I discovered a large suitcase full of WW2 letters, diaries, photos and documents when clearing my mother’s loft. It was a few years later that I decided to explore the contents and uncovered so much information about my parent’s WW2. They had a long engagement due to the war but wrote to each other almost every other day and managed to keep the letters. Teddy (E.C.J) Reynolds joined the Royal Signals as a Signalman and after about a year of training and preparation, much in the North York Moors, he embarked for Service Overseas on 13 Feb 1942 . His 4 years abroad took him to serve in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon before Italy where he wrote his emotional VE-Day letter on 8 May 1945 to his fiancee. Throughout his letters it’s clear he was extremely romantic and his fondness for my mother (Ethel aka Squibs) shines out as perhaps a way of coping with his awful experiences. When he finally got home Squibs had done most of the preparation for their wedding and they were married on VJ Day 14 August, so the day before the UK celebrations for that!
I have slowly been trying to piece together Teddy’s wartime experiences, as they never talked about them in any detail, and early redactions and then understanding of acceptable wording, makes his whereabouts and activities impossible to know from letters alone. The internet has been invaluable to make sense of their correspondence as well as his Service Record of course. One shock for the family, that relatively recently came to light, was discovering from the letters that Teddy was recalled to Italy after his wedding to serve a further 6 months as an educator in the Signals School there. He was not at all happy about that but he did use the experience to claim promotion to Sergeant.
Eventually I hope to finish writing a book to reveal all I have discovered to younger family members and anyone else interested.
