My father John James Woodman, having lost his mother when he was 8 years old, his brother when he was 12 years old and his father at the age of 15, was very close to his aunt Alice and uncle Gregory.
John lived in lodgings in Birmingham from the age of 16 and relied on emotional support from his aunt and uncle, who lived in Coaley, Gloucestershire. He was 20 years old in 1939. His aunt kept the letters he wrote during the war years and they came to him after she died in 1966. I have them to treasure now.
One of his first letters expresses apprehension at being sent overseas. He writes that he doesn’t know where he will be going, but that it must be somewhere hot, judging by the kit he has been given. Another letter sends Christmas greetings from East Africa and contrasts his Christmas in Africa with Christmas at home.
Another letter lets his aunt and uncle know that it won’t be long until he will be returning to England at the end of the war and describes a ship taking some of the soldiers back to England with singing and the sounds of happiness coming from the ship.
