The Story of Buck's Diary

Buck's diary was lent to a researcher some time in the mid-1980s.  The details of who that was and what, if any, research output eventuated have sadly been lost to history, but the key fact was that contact with the researcher was lost, and, it was feared, so was the diary.

Even in a country as small as New Zealand, in the 1980s and 1990s, finding someone with just a name and an (apparently former) address was not easy.  About all that could be done was to scour the electoral rolls - for each of the 90+ electorates - and telephone directories - for the 18 or so regions and districts - and hope that by cross-referencing those, a lead might be found.  Of course, at that time there was no such thing as "online"; there was only the public library.  These efforts came to nil and, as the years passed, hope faded that the diary would ever be recovered.

Buck wrote his 40-page monograph from memory in the early 1990s and passed away in 1995 at the age of 80.

Fast forward to the 2010s and one of Buck's grandsons - out of boredom - googled himself and finding little of interest on that topic, started googling the names of family members.  Still he found little of interest - the world is a big place and it is surprising how many people have the same names.  However, he thought, there could have only ever been one Harold Ernest Anzac Price, so in went the name, and to his amazement, out came a hit - from the National Library of New Zealand.  Somehow, the National Library had Buck's diary.  He reported the find to his parents.

The exact details of the diary's journey never fully emerged, but in broad terms at some point the researcher moved and then died and all his research material was packed up by his family and put aside.  Years (maybe decades) later - probably on the death of his wife - everything went into an estate auction in Auckland.  The diary was spotted by someone connected with the National Library.  The Library purchased the diary and are preserving it for its historical value.

So, decades after it had last been seen, Buck's diary was found.  Two of Buck's children arranged to attend the National Library in Wellington to view it.  The Library staff were most helpful, and incredibly enthused to have more details of the diary's provenance.  They were also extremely interested in the transcription of Buck's 1990s memoir, and took a copy for preservation with the diary.  A representative of the Ministry of Defence also attended, and provided the family with a copy of Buck's service record.  The Library provided a high-definition digital scan of the diary, which is what is found in this website.  For their part, Buck's family are delighted that Buck's recollections are being preserved as part of the nation's history.

Some Thoughts About Buck's Diary

On reading the diary, the first thing that one realises is that it is not really a diary.  It is not a contemporaneous record of the events it describes - it was mostly written some years after the end of the war.  

Some parts of it may have been, and probably were, created during the war, specifically the scrapbook-type parts, where Buck has glued in news clippings about himself, his crew and his comrades from 75(NZ) and 156 Squadrons (mostly to note their deaths), and other ephemera.   

The handwritten anecdotes (including the dated entries) are clearly later additions.  Buck refers to things that would happen in the future, which he could not have known on the purported dates of the various entries - for example, at one point he refers to pinching a towel from a fancy hotel, and then says he still has it fifteen years later.  He could only know that if he was writing fifteen years after the event.  There are many such examples.  

The reference to fifteen years does give us a ballpark for when Buck recorded some of these recollections - probably some time in the vicinity of 1960 (plus or minus a few years).  There is also fairly clear evidence that Buck returned to the diary on more than one occasion - he notes their ruby wedding anniversary in 1984; he writes about how his perspective has changed over the 40 years since the events of the war, which also suggests the early 1980s.  He records the names and dates of birth of their five children, although the youngest is slotted in above the oldest, there being no room left at the foot of the page.  

The evidence within the 'diary' overwhelmingly suggests that it was not written during the war, but that Buck wrote it during at least two (possibly more) distinct later periods.  

There is also some good evidence that there was a diary, but that this isn't it.  Buck starts with dated entries - mostly about his induction at the Levin Ground Training Station - and the reader is given a description of the various classes and exams he had on a day-by-day basis.  If this was written years after the events, his recollection is extraordinary, but it clearly was written later.  In only the seventh entry, Buck writes of a lecture on the Vickers Mark VII gas operated gun and notes "The same gun I used in Canada and England on my air firing at towed drogues".  He could not possibly have known that while still in Levin.   Then, just a few entries later, he writes "Not much in my diary about today."  It seems he did keep a contemporaneous diary, and this document recreates that diary to some (unknown) extent.  The text suggests he had that "real" diary when writing this document, but what happened to that original diary is unknown, and sadly Buck is no longer able to explain the documents, so we must assess the documents on the evidence they contain.

By the time Buck's story reaches his time traversing Canada and his training there, he abandons the dated-entry format and simply relays what are essentially anecdotes, albeit in broadly chronological order.  The fact that these anecdotes were written some years after the event does not remove their historical value.  They are still Buck's recollections of the events of his life - even if coloured somewhat by hindsight.  That we have various iterations of his recollections - some seemingly circa the 1960s, more seemingly from the 1980s, and his final effort from the early 1990s - adds a further dimension, in that it allows some insight into how and to what extent his recollections changed as he aged.

There are, unsurprisingly, extensive similarities between the 'diary' and the 'memoir' - after all, the same man is recounting the same events - but the degree of similarity (the word choices, the turns of phrase etc) leads to the almost inevitable conclusion that they are two attempts at the same task.  Had the diary never been lost, the memoir would probably never have been written, as the same ground had already been traversed.

The diary and the memoir stand, therefore, as versions 1.0 and 2.0 of Buck's story, in his own words and hand.  Both have been meticulously transcribed to preserve Buck's diction and tone, and both equally inform the story that this website endeavours to tell.