The secrets of a teenager's diary were unlocked after his family's appeal to decode Pitman shorthand

The secrets of a teenager's First World War diary were finally unlocked after his family's internet appeal to decode the Pitman shorthand.

As a teenage boy, growing up in Hull in 1915, a 15-year-old Stanley Hooker used shorthand to document his thoughts and movements in a small pocket diary.

However Mr Hooker, who lived in Barmston Street, Hull, was killed aged 18 on November 6th, 1918, having enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers.

For over 100 years the diary has remained in the family but was never read, due to the fact no one in his family read shorthand.

It was earlier this month when Mr Hooker’s great-great-niece, Amy Abethell, 38, found the diary at her father’s home in Hull that she turned to Twitter for help in order to make sense of the written symbols.

Ms Abethell, from Nottingham, wrote: "Calling shorthand writers. This is my great great uncle's diary. He died on 6/11/1918. Any ideas as to what it says? There's quite a few pages in the book.”

After much excitement on Twitter she cautioned that it “might be just a shopping list”.

Fortunately 64-year-old pitman expert Kathryn Baird, of Warmington, Northamptonshire, was able to decipher the code for Ms Abethell, which revealed diary entries about having a cold and doing some shopping.

In one diary post the author wrote about a job rejection he received for a shorthand typist role at a bank, suggesting why he had chosen to learn the skill, which was typically used by secretaries and journalists.

Other diary entries included the everyday mundanities of life. “Another alright day. My cold is not better. Mrs Henderson didn't come as it was raining,” one read.

He also wrote about friends visiting and the state of a cold he was suffering.

However Ms Baird, a former shorthand teacher, observed Mr Hooker's style had been “challenging”.

“It doesn't look like there's anything secretive in his writing which is quite common but some parts are difficult to read,” she said.

Ms Baird has since been sent some more pages of the diary to decipher and aims to transcribe one to two entries a day.

She said: "Stanley's shorthand is particularly challenging. He was only about 15 when he wrote it so I suspect he was learning at the time."

Ms Abethell added that decoding the diary had been like seeing him “coming to life over 100 years later”