Love Letters - The Separation of War

The British Army Postal Service delivered around 2 billion letters during the First World War. In 1917 alone, over 19,000 mailbags crossed the English Channel each day, transporting letters and parcels to British troops on the Western Front. 

An indication of how important love was to the men on the Front Line can be seen by the sheer volume of post in the two weeks before Valentine's Day in 1916 when 49,000 bags of letters were distributed by the military postal service.

Indeed my husband's grandmother was one of those people delivering the post. She was Doris Seaton-Leadam, the daughter of a wealthy timber importer who lived in Knightsbridge. We know her job was to distribute the post and that she got job because she could drive; her father had taught her to drive before the war.

We do not have an image of Doris Seaton-Leadam
but this is what she might have looked like.

Examples of the letters Doris was distributing are held in the National Archive as well as at the Imperial War Museum. 

This particularly moving one, and was sent to William Crawford, a Scottish-born soldier who served in the Household Calvary by a young woman called Hetty in Chester. She signs her letters with kisses, and shares her news of cold winters, quiet Christmases and her love for him. She even wrote him a poem: 

'Here's love to the dove that flies above/ and may it not lose a feather
If I can't have the lad I love, I'll do without forever.'

He died of wounds from shellfire on February 5 1918.

Two unknown Cavalry Officers
collecting mistletoe during the Great War.

The video clip below shows Benedict Cumberbatch reading a letter form the end of the Second World War. It is from a man called Chris Barker to his love Bessie Moore dated 29 January 1945. The reading is part of publisher Canongate's Letters Live project.

In September 1943, Chris Barker was serving as a signalman in North Africa when he decided to brighten the long days of war by writing to old friends. One of these was Bessie Moore, a former work colleague. The unexpected warmth of Bessie's reply changed their lives forever. Crossing continents and years, their funny, affectionate and intensely personal letters are a remarkable portrait of a love played out against the backdrop of the Second World War. Above all, their story is a stirring example of the power of letters to transform ordinary lives. 

The performance with given with thanks to Simon Garfield, author of My Dear Bessie, and Bernard, Peter and Irena Barker





For more information see:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/letters-to-loved-ones
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3444499/First-World-War-love-letters-reveal-passion-soldiers-sweethearts.html
http://letterslive.com/