Leslie Oliver to his wife Edith "Gee I do love you so my darling wife, more than you will ever realise" Date of letter: 2 April 1940
William Twitty to Bill Ridgwell "I will get into touch with your Commanding Officer and if that way will not stop this sordid business, then I will go to the Police" Sent from: Windsor Date of letter: 9 June 1945
Jack Gray to his sweetheart "It’s grand just to sit here at times and think that you are waiting back home for me. When I’m browned off I just look at your photo and then I feel brighter again." Sent from: Ceylon Date of letter: 10 January 1943
Sylvia Goldstein to her fiancé Mick "I felt myself very light-hearted and content, but oh, darling, how I missed you. I almost felt myself turning round at times expecting to find you there to share something amusing with me." Sent from: London Date of letter: 15 August 1945
Harry Lucas to his wife Sue "Take great care of yourself for me, and you can be assured that I will do the same for I shan’t run in to any trouble if I can avoid it" Sent from: HMS Warwick Castle Date of letter: 5 December 1941
Tom Duckels to his wife Edna "This is a message which I have been longing to send to you but now that the time has arrived I can’t find words to express my feelings." Sent from: India Date of letter: 17 March 1946
John Gardiner to his wife Sylvia "We were all turned in and fast asleep, and all of a sudden, every ship in the harbour blew off steam… I thought everyone had gone mad. Every ship fired a rocket and there was a huge fire in Devonport." Sent from: Canada Date of letter: 17 August 1943
Bert Baylis to his wife Mary "May health be yours at every turn, until the day of my return" Sent from: Italy Date of letter: 4 November 1943
Edward Cecil Sawyer to his later fiancée, Cathleen Dixon "Please forgive me for writing without due introduction... As much as [Jack] would like to correspond with you, he tells me one letter issued a week is a bit of a problem when one has as many friends to keep in touch with" Sent from: Poland Date of letter: 1 December 1942
Peter Watson to his wife Anne "Every time I get the blues I just think that perhaps I’m better off than you and I feel sorry for you" Sent from: Paisley Scotland
Philip Warwick to his children John and Yvonne "I shall go down fighting, my dears. I'm not a hero. But just one of those ordinary guys that is doing a job to try to help end this war, and to help make this country of ours fit for you, and other boys and girls, to live." Sent from: R.A.F. Pocklington, Yorks
Gwendoline Maddison to her husband Stan "It was a fine speech, wasn’t it? I like the dry humour he introduces but thought he sounded very tired" Sent from: Lincoln Date of letter: 9 May 1945
Eric Selby to his fiancée Pauline Hill "I will soon be back after this little job is over, think of how you will be able to use your nail varnish to your heart's content without my teasing you." Date of letter: 1 August 1944
Capt. George Carmichael to his fiancée Beryl "Things like this make me glad we did not get married before I left since it won’t be so bad for you if anything happens to me." Sent from: Gazala, Libya Date of letter: 6 May 1942
Ernest Constantine to his wife Kathleen "Look after yourself darling and I hope you like my drawings." Sent from: HMS Lock Tarbert, Indian Ocean Date of letter: 23 November 1945
Veronica Jewell to her fiancé John Moverley "All the afternoon we were in and out of the house all day watching everyone get ready for the street tea parties, and of course had to join in the fun, dancing and singing." Sent from: Cardiff
Mrs Amy Clifford to her husband Bill "One thing I am very thankful for is that you are not in the great doings in France. You have a very good chance of coming back home, which is more than lots of fellows have." Sent from: Malvern, Worcestershire Date of letter: 14 June 1944
Surg Lt Terry Barwell to his wife Pat “I always wish you could be with me when something interesting turns up like this" Sent from: HMS Nader in the Far East Date of letter: 2 May 1945
VE Day diary entry of Joseph Henry Franks "What a day, I am home at last to Eileen and it is V.E. Day. I am the happiest man alive I should think today." Sent from: Eastbourne Date of letter: 8 May 1945
Joan Mandy to her husband Robert "I have a confession to make, I have never been to church since we went together last leave. I don't seem to have the heart to go alone." Sent from: Liverpool Date of letter: 22 May 1942
J Thompson to his wife and daughter "Am OK. Fondest love for anniversary" Date of letter: 21 May 1943
Gordon Andrews to his wife Daphne "Apart from all this messing around with different boats, Chelsea get kicked out of the Cup by Aston-Villa." Sent from: Gosport, Hampshire Date of letter: 13 February 1946
Albert Broome’s letter "We cannot live without each other and the sooner I can get out of the army the better it will be for us both"
William Pratt to his wife Mary Pratt "To wish you many, many happy returns of your double anniversary and hoping that we spend the remainder together." Sent from: Greenwich, London
Staff Sergeant Alfred Thomas Holder to his wife Marguerite “Roy and I have started concert parties on board and we had the first show last night. It was a talent spotting concert and we are holding them for the next three nights” Sent from: At sea Date of letter: 1 January 1946
Robert Harty to his wife Irene "At long last it's all over, thank God for that... I'll be round for a Victory pint soon." Date of letter: 15 August 1945
Oliver Herbert Hill to his wife Bunty "I was asked by the Colonel, for the General (General Erskine) to design several different types of desert rats, so that he could select the one he liked best. I painted a dozen" Sent from: North Africa Date of letter: 26 October 1943
Sam Gelder to his fiancée Blanche Taylor "Well Darling this is one of the Days that we Both have Been waiting for Now we can look forward to that Big Day of ours to come Darling & Let's Hope its not to far off love." Sent from: Gibraltar Date of letter: 8 May 1945
Alan Barton to his wife "I’ll never never leave you again dear only for a few hours perhaps and then I’ll come home to you in the evening. And in the summer we’ll have evenings in the garden surrounded by the work of our hands and the happy laughter of our children." Sent from: Arctic Convoy Date of letter: 9 March 1944
English (UK)English (UK)
