and I left by SS Wellington for Whangerei - smooth seas."
12th. "Got to Whangerei heads 6.30am and took the 7.45am train into the town - saw kauri sawmills. Took the 2.22pm train for Hikurangi (an hour late in starting) and on arriving walked to the coal mine and was shown over part of it."
13th. "Went by train to the large coal mine with Mr. Young - got some specimens of amberite, saw the workings, took some photos. Walked home over some ranges by some gum-diggers' huts. Mended the electric bells in the hotel after lunch for which Rolleston the manager gave me a carved tanika stick. Climbed up Hikurangi Mountain with Mr. Young. Went to see a new house being built after tea. Fauset Family (acrobats and music) in the hall even."
Robert travelled to Kawakawa and Pouirus where he went on an 8 hour ride in the bush near Kerikeri, got some good nits of kauri gum and "Saw the new experiment of feeding sheep on gorse." He took a ship from Opua to Kororareka on the Clansman which was still at work there in 1945! They had time in Russell for him to see the church and Waka Nene's tomb, then on, getting to Auckland at 5am. He met May for lunch and they went to stay at Wright's farm Raventhorpe, Drury. He was shown round the farm, went swimming in the stream, tried eel fishing at night "but only caught the bottom of the river."
23rd. "Shot one of the turkeys morn for Christmas dinner. Got May to fix the date of our wedding for Feb 17th. Wrote to Mr. Harper about putting up the banns and to Jasper Smyth." (Vicar of Akaroa). On Christmas Eve they were so hot shopping in Auckland that they went for a sail in the harbour to cool off. Christmas day passed without comment except "Went for a walk with May in the bush even."
| Date | 1895 |
| Linked to | Lt. Col. Robert Story |
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