Wartime letters - help/ideas requested for blogpost.

[FairyFoot]

I'm trying to write a blogpost about letters (OK, most of my blogposts are about  letters), but this one ties in with the centenary of the end of WWI. My ancestors were either in the merchant navy or civil service or exempted for some reason, and we don't have any letters. I was wondering if you knew of any letters from WWI or WWII written by family members in the services, or even have them. If you do have the letters, do you treat them as something special? Did any of you/your family find penfriends too in that era? One of the other things is that is sad in this era - the new generations may not be able to read them because they are no longer taught or encouraged to use joined up handwriting/cursive in schools- they won't be able to read their great great grandparents' letters. 

In a regional paper in the UK, there is an article on a 7 decade correspondence. www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/104826/cross-atlantic-pen-pals-are-reunited.aspx

A friend of mine was stationed in Malaya. He wrote letters home but numbered them (some newer letters arrived before the older ones), having seen the film- Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Anyway, I want to try to get this written by 18th November, any help would be welcomed. 

[BasSWarwick]

..........ah Rotherham - I've been there a few times when I lived in Lincolnshire.

[FairyFoot]

I have written one post about this, just published, as I have just finished an excellent book by Simon Garfield called To The Letter (a history of letter writing). I may be able to do a second post.

correspondencefan.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/to-letter-and-remembrance.html

[reichscollector]

Very interesting. While I do not have my own personal family wartime correspondence. I do collect WWI German post cards depicting love and war. From there I also collect feldpost/mail from Third Reich Germany and the US/allies. P.O.W. mail falls under this as well.

[Ron]

Oct 21, 2016 11:08:00 GMT -5 FairyFoot said:

I'm trying to write a blogpost about letters (OK, most of my blogposts are about  letters), but this one ties in with the centenary of the end of WWI. My ancestors were either in the merchant navy or civil service or exempted for some reason, and we don't have any letters. I was wondering if you knew of any letters from WWI or WWII written by family members in the services, or even have them. If you do have the letters, do you treat them as something special? Did any of you/your family find penfriends too in that era? One of the other things is that is sad in this era - the new generations may not be able to read them because they are no longer taught or encouraged to use joined up handwriting/cursive in schools- they won't be able to read their great great grandparents' letters. 

In a regional paper in the UK, there is an article on a 7 decade correspondence. www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/104826/cross-atlantic-pen-pals-are-reunited.aspx

A friend of mine was stationed in Malaya. He wrote letters home but numbered them (some newer letters arrived before the older ones), having seen the film- Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Anyway, I want to try to get this written by 18th November, any help would be welcomed. 

I have a few letters written by a soldier to his family during WWI while he was serving stateside at Fort Dix, New Jersey. I find the fact it's soldier's mail neat but otherwise the text of the letter is rather mundane and the cover, stamp and postmark to be common. Do I consider or treat them special? A little bit...

Secondarily, I have a good sized box of letters written between my parents when my dad was in the Navy as well as letters to and from my parents while I was in the Navy. Those far more personal covers and letters I consider more the realm of my personal family history than philatelic material. None of those covers or letters have migrated to my stamp collection and none have ever been shared and likely won't be shared until a grandchild shows an interest in reading them. The most likely for that is my eldest grandson, Joseph, who is really far more interested in the medals awarded his great-grandfathers than the letters written by his great-grandfather and grandfather. FYI, Joseph proudly displays the military awards of his four grand-fathers. Interesting for a 15-year old.

[FairyFoot]

These letters I look at from the personal or social history side of things.

Some the people I correspond with do write mostly mundane letters but with hints of personal stuff in. Others are so full emotion and are very much personal. Family letters I would have treasured had my mother not shredded them all (she had a 40 year correspondence with her brother who emigrated to Australia).

Have a listen to www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02by4yd The Why Factor - Letters. There, there is advice from John Steinbeck to his son, and also the letters of Bessie Moore and Christopher Barker during WWII, their courtship.