I have a large box of over 600 letters that my grandad Sam Gelder wrote to his fiancée Blanche, while he was posted abroad during WW2. (I have included a photo of the box with my submission instead of one of them, as I sadly don’t have any to hand).
They met when she was a post lady in Oxford and he was on guard duty at the Barracks in 1942.
The VE day letter says it’s the day they have both been waiting for, as the end of the war also means they can get married soon. I have taken another photo of the back of the letter and will email this to you, the endings are always so endearing: May God bless you and keep you safe for me alone. Roses are red violets are blue where ever you are I’ll be thinking of you darling. Your ever loving and most faithful adorable sweetheart and beloved future husband Sam followed by as many kisses as he could possibly squeeze into the space left.
I’ll also send you the letter for the day before as it mentions the celebrations taking place in Gibraltar, but he wishes he was home in England with her instead.
It was to be another 6 months before Sam returned home and they were married soon after. The first of their 3 sons was then born in November 1946. They were blissfully married for 40 years until Sam sadly passed away in the late 1980s and then Blanche went to join him again a few years later.
