Diaries, 1904-1918.

Personal diaries kept by Colson while serving on the battleship HMS JUPITER at Gibraltar and in home waters between 21 May 1904 to 3 January 1905. The diary contains a number of items stuck in the diary including a copy of the official programme and ephemera relating to the visit of Vice-Admiral Lord Charles Beresford and the Channel Fleet to the Tyne on 26-28 September 1904.

Administrative / biographical background
Colson was one of the sons of Surgeon-Major Edward Colson of St Helier, Jersey. He entered the Navy in 1902 and first served as an assistant clerk on HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON. He passed examinations for paymaster in 1905 and reached the rank of staff paymaster during the First World War. He married Margaret Jex Robertson, a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, at Kensington in 1917, following a period of recovery from illness in hospital at Alexandria in Egypt. He was placed on the retired list after becoming physically unfit in 1918. He was promoted to the rank of paymaster commander while on the retired list in 1925. Colson served at shore establishments in the Far East and United States during the Second World War. He retained his naval rank, but supervised RASC Expeditionary Force Institutes staff, responsible for NAAFI operations abroad.