Summary

World War I memoir written by Lieut. Jack H. Pike describing his sea voyage over and his stay in Egypt, Italy and France, 1917-1918. He titles the work 'A Trip Home to the Great War'. The memoir begins:

'On the 21-11-17 at 4AM R...[?] went; the last we would hear in Aussie for some time, and at 5AM we marched out of the Broadmeadows camp. I was with the 25th/8 Battalion, 150 good men. We marched to the station and there entrained for Port Melbourne, and after roll call, we went on board the S.S. Nestor which was to be our home for some time.'

Pike was a married grazier from Mansfield, Victoria, who enlisted on 9 June 1917, at the age of 27. He was placed in the 8th Battalion, 25th Reinforcements, as a 2nd Lieutenant, and left Melbourne on the Nestor on 11 November 1917. He arrived in Egypt in December, then was shipped to England in January 1918. After recovering from influenza he arrived in France in late June 1918. In July he became a lieutenant, and in August was wounded but not hospitalized. Pike survived the war, but was then treated for chancroid (a venereal disease) caught in France in January 1919. He arrived back in Australia in June 1919; he died within a year.

Physical Description

Bound in black leather; marbled end papers. Hinges vertically. Cream-coloured paper, written in blue ink on one side only. Elastic band attached the front of diary to wrap around and hold it closed.

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