Characters in Harry's letters

Time to meet some of the characters that you will come across in Harry's letters....

ETHEL . This is Harry's wife. They married in March 1914 in a civil ceremony in a Registry Office in Basford, a suburb of Nottingham. Harry's Occupation was recorded as a Lacemaker, Ethel a spinster.

The two were married a few months before the outbreak of the war.

WILLIE is their son. He was born in March 1916, almost a year before Harry joined up to fight.

There was another son, Arthur, but the only record I have found so far, is a baptismal certificate from the Parish Church in Ilkeston. No one alive can recall any mention of Arthur so we must assume that he died in infancy. A helpful reader has possibly identified the record of Arthur's death so I may be able to find more. Update;- I now have Arthur's details. He did, indeed die as an infant.

Willie grew up and became a successful textile salesman. He had a brush with the military in WW2 but, apparently, missed being shipped to Singapore by minutes. His transfer to the PT Corps came through as he was on parade, ready to go! Willie is, as I write, still alive and living in a nursing home in Derbyshire. Harry frequently mentions Willie in his letters. It must have been a terrible wrench to leave behind a baby son to go to the horrors of the War.



I will add short descriptions of the other characters in later posts.