A social artefact which reveals a previously unheard female voice at the outbreak of WW2. The 63 manuscript letters in this collection, written between November 1939 and October 1940 are penned by Phyllis of 61 Station Road, Burton Latimer, Northants to her sweetheart Ralph of 83 Montague St, Kettering who had been conscripted into the army, based in Salisbury followed by postings to Yaxley, Bulwell and Ascot.
An air of optimism, patience and confidence that things will soon return to normal reveals itself in the early letters. Family news, cinema trip reviews, latest records purchased, goings on at the tennis club and the everyday fill the leaves, ‘you look grand in your cream tennis flannels, lets hope next season you will be wearing them again’. By June 1940 Phyllis reports her first experience of an air raid warning, ‘and I was not at all frightened or worried’... ‘I made use of the time by mending a ladder in my stockings’.
Our writer remains stoical throughout, ‘when all is over we shall have the satisfaction of knowing we did not fail in doing our duty cheerfully’. Rationing begins to be felt, ‘there will be no more derby biscuits now as they cannot get them.... Muriel (Phyllis’s sister) has enclosed a shilling for you to get something you want’. By July 6th Ralph has been at Bulford Barracks for 12 weeks and Phyllis has counted that they have been apart 77 days since last leave, ‘take care darling, although now you have that rifle I guess you are feeling ‘TUFF’’. News on the radio and Mr Churchill’s broadcasts keep Phyllis updated on developments and her letters encourage Ralph to remain positive, ‘Hitler I think now is beginning to realise what a tough proposition we are and he is already faltering’...... ‘tobacco has gone up once again...... daddy says he does not mind paying a little extra so long as they keep buying bombers and blow the German airforce out of the sky’..... ’Hitler’s luck cannot go on forever, our airforce are letting him have it proper now’. Ralph turns 25 on July 17th, ‘we sincerely hope that next year will see the end of all this struggling for power, cruelty, heartache and everything else that goes with war’.
News of shared acquaintances back home fill the leaves. A friend’s young man has been killed in action ‘only a fortnight ago he was on leave and up at the tennis courts with Eileen and she asked me to snap them together... hope it comes out right’. Another friend Lily ‘has been told by a spiritualist that Harold is a POW’. By late August Phyllis writes, ‘Burton had some good news on Monday as one of the boys, Victor Skelham, who was reported missing is now found to be a prisoner of war. What a relief for his parents. I only hope that Mr and Mrs Long will hear the same news about their son, also Lily as she is still without further news of Harold’. By August 8th Phyliis notes that she has so far received 47 letters from Ralph and sends news of the first parachutist caught in Northamptonshire in September, ‘had a portable wireless transmitter.... and a considerable amount of money on him’. Bombing intensifies by September, ‘we have had a few bombs near here again... a few dropped near Wellingborough..... four dropped at Kettering, two in a field, one in a garden field and the other hit a bungalow in Blandford’. By September Phyllis records that she has now received 64 letters from Ralph and and sent 70. Her work in the office at the local factory keeps her gladly away from long days of overtime on the production line, ‘we are very busy at the factory as besides making ordinary army boots we are now making some grand high legged wool lined boots for the Turkish Army’. By mid September evacuees are expected but do not arrive at first. A woman and son are placed with Phyllis and her father but leave to be replaced with an older couple from the East End of London who also leave to return to London to salvage their possessions, ‘what a business this evacuation is’. On September 29th Phyllis writes, ‘as long as you do not go abroad I shall not worry too much’. The final letter to Ralph is dated October 16th 1940.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 63 letters in very good condition, written in ink to the verso and rectos of lined writing paper in a very legible hand. The first letter is dated 29th November 1939 followed by a gap until the next letter dated 27th April 1940 onwards.
