The letter (together with a number of similar ones written by my mother and her brother, Robert) were found in a tin containing old family photographs when I assisted in the clearing of my parents’ house a few years ago.
My mother , Edith, was evacuated as a five year old at the beginning of the war. Edith and Robert (then aged six) were sent from Sheffield to stay with their paternal grandparents in Hereford.
My grandfather, Eric Hall, was serving as a member of the Sheffield Police Force. It was thought that the steelworks in Sheffield could be a potential target for the German bombers and therefore it was thought to be sensible to send Edith and Robert to live with their grandparents. They remained living with their grandparents until 1942 when they returned to Sheffield. Their parents had simply missed them too much and they wanted to be together as a family.
Most of the letters we have are dated in 1940. We also have the letter written by the headmistress of Edith’s school , Mrs G Morgan, when Edith returned to Sheffield in 1942 in which she said “…Hoping the war will come to a speedy and victorious end.”
