W.D. Kemp's Personal Diary

Front two pages and last two pages

Ref: ARC2002-861

The paperback diary has Kemp's name and regiment on the front cover followed by his father's details as a forwarding address.  The first months of the diary are whimsical in tone with many references to battalion drills afternoon swims with particular attention to the time when activities commenced.  After the 25 April landing, the entries become more curt and direct.  For extended periods of time, short one-lined entries were made for what appear to be very long and arduous days including 30 May 1915 when a comrade died in his arms.

At the start of the diary, William Kemp's cursive script is quite generous in size. The size progressively diminishes throughout the book until only a few millimetres high by the second-to-last page.  For all his compensation, William Kemp died with half a page in his diary to go.