The diary,
which spans the period September 1916 to January 1919, was left as “an
anonymous woman’s diary” with the “In Flanders Fields Museum” in Ypres in
Belgium in 1989. American historians De
Schaepdrijver and Proctor, who edited the diaries, managed to find valuable clues in the diary as to the
identity of the writer of the clandestine diary during such a dangerous
time. Their background research is fascinating.
Mary Thorpe
was born in Marylebone, London, UK, on 1st January 1864, the first child of Thomas Thorpe, a
horse-drawn carriage driver, and his wife Annette, nee Townshend. Like my own Great-Grandfather, Thomas had
married his deceased wife’s sister at a time when that was forbidden by the
Church, according to the Deceased Wife’s Sister Act of 1835. The
family went to live in Belgium in 1873.
Mary went to America in 1881 to visit family and in 1887 began working
as a governess.
In 1910,
Mary started work as a governess for a wealthy family who lived in Brussels – Paul
Wittouck, a sugar refinery owner, and his wife Catherine de Medem, a Russian
aristocrat. The Wittoucks had three sons
who needed “… the firm guidance that only an English governess with a command
of the French language could give”. The
Wittouck family also owned a house called ‘La Fougeraie’ in the Brussels suburb
of Uccle, where they spent the holiday period, taking Mary with them.
With the
threat of war, Mary elected to remain with the family in Belgium and in
September 1916, she began keeping a diary of her war-time experiences. In spite of the privations of food, coal,
clothes, etc. – tea was particularly hard to come by and expensive - and the
restrictions in communication with the outside world, Mary remained positive
and never gave up hope that Britain would win through. Mary
had a nephew – Dick Dodson – who was interned in the camp at Ruhleben in
Germany and occasionally managed to get parcels of food sent to him and to
receive letters from him.
But the
diary does not only contain information about the day-to-day problems of those
living under German occupation, the Wittouck family were important members of
Brussels society and entertained VIPs such as American diplomats who remained
in Brussels until just prior to America’s entry into the conflict in April
1917. You will also find interesting
information gleaned during the entertainment of such visitors. I did not
realise that the British had “mounted a “coup d’Etat” to dethrone the Czar” (p.
184) prior to the Russian Revolution.
Among the
photographs reproduced in the book is a map that clearly marks the German
occupied area of Belgium and shows the line of the Western Front. I was interested to read that Mary referred
not to tanks but ‘cistern Land dreadnoughts’ and to discover that Belgian men who were out
of work were sent to Germany for forced labour and many died as a result of
harsh treatment. As the war progressed,
so did the rationing and the requisitioning of all metal such as cooking utensils
which were sent to German to make guns.
At one point even people’s mattresses, which at that time were filled
with wool, were taken away and sent to Germany (p. 185).
With
frequent house searches by German soldiers, it was difficult to hide anything and the
danger involved in trying to smuggle messages or letters to other parts of
Belgium is highlighted on page 47 where we learn that Madame Wittouck “spent a
night in prison in Liège for her intent to carry two personal letters from
Vielsalm (a small town south-east of Liège) to Brussels.”
The diary
contains fascinating insights as to the progress of the war – the guns could be
heard in Brussels and planes and Zeppelins were frequently overhead – as well
as everyday details of life at that time.
The German authorities at one point closed down schools. The only newspapers permitted were the
neutral Dutch ones and those published under the direction of the Germans. The Belgian authorities banned skating on
frozen ponds in public places because the Germans would take photographs and
films to demonstrate to the world that they were on friendly terms with the
Belgians. I was also interested to read
that the Germans, with a ‘divide and rule’ tactic, encouraged the differences
between the French and Flemish Belgians.
After the
Armistice in November 1918, Mary was able to visit some English soldiers in a local hospital and
was shocked to find the awful conditions they had to endure – “no care, no
nursing, next to no food, dirt & squalor…”. In the Epilogue is mention of a letter sent
to Mary by one of the soldiers she visited.
Mary remained in Belgium, where she died on 2nd December
1945.
This book is
definitely required reading for anyone seriously interested in the history of
the First World War.
“An English Governess
in the Great War: The Secret Brussels
Diary of Mary Thorp” Edited by Sophie De Schaepdrijver and Tammy M. Proctor
(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017) £25.00 available from Amazon or the
Oxford University Press Website http://global.oup.com/?cc=gb
