A Diary of Innocence: Introducing Mary Hutchinson
Mary Hutchinson had every right to be a sad, moody, moping teenager. She was chronically ill, suffering from tuberculosis. She endured lengthy stays in hospital. She was unable to lead a normal life.
When she was thirteen, in 1927, she began her diary. She didn't dwell on her illness. She was good-humoured, writing instead about family life, friends, and her love of poetry and nature.
Mary hoped that one day her diary would be read by people outside her immediate family. Now, thanks to the marvel of modern technology, 78 years after the diary was written, we can make Mary's wish come true.
Mary and her family lived in the little market town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire, a place where folk led uneventful lives. She did not travel. She witnessed no great or dramatic events. But her naïve diary is filled with a zest for life, literature and nature.
It is also a fascinating glimpse into the past. The history of everyday life made real. For Mary began her diary in January, 1927.
No TV in those days. No CDs, DVDs, chat-lines, mobile phones. The printed word was the main avenue to leisure delight.
Mary captured the charm of that uncluttered world in her diary. She wrote “I know the early pages are monotonous, for then I was new to the art of diary keeping. I wish I had kept a diary in the past years.
“It is my hope that some day someone may find my simple daily record interesting, or that someone may be helped and comforted by something I have written in its pages.’’
The diary became a treasured possession of members of her family, and has been handed down through the generations.
Now, through Open Writing and the Internet, we can make May’s wish come true.
The Hutchinsons were a very close-knit Methodist family. John and Mary had five children: Annie, married to Arthur Nesbitt and living in Canada, Harold, a student at Cliff College, Alice, Nellie and the youngest, Mary.
Mary’s diary was kept in a green imitation alligator cardboard cover, its title ‘Remember’. Inside the front cover were these words: “This Diary Pocket is in memory of my Dear Little Wag.” This is the poem by Canon Longbridge which Mary copied here:
When the world’s weight is on thy mind,
And all its black-winged fears affright,
Think how the daisy draws her blind,
And sleeps without a light.
Maud Angell drew picture of daisies which Mary painted pink with yellow centres.
Inside the diary pocket are a tiny engagement calendar for 1926 and a 1927 calendar.
Written inside the back cover are these words: “Anyone finding this book please return it to the owner Mary Hutchinson, Thorpe Fields [crossed out and replaced by] Rainton, Thirsk, Yorkshire. Anyone so doing will be rewarded.” A four-line code composed of lines and dots is below the message.
NOTE: A serialisation of Mary’s diary begins next Thursday in Open Writing.
