A Red Cross Letter from my Grandpa’s cousin, Joyce to her Auntie Amy Fuller (my Great Grandmother) in 1944. This was the first communication received from Joyce after her internment in Lunghwa Civil Assembly Centre, Shanghai 1943. Her family back in the UK presumed her dead up to this point as no one knew or heard what had happened to her.
I believe she wrote this letter after she was reunited with her family who were transferred from Yu Yuen Road Camp, they must have had better lines of communication back to the UK and all thought she had died, due to the lack of communication getting through. In the letter she asks my Great Grandmother about her brother Tommy and if she has heard any news, as he was taken to another camp. Tom Huxley had subsequently escaped from his camp with 2 others and with aid from Chinese villagers, walked from Shanghai to Burma evading capture along the way, to re-join with British forces. I’m not sure if the other 2 escapees survived.
We believe that Joyce acted as an advisor for the BBC Tenko series after her and her families experiences whilst being interned. The letter has always been in the family, kept by my Grandpa and Grandma until it was passed to my father after their deaths. I remember all of the family were very close, my Grandpa and his brothers would holiday regularly with their cousins before and after the war.
