大象传媒

My husband, who was a minister, was called up in 1942. I was expecting our second child, David, at the time. Not wanting to leave at this important family time, my husband wrote back to the War Office, politely declining with the response that "it is not convenient." The war office wrote back on the 5th of November 1942 calling him up again and this time he left for war on a foggy day, taking the train from Farndon to Carlisle. The day he took the train we heard that Montgomery was pushing Rommel and that the war had turned in our favour.

My husband wrote letters to me everyday. As he was unable to reveal any information to his whereabouts, I remember that he included a Bible passage that gave me the clue which confirmed where he was. The Bible became our own secret language.

My husband ended up in Venice during the war and he sent me lovely gifts from there. Included in these was a brass gondola, a hat that matched a red coat that we bought when he was on leave, Venetian glass bowls, silk stockings, silk skirts and two lemons -one of which (being an extremely rare and exotic item) was auctioned for the war effort.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.