Sunday, 27 February, 1916

A very miserable day I had to do
a lot of piety to fill up time.
Spent a good part of the afternoon
writing to Thomas.
Soon after tea the telephone rang
up. Violet said a gentleman wanted
to speak to me, but when I got there,
I could not hear him, then a woman’s
voice came & this was the Housekeeper
at the North Wall to say Capt Gravely
of the Hospital Ship Oxfordshire was
very anxious to show us the ship if
we would come in tomorrow morning
This is the ship Marie went to Malta
on & Capt G — wrote to me to tell me
how she got on & of her safe arrival
so I asked him to let us know when
he came to Dublin again. We arranged
to meet him at T & C offices at 11oc.
The Germans claim today that they
have taken one of the outer forts of
Verdun but the French say all these
forts have been dismantled & that there
were no guns there or soldiers.