First World War soldier's diary found in rubbish tells love story
Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 18 Oct, 06:31 · Archive
A blood-stained First World War diary found in a rubbish dump tells the story of an Australian soldier's brief marriage.
The handwritten diary of Corporal Claude Nuttall, an Australian infantryman, was discovered at a rubbish tip in 1965 by a twelve-year-old boy searching for toys. The blood-stained document features a mysterious bullet hole in its top right corner, believed to have resulted from Nuttall being shot. He was subsequently treated at a British hospital.
Nuttall met Violet Palfreyman while recuperating from his injuries at Wordsley Hospital in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, in 1916. The young pair fell for each other and married in March 1918, spending just five weeks together before he was dispatched back to the front line in France. Tragically, Nuttall was killed by a sniper at the Battle of Amiens, merely three days after his final diary entry on 10 August 1918, three months before Armistice Day.
Author Colin Read, aged 69, obtained the diary and has spent years tracing Nuttall's relatives to piece together his full story. Read said the boy who found it showed his father, who explained it belonged to an Australian soldier. Read has now written a book about Nuttall's life, drawing on the diary and the information he gathered from relatives.
How it is being reported
- Midland soldier's tragic love story told in bloodstained diary found in rubbish dumpThe bloodstained diary of a First World War soldier found in a rubbish dump tells his heartbreaking love story more than a century after his deathBirminghamLive · 18 Oct, 06:14
- Tragic WW1 soldier's love story told after blooded diary found in Stourbridge rubbishThe diary – which was found in 1965 – has since found its way into the hands of author Colin ReadExpress & Star · 17 Oct, 01:32
In this story: Claude Nuttall · Violet Palfreyman · Colin Read · Stourbridge · Battle of Amiens · France
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