The photograph below is of the McLaren family. It was taken on Boxing Day of 1911 at their home, Manor Farm, Thorpe Thewles.

The location of this family group photograph was in the front garden of their farmhouse, a contemporary view of which is separately pictured below.

The family comprised parents William and Hannah (seated in the centre of the picture) and their three children. The oldest of these was David (standing top right), followed by Peter (standing top left) with the youngest being Janet (seated bottom right). Both David and Peter are shown wearing their school (Stockton Grammar School) uniforms.

The teenage David McLaren kept diaries in 1911, 1912 and 1913. These record both his life on the farm, at school and in the village, as well as national and international events as the shadows of war lengthened over Europe.

In 2010 David’s diaries were discovered at a car boot sale in Hull and thereafter were secured by Thorpe Thewles History Group (TTHG) who fully transcribed and researched them. As part of a recent National Heritage Lottery funded project TTHG have made David’s diaries fully available to all as a downloadable book. A limited edition of printed copies of the diaries are also to be produced as part of this project and will shortly be donated to selected local and national libraries.

As part of this project TTHG also partnered with Lonely Tower Film and Media to produce an 83-minute duration documentary film about the life of the diarist and the fascinating content of his teenage journals.

To learn more about the above project, as well as watch and/or download a free copy of the David McLaren diaries, go to the link below on TTHG’s website.

The David McLaren Diaries Project