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/

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth enjoying the show in 2014.

The annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show opened today - 23rd May 2016. The RHS patron, HM the Queen, is the guest of honour at each show and this year as she is celebrating her 90th birthday there will be special photographic exhibits and a floral arch for her.The show is so popular that tickets are restricted to four per person and are already sold out.

Chelsea is probably the world’s most famous horticultural shows and is the place to see cutting-edge garden design, find new plants and new ideas to enhance your garden. The show is held in the grounds of Royal Hospital Chelsea which was once the site of the famous 18^th century Ranelagh Gardens.  

Ranelagh House and Gardens with the Rotunda (1745) T. Bowles after J. Maurer

Ranelagh was one of the great melting pots of 18th century society. Entry cost two shillings and sixpence, compared to a shilling at Vauxhall and Horace Walpole wrote soon after the gardens opened, "It has totally beat Vauxhall... You can't set your foot without treading on a Prince, or Duke of Cumberland.” Novelist Fanny Burney described how the nightly illuminations and magic lanterns ‘made me almost think I was in some enchanted castle or fairy palace’. Originally designed to appeal to wealthier tastes, pleasure gardens soon became the haunt of the rich and poor alike. 

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow at the show.

When it first opened in 1746, Ranelagh boasted acres of formal gardens with long sweeping avenues, down which pedestrians strolled together on balmy summer evenings. Other visitors came to admire the Chinese Pavillion or watch the fountain of mirrors and attend musical concerts held in the great 200-foot wide Rotunda, the gardens' main attraction where Mozart performed as a child.  Yet the novelty soon waned. In June of that year Catherine Talbot wrote to a friend that “…it is quite vexatious at present to see all the pomp and splendour of a Roman amphitheatre devoted to no better use than a twelvepenny entertainment of cold ham and chicken.” And Ranelagh soon lost out to the cheaper and more exciting Vauxhall Gardens. It probably didn’t help that the Rotunda proved to have dreadful acoustics, there was no drinking or gambling allowed and the grounds were too well lit for assignations.

Canaletto. The Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh (c1751).

However Ranelagh remained open for sixty years weathering the storms and frosts of the 1780s, London riots and the French wars until 1803.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is organised by the Royal Horticultural Society which was founded in 1804. Today the Great Pavilion is one of main attractions covering roughly 11,775 square metres or 2.90 acres, enough room to park 500 London buses.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch with his mother actress Wander Ventham in the Great Pavillion.

This year we can expect 2016 there will be spectacular show gardens, showcasing the exceptional talent of a handful of carefully selected garden designers. Alongside the Show Gardens are the smaller garden categories. The Artisan Gardens pay homage to traditional and contemporary artisan skills, and the Fresh Gardens category incorporate innovative materials and challenging ideas. There will be unique products for the garden and home including limited edition sculptures and gardening essentials, and in Ranelagh Gardens five artisans have been invited to dress Studios in which they will exhibit their handmade crafts.