Our latest “Document of the Week” was chosen by our former Marketing and Editorial Assistant, Laura Wales. It is an extract from Captain Charlie May’s diary from June 1916. He was killed while leading his men into action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Charlie May was born in New Zealand on 27 July 1889, to an English family who moved back to England in 1902. At the age of 23, he married Bessie Maude Holl, whom he addressed frequently in his diary. Six months after the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted, becoming a Captain in the Manchester Regiment, 22nd Battalion. He was deployed to France and Belgium in November 1915.
During his time at the front, he kept a slender notebook on his person that he used as a diary to record his experiences secretively, a crime that was punishable by court-martial. He had been a poet and a journalist before the war, so he could not help documenting what he saw.
His diaries provide a rare glimpse into life in the trenches. Charlie wrote of his fear of death, for he did not want to leave his wife and daughter:
"My darling, au revoir. It may well be that you will only have to read these lines as ones of passing interest. On the other hand, they may well be my last message to you. If they are, know through all your life that I loved you and baby with all my heart and soul, that you two sweet things were just all the world to me.”
On 1 July 1916, he was wounded by a German shell. He died of his wounds three hours later, one of the 379 soldiers from his regiment who were killed in action at the Somme that same day. His final entry notes the machine guns of the enemy, hauntingly concluding with, “I trust they will not claim too many of our lads before the day is over”.
In total, he had kept seven notebooks. These were sent home to his wife and daughter, together with news of his death. Charlie’s great-nephew transcribed the diaries that had been left forgotten in an attic for 80 years. They were published in 2014.
Where to find this document
Captain Charlie May’s diaries feature in our collection, Life on the Front Line: Diaries, News, and Letters from the First World War, 1914–1919. This collection is composed predominantly of diaries and letters written by British military personnel who served during the First World War (1914–1918). Consisting of nearly 15,000 images, it provides a fascinating, albeit poignant, survey of what everyday life was like for soldiers, supplying compelling insights into the realities of warfare. The personal accounts in this collection offer sustained—and often profound—reflections on the morality of war, and on the harsh military discipline demanded of combatants. Visit the collection page to learn more.