Soldiers Somme Diary Auctioned
Published March 19th, 2007
THE POIGNANT diary of a Doncaster soldier at the bloody Battle of the Somme fetched over £7,000 at auction.
The great interest in Private Walter Hutchinson’s diary – which included a first-hand account of the day 62,000 British lives were lost in the 1916 battle – saw the item go for almost ten times its original estimate of £800.
Bidding was so intense for the possessions of Pte Hutchinson from Conisbrough, that auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb had to call in telephone operators to handle bids from interested parties who couldn’t attend the auction rooms in London.
The possessions of Pte Hutchinson, which included a military medal, half-hunter pocket watch, photographs as well as the immaculately preserved diary, went for an end price of £7,360.
The diary, which tells of Pte Hutchison’s graphic account of going “over the top” and having to bury his dead colleagues in the aftermath of the battle, was sold by his niece Jeanette Ive.
Auctioneer David Erskine-Hill said: “It was a very, very successful sale. We had a lot of bids on the auctioneers book and we had handlers taking bids on the telephone so it was a very busy lot. It was a superb result largely generated because of newspaper interest. I think having generated all that interest we knew it was going to do extremely well but the price still surprised us. It was a rare find indeed.”
The auctioneers were unable to divulge the name or location of the successful bidder but were happy to confirm that the diary was not bought by an overseas bidder and will remain in the UK
