('I.') contains 61 pages in autograph, with a further 50 pages loosely inserted. Autograph title with runic, Latin and English mottos ('I came with the conquerors: I remained - conquered.'). Gawsworth covers all aspects of his service, describing his duties, movements, reading and writing. List of men at rear, with five marked as deceased. Begins: 'Frid 20 Nov | Sqdn left for Djidjelli [Algeria] | Sat. 21 Nov 1942 | In Arab shepherds mountain camp. Archer Hodson, Goulding, Snell Bought Ruth, sheep dog bitch. 3 months. 200 francs. (13/4) Up impossible winding trails over mts. Snow capped. Texenna, Duquesne. Camp of La Jeunesse, skull & x bones. Fleeing populace. Djidjelli ghost town. just bombed night before. Reunion with Party & Joe Watling 154 Squadron. Encamped. 8 p.m. & 4 a.m. enemy recon. plane over. a/a opened up. Ruth fled. Sqdn travelling.' The notebook also contains the following excellent account of an attack (1 January 1943) on HMS Ajax shows Gawsworth's qualities off to their best effect: 'At 11 oclock went to docks and crossing [Selkirk?] a merchantman went aboard "The Troublemaker" The Ajax where I found Petty Officer Bill Croucher waiting me. He took me down to No 3 Mess on the starboard side & introduced me to his messmates & gave me tea. The Tanoy then announced the C in C was coming aboard, but soon after corrected itself for machine gun fire and ack-ack had started up, and the first raid of the day was upon us. | Hurriedly the ships company donned fire protective face and head coverings and lay down. The noise of the ack/ack from the ship and her companions in the port was deafening. The ship shuddered from bow to stern as a stick of 3250 pounds burst in the water to the starboard. A few minutes of clamour and the first raid was over. We had not been hit. | The second raid was a matter of quarter of an hour later. It was not preluded with any warning save the crackle of machine gun fire and the pounding of pompoms. Again the Ajax shuddered after a terrific melange of sounds protective and destructive. We thought it meant no more than "bombs in the basin" again but were disagreeably surprised when a petty officer entered and informed us that we had suffered a direct hit. This turned out to be a 250 pounder, which had pierced the deck on the starboard side of the funnel, cut obliquely through 3 decks and, making 2 marines casualties en route, filled A & R boiler rooms with smoke, fumes & water. It was impossible to estimate whether it had gone right through the ship and exploded or whether it remained on one of the sunken and devastated boiler rooms above. Nor could any one say whether the boiler rooms at the moment of the bomb's impact had been occupied. Two things alone were clear: The Ajax had a list and she was letting in water. The annoyance on everyone's face was marked. The insult of a direct hit to this historic vessel! Through the River Plate and Crete she had passed unscathed and now tied to > a merchantman, and ony half of her armament, therefore, functioning in the midst of a mornings painting in dock, she was insolently pierced. Chagrin found its vent in able profanity as the air in the messroom (cleared with the skies above). But NOT for long. | A third raid soon eventuated. The same staccato spit of machine guns, the same weaving whirr of diving Stukas, the same thud-thud of pom-poms, whine of shells and oomph of bombs. When it was over more news came. The Ajax had brought down a [--ide]. Everyone felt better. Yet all was not perfect - the rum ration failed to arrive. | Disconsolate, I left. It was one o clock. For 3 hours, on and off, we had been divebombed.' Another excerpt, from 9 May 1943: '2 eggs for breakfast! Spoke to inhabitants of Rommels occupation. - 12 days there. Blew town up before leaving. Rommel stayed with M. Bocher, his mountain Arabs looting, stealing even doors. A Gaulliste on death list bought freedom for fr. 200. [...]'. Also contains long descriptions (e.g. 13 and 19 August, and 20 and 30 September 1943) of Sicily and Italy, and his activities there.