Page 12 - Oundle Life November 2021

OUNDLE MUSEUM
Life in a Market Town
Binders Diary: ‘Life in a Northamptonshire Market Town during the Great War 1914-1918’
This incredible book is for
sale in the Museum and is a transcription of the diaries written by John Coleman Binder, grocer, baker and corn dealer, day by day through the Great War. The diaries were painstakingly transcribed by Alice Thomas,
all nine volumes of them! Alice
mentions: “A first hand account
such as this is a valuable and vivid
record of how life was for this
thoughtful Oundle man in the years between 1914 and 1918.”
John Binder was born in Oundle in 1863,
the youngest of nine children. His father Henry was a grocer, baker and corn-dealer and had a shop on West Street (this was burned down in 1966). Henry died when John was only 7, and his mother Christiana carried on the business. By 1901 John, still single, was living at the shop with his brother and his wife and they are listed in the census of that year as being employers. John married Louisa Clara Middleton in 1901; they had no children and by 1911 were living at No 8 Stoke Hill. John died in 1933 aged 70.
His diaries record the day to day impact of the Great War, and he writes of his own
experience of information from local people, the newspapers and from official telegrams which were displayed in the
Post Office window. As a baker and grocer he is concerned with food shortages, rising prices and the introduction of rationing. He worries about the frequent sinking of ships and the call up of so many farm workers, as well as the anxieties of those whose husbands and sons are reported missing or killed.
He served as a special constable out during the night to check there
were no lights showing when there were air raid warnings. He was often critical of Government regulations and followed the debates in Parliament with interest. His diaries show hopes and fears rising and falling as the months and years go by until, at last, the end comes, and he lays down his pen with great relief and rejoicing. Carole Bancroft-Turner
The Museum closes for the season on the 31st October but if anyone would like a copy of this book please contact us on: info@oundlemuseum.org.uk www.oundlemuseum.org.uk
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