My sister and I discovered a box of letters in the attic of our parents’ home after their death. In May 2024 we delivered the entire collection to the IWM to Duxford. Stephen Walton, senior curator, described it, as ‘a remarkable collection of wartime letters and other documents’ feeling it was much ‘more substantial body of material that I was expecting’. Entry No. 11714 Private Papers of Alan & Peggy Horton. In 2022 papers published as, ‘Behind the Wire: A Prisoner of War in Nazi Germany’ Pegasus Publishing (ISBN 9781800162594). Book very well reviewed and easier to access the wording through the book than the original letters, some of which are not easily read.
Alan and Peggy Horton were married in November 1940 and within a month Alan was on a ship in the Atlantic not to return again until April 1945. Captured in Battle for Crete and a POW, he was injured after he and fellow prisoners were attacked by the friendly fire of Americans at Eichstätt as they prepared for release in April 1945. These letters are beautifully written, full of love, revealing a little mentioned side to the War. Some are amusing, tragic and humorous; all recount a most moving story.
Peggy was just 21, and had been married only 6 months before the Battle of Crete. Afterwards she began to receive letters for the relatives of soldiers in Alan’s Battery as she was still trying to trace Alan. It would be September 1941 before she heard directly from him. This is an example of the letters Peggy received.
One of the most touching letters is from Peggy to Alan written immediately after she heard the news of the defeat of the allies in Crete, Date 02.06.41.
Equally challenging is a letter from a lady trying to discover the whereabouts of her missing son, Date 16.12.41
Letters also cover Red Cross Parcels, study for POW’s, recreation, concerts, gardening, carving, and a visit to the circus! Life for Peggy as a VAD and in the ATS.
A letter to Peggy from regimental Colonel (Stanley Stebbings) informing Peggy that Alan was almost certainly a POW is equally moving – his own nephew had died in the battle. You can feel the pain as he writes, Date 14.6.41.
