It's sometimes surprising what you learn about your family well after the event.
My late sister held on to some of my Father's papers when he died, and rather belatedly, after a clear out, they have been passed on to me today.
In sitting and perusing them, I came across the following letter, written in a slightly uneducated hand (Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx being my father):
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5. May 1946
The Chief Officer, xxxxxxxxxxxx Goods Station, L.N.E.R. xxxxxxxxx
Dear Sir,
I would be obliged if you could give me the address of Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx, a former clerk at the above station some time in 1939, - or any information about him, if still well and living.
My reasons for this letter - Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx had my boy (Axxxxxx Axxxxxx Junior) searched for and dug out after being buried completely by two German bombs at Estaires, between Lille and Merville, about the 22nd May, 1940.
Cxxxxxx also helped my boy to reach the beach at Dunkirk, and so to escape to England by the "Skipjack" vessel.
Axxxxxx Axxxxxx is alive and well at this day, thanks to Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx and the grace of God.
Yours faithfully,
Mr A Axxxxxx (Snr)
97b xxxxxx Street
Bradford
Yorkshire
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My father had always been very quiet about his wartime experience in France, being part of the BEF, and being a late evacuee from Dunkirk. I knew he had had a hard winter, and had been bombed, but little else, and certainly not the above (though he was more expansive about his later, and easier, war experiences in Ceylon and Gibraltar).
In the same set of papers was his diary for 1940, where the entry for the date above simply reads:
"Bombed and buried in trench. Greatest shock ever. Never again I hope".
For such a letter to have been written 6 years after the event (and presumably because the war had been survived) brings home the effect of it all. (Incidentally, research shows the "Skipjack" was bombed the next day with the loss of the 275 evacuees then on board!)
My father was always a bit of a hero to me (for all sorts of reasons). Today, over 20 years since his death, he has me unexpectedly very proud of him again (and as you can tell, I needed to share ;-) )
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Family Surprises new
Family Surprises new
