Record Number: 30882
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'The ... grandiloquent "education programme" we were able to satisfy sufficiently. A number of the "boys" were barely literate and Miss Nettleton could deal with the three R's. Some of them were not at all too old to sit around her on the floor like children while she read them Treasure Island or The Wind in the Willows: this could be counted as an hour of "English".'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between Aug 1915 and Oct 1919
Country:France
Timen/a
Place:city: Le Havre
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
passive in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:1875
Socio-Economic Group:Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder
Occupation:YMCA volunteer, nominally listed as "canteen worker"
Religion:n/a
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:France
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
British Army soldiers, members of the YMCA's Young Soldiers' Club.
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:The Wind in the Willows
Genre:Fiction, Children's Lit
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsFirst published 1908.
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:30882
Source:Barclay Baron
Editor:Michael Snape
Title:The Back Parts of War: The YMCA Memoirs and Letters of Barclay Baron, 1915-1919
Place of Publication:Woodbridge, Suffolk
Date of Publication:2009
Vol:n/a
Page:115
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Barclay Baron, Michael Snape (ed.), The Back Parts of War: The YMCA Memoirs and Letters of Barclay Baron, 1915-1919, (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2009), n/a, p. 115, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30882, accessed: 22 April 2025
Additional Comments:
Baron describes Miss Nettleton as an "elderly maiden lady," and Michael Snape identifies her from YMCA records as coming from Battersea. The 1911 census records an Irene Nettleton, 36, born in Clapham, living in Wandsworth, which suggests that Nettleton was only in her early 40s when Baron knew her.