Business diaries

There is a complete set of business diaries dating from 1921 until Underhill's death in 1964. For the most part the diaries contain details of the contracts that he was engaged on with the occasional reference to personal business. They record his wedding and honeymoon in Paris and Le Touquet, the birth of his son, the death of his parents and then for example on 21st June 1929: "Had new alligator shoes" or 11th December 1931 "had new hand ‘phone instrument in my office". In 1932 he records "Reference Library: I saw Mr Cashmore [the City librarian] & handed him the original elevation of St Johns Deritend (given to me by G A Cox)". These drawings were apparently eighteenth century drawings of the church but their current whereabouts is unknown.

The descriptions of the work undertaken are exceptionally detailed. There is evidence from the later diaries to suggest that the diaries were written out in rough and then copied up at a later date. The later diaries lack the detailed descriptions of the earlier volumes.