"Your dear husband is now like one of our selves roaming at will from room to room and filling the house all day with his merry whistling. God has been very good to bring him unscratched through so many and great dangers."
This letter has been in our family since my father came back from Burma in 1945.
The letter is from an Irish Nun who lived in a convent in Rangoon, through enemy occupation at that time. It’s a snapshot in time.
My father returned to London and continued his job as a builder. Eventually he returned to Ireland to take care of the family farm in the of the middle 1960s.
No one realised what he had gone through during the war, he just wanted to get on with life.
One Boxing Day he came to stay with us in Dublin, where he suffered a minor stroke, at a Dublin Hospital after a long wait in A&E, it was Christmas, the nurse asked him when had he had his last blood test to which he replied “Burmah 1945” it caused quite a stir!
Yes we are very proud of him and all of us will remember him and all who served the 2nd Division.
Transcript:
Branch Convent School
Sep. 7, 1945
My dear Mrs. Orford,
Your husband, thank God, is in the very best of health. I begin my first letter to you with this welcome assurance lest the sight of strange correspondence should give you cause for alarm.
Mr. Orford and his chum, Mr. Evans, are by now quite old friends of ours and are listed among our major benefactors. A gale took off a great part of the only roof left to us and through the kind offices of Rev. Father Price and his C.O. your dear husband was deputed to remedy the disaster. He has made a topping job of it and has saved us at least £100. This, in our present straitened circums-means a lot of money as the Japs by blowing up six of our houses with all their fixings and furniture inflicted on us a loss of £50,000. The work of a century demolished under our eyes in a few moments.
Your dear husband is now like one of our selves roaming at will from room to room and filling the house all day with his merry whistling.
God has been very good to bring him unscratched through so many and great dangers. His one and only thought is now to get back to his darling wife. "Repat" is on his lips all the time and through he unselfishly acknowledges that the liberated PoWs should have priority transhipment the delay has proved a cruel disappointment to him. Thanks, however to a letter from his old firms of Loweth & Sons demanding his immediate release to resume his former work with it his spirits are again soaring sky-wards. He and we are hoping it will get him his heart's desire ere long.
You should see his eyes light up at mention of your name. But he has sad moments, too, when he recalls all you have had to endure along. He is thinner now and rather older looking than in his photograph with you. That, apart from inevitable hardships of a soldier's life in a trying climate, is due to the terrible anxiety he suffered when he got word from your doctor that he despaired of your life. You must never, my dear child, doubt for a moment the truth and depth of his great love for you. He is the best type of Irishman and that, in my opinion, says everything.
Thanks God this deadful war is over at last and now you may look forward to meeting your dear husband safe and sound in mind and body. This is far from being the case with thousands of the poor PoWs who have survived the torture and starvation inflicted on them by the Japs. Most of them have had to have their arms or legs amputated owing to the terrible "foot-rot" they contracted in the jungle. Tens of thousands have died of wounds and misery. Many of them are mental wrecks and may never be good for anything again. The gorilla men treated them worse than dogs. The poor unfortunates had to eat grass, roots, snakes, etc. to keep body and soul together. The sick fared worst of all and men far gone in cholera and other deadly maladies were carried out on stretchers and made break stones for roads and railways. So you see, dear child, how much you have to be thankful for that your darling Bill did not fall into enemy hands. I'm sure it was your fervent prayers wrapped him round with a mantle of safety. So keep on praying, childie, your prayers may be the wing that will waft him home to you sooner than he or you expect. As Tennyson says "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of". So why not this as well? I'm sure you are wondering who on earth I am to know so much about you and your darling Bill! I'm an old Irish nun - old nuns get to know many secrets - who has been here for over 40 years. I live now in the Good Shepherd Convent, 192, Prome Road, Rangoon.
The greater number of our two communities flew to India on the outbreak of war but 21 of us elected to stay to try and safeguard our Convents and tend to the very old Sisters. Seven of our Sisters are now with God. Some died of old age but others of the younger ones had not the strength to endure the hardships imposed on them by the Jap regime. Those of this house were put in a concentration camp at first and then towards the end were confined to the criminal cells in the Rangoon Jail. The rest of us were in Kalaw in the Southern Shan States until the British came in just in the nick of time to prevent our being slaughtered by the Japs who are now getting a very little of what they richly deserve.
I hope, dear Mrs. Orford, you will not regard my letter to you as an unwarrantable liberty. It is sent in a spirit of grateful friendship and to help ease your mind of worry concerning your devoted husband to whom we feel we owe a debt that we can never fully repay. Hoping that the near future will see you and him happily re-united and ready to face the future lighted by your mutal love.
Yours very sincerely
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