The Christmas
Day Diary

This entry from Sir Iain Colquhoun’s diary offers a rare and highly personal insight to the nature of a truly compassionate man.

Serving with the Scots Guards in the trenches of World War I and following in the footsteps of the previous Christmas Day truce of 1914, Sir Iain permitted a brief halt in hostilities between the British and German armies the following year in 1915… it was an act of humanity that would see Sir Iain court-martialled as a result.

His writings though, capture a humbling account of the scene at the time: ‘At night, the Germans put up fairy lights on their parapets and their trenches were outlined for miles on either side... and the prettiest sight I have ever seen.’

It lives here in our Treasury collection giving voice to the many who were with Sir Iain on foreign fields that day.