My father (Basil Platt) was evacuated to North Canton Ohio in 1940.
In 1942 he went to John Carroll University in Cleveland OHIO (at age 16) and started to write letters ‘home’ to the ‘foster’ family (the Kolp family) with whom he had lived for 2 years. He continued to write irregularly until 1951, i.e. covering his return to UK in 1945 to join the British Army, his time in the army and in the Intelligence Corps (He spent 1946-7 in Port Said, Egypt – the photograph) and after returning to civilian life in 1948.
These letters were kept by Mrs Kolp, and on the death of my father passed to us by Jim Kolp, one of the sons of the family. During Lockdown, I transcribed the letters, and had them ‘published’ in so much as the transcriptions were bound in a book with pictures, so that all the grandchildren and other family members (including members of the Kolp family) could have a copy.
