Dangerous thoughts and loss. In France with the BEF.

I am currently posting an archive of my Grandparents war letters (around 1,000 of them) in chronological order with scans, transcriptions and supplemental material. The story of an ordinary war.

Today I posted the first letter from my Grandfather while in action as part of the British Expeditionary Force, dated 19th October 1939.

It’s seven pages and contains some really lovely writing. This quote in particular hit me. He’s talking about missing home in response to the last letter he received from my Grandmother:

“…thoughts are dangerous things, one can very easily pick out the men who find it impossible to live in the present”

He also speaks about losing a friend, Vic, who seems unfit for action and has immediately taken sick. Perhaps someone else here knows who that is?

Finally it’s of special interest to me that he has decent conversational French. I never knew. It must have made his time in France so much easier and I’m sure solders who didn’t must have relied on those who did to help get by. I think it’ll bring some depth to the experiences he writes about because he can actually talk to people.

 

Very articulate writing. Was he an educated man, do you know? (And thank you for sharing!)

 

I don't know much of his education. My grandmother was quite posh (he father was landed gentry from Durham). I know they spent a lot of time in Jersey together and my Grandmother spoke a number of languages and spent a lot of time in Europe. The references to poetry certainly seem educated today.

When I knew him as a boy he was a really lovely man. Liked his pipe and always wore a bow tie. Immaculately dressed at all times and gracious to a fault. He made my grandmother breakfast in bed every day for his entire life. The kind of man you'd imagine a "classic" WW2 British soldier to be pretty much.

 

Thank you, that’s interesting. I guess it was purely nosiness on my part, but the letter just wasn’t what I expected from a squaddie (which probably says more about my prejudices! ) It does sound like your grandfather was well educated. And, of course, a reminder that school kids had good grammar, expression, etc, drummed into them, to a greater extent than today. It’s also a reminder that this was very much a citizens’ army and featured men from all parts of society. Your grandfather was TA, so was involved from the start. It’s fascinating stuff and you are to be congratulated for making it available. Thank you

 

You don't need to apologize. You were absolutely right. My Grandparents were posh. My Grandmother being from the upper classes but being in the part of the family that didn't get the money. My Grandfather less so but still very well-to-do by normal standards. Not rich but fancy.

To give you an idea. My Grandmother worked as a secretary for the owner of a big Jeweller on Regent St. (Garrards). The owner of the company taught her to drive in his Rolls Royce. She was a dancer and performer and spent her summers in Europe doing "The Grand Tour". I know much less bout my Grandfather but I doubt my Grandmother would have married him had he not been "the right type".

In a coming letter they mention his father's (my paternal Great Grandfather's) house. I found it and will include a link to a webpage about it. It's a pretty nice house.

For the record - I grew up in a council flat in Clapham. My mother sounded posh and was very well educated but we were poor enough that my parents didn't own a car until I was 7 (they they bought a Datsun Bluebird estate) and I was taken to school on the back of my mums bike.

 

Very interesting. Supposedly, somewhere in my ancestry (on my mother’s side) we were quite wealthy, but - the story goes - someone drank it all away. Either way, my mum was definitely from a working class background (her mum was a mill worker and her dad a mechanic for Leeds City Council). My father was from Ealing but died when I was seven (he was in the RAF) so I don’t know that much about his upbringing. We, as a family, weren’t poor (my mum got a small pension from the RAF as my father died ‘in service’) and had a job doing secretarial/admin work in a local firm, but we certainly weren’t wealthy. I’d say we were probably ‘lower middle class’? I joined the RAF in 1981 (I’m old!) and made wing commander - now retired.

 

Thanks for the info. Kudos on your career also. A real boys-own fantasy. What did you fly?

People forget how much can change in a generation or two - or thanks to a marriage. In my case my Grandmother, Terry, actually has a much more interesting story than I mentioned.

Her father, my great-Grandfather, appears to have been either Swiss or Italian and unofficially adopted. From some digging I have done it appears that the woman he thought of as his mother was in fact his Aunt. That young lady married the Earl of County Durham when she was 20-something and he was in his 70s as his third or 4th wife. It seems that his mother was very young and unmarried when she became pregnant and that my great-grandfather was sent away to spare the family shame. He took on the name of the Earl but didn't inherit, it having gone to one of his biological children.

I have made some attempts to locate his place of birth and confirm his precise parentage but haven't reached the bottom yet. However this would explain his linguistic abilities (he spoke multiple languages) and my Grandmother's in turn.

I hope this archive may include more clues so I can nail it down for the benefit of my own children.

 

Wow! What a story! I really need to get into my family’s history! (See if I can dig up anything interesting!)