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Bloodstained WWI Diary Found in Trash Reveals Soldier’s Love Story
The diary, still marked by a bullet hole and bloodstains, shows he married Violet Palfreyman and spent five weeks with her before returning to battle.
- In 1965, a 12-year-old boy named Alan Southall discovered a bloodstained diary in a rubbish tip, revealing the First World War story of Corporal Claude Nuttall. The journal survived 47 years after the soldier's death.
- After being wounded at the Somme, Nuttall recovered at Wordsley Hospital in Stourbridge, where he met and married Violet Palfreyman. The couple spent just five weeks together before he returned to the Western Front in France.
- The diary, still bearing a bullet hole, details Nuttall's service, including when King George presented him with the Military Medal for rescuing comrades in 1916. He was killed by a sniper in 1918.
- Author Colin Read spent years tracking down the soldier's family to complete the narrative, detailed in his book, The Digger's Diary. The work launches at Stourbridge Library on October 15 at the Dudley History Festival.
- Local people in France commemorate Nuttall annually on the Somme, remembering one of around 8,000 Australian soldiers who married English women during the war. Violet later remarried and moved to New Zealand after his death.
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36 Articles
Boy finds bloodstained WW1 diary in rubbish tip revealing soldier’s tragic love story
A 12-year-old boy stumbled upon a soldier’s bloodstained diary in a rubbish tip in 1965. Inside were the final words of a war hero who married his sweetheart just five weeks before returning to the battlefield.
·London, United Kingdom
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InsideNoVA.com+32 Reposted by 32 other sources
Bloodstained WWI diary found in trash reveals soldier’s love story
The blood-spattered diary even includes a mystery bullet hole on its top right corner.
·Washington, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources36
Leaning Left8Leaning Right8Center19Last UpdatedBias Distribution54% Center
Bias Distribution
- 54% of the sources are Center
54% Center
L 23%
C 54%
R 23%
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