War Letters

[carni 10,094]

Hello all,I have some letters from my grandma to my dad away at sea on the HMS London during the war,in one of the letters she jokes about picking the Evening Post up and who should be on the front page but my dad,we have worked out from clues it will be from Autumn 1944 to spring 1945,is it to much of a long shot to hope i may find out what it was about and any ideas how to start looking into it. many thanks for any help.

[mick2me 3,033]

The Nottingham post keeps all their old editions on Microfiche, or did?

I am sure they had a viewing room where you could look through the material?

[carni 10,094]

Thank you for information about the Evening Post,I will try to get in touch to see if i have to make an appointment before i come to Nottingham.I expect there will be an information page on the internet.thankyou again.

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

The Central Library (Local Studies Section) on Angel Row have a lot of old copies of Evening Post on microfiche. I've never used them but I've seen other people doing it when I've been in there.

[piggy and babs 544]

dave and i spent a few days at central libary serching through 60s newspapers for stuff about mods and rockers when we were doing some resrch for memrobilla for rockers barvery time consuming and sometimes a bit frustrating. but if you have a rough shorter time span as it looks as if you do should be easier. the first time we went on spec and were lucky to get two microfilch readers some is on film and needs another machine but this lot easier . i would sujest you ring and ask how far there records go backand if they go back that far make an appointment for the machine so you dont come to nottingham and be didapointed becuase they all in use.

[carni 10,094]

Thank you all for the info,i will contact the Nottm Post and Central Library and see what turns up,it may take a while because of arranging visits but i will let you know the outcome.I feel quite optimistic now i have got somewhere to start looking.Thanks again.

[annswabey 599]

The Evening Post for 1944 is available on this site - free to search but you have to pay to view images

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

[carni 10,094]

Hi and thank you to everyone for the tips on where to start looking for info about the item in the Evening Post showing a photo of my father away on HMS LONDON during the war, it was a long shot but we came to Nottingham this morning and asked at an Evening Post stall on market square we were told to go to central library as they don't hold the records anymore,we spent around two hours sifting through and discovered the picture was printed September 25th 1945 so i am thrilled to have solved the mystery and have a nice photo of my father on board his ship,thanks every one.

[mick2me 3,033]

I am so glad you found it Carni

Any chance of a scan so we can all see the picture?

[carni 10,094]

Hi,The lady at the library printed the image on to paper for us but it is very poor and she recommends we get it onto a memory stick and see if we can make it clearer.I don't know much about computers and their workings so we will go back to the library on a visit to Nottingham and do that and see if i can find some one to have a go for us.If anyone living in Notts likes to tinker with these kind of things and calls in the library frequently the image is easy to find on the 25th Sept 1945 Evening Post, it is the taking over of Sabang from the Japanese my father is AB Lang on the photo, meanwhile i will see if i can get help putting this printed copy on for you to see.

[Beefsteak 305]

I don't live there (Nottingham) any more, but if some one can get it onto a memory stick/card for you and send it on to me I can have a play with it for you no problem.

PM with anything you can get..

[carni 10,094]

HI mIck2me,Here is the photograph taken from The Evening Post Sept 25th 1945,Thankyou all for your tips on how to go about finding it ,not a very clear photo but my father is 2nd from the right back row, taken three years before i was even a twinkle in his eye.The people at Central Library were so helpful i would recommend anyone doing research to try there.

[mick2me 3,033]

Sorry for delay in reply, the forum is so busy now, I am struggling to keep up with a backload of unread posts if I leave it more than a day or two.

Does the copy image you have show the same level of detail as in the original image?

If its a photo copy from newsprint nothing can be improved. If you get a scan or digital photograph of an original image, it is sometimes possible

to recover amazing detail from it, either colour or black and white.

[carni 10,094]

The photograph is a copy of news print,the detail was just as bad on the newspaper,and the lady at the library said we probably wouldn't be able to improve it,but i am so pleased to at least have found it, just by going on the remark written by my Grandma in her 1945 letter.Thanks again for your help and advice.

[PeverilPeril 3,281]

I have a box full of war letters between mum and dad. My sister has read them and keeps trying to get me to read them - but I can't pluck up the courage to do it. I know how hard life was for my mum and dad and I worry that some saddening things will crop up. Also I feel that I would be trespassing of their privacy. I know - I really should read them though.

[carni 10,094]

PeverilPeril,

The letters that we have from the war years were mainly Dads, and they are the ones he received from Family and Girlfriends and Mates. He kept them all, and all through our Childhood we used to occasionally read through them together. They are from before he even met Mam.Who came into his life at the end of the War. In our case, Dad enjoyed us being interested in his letters and would sit and joke about his many Girlfriends ( you know what sailors are!) Mam would tease him as well. There is sadness as well as happiness in the letters, and you have to accept that, if you decide to read them, and you only do it if you want to. In our case, we loved to hear and read his stories. It was a privilege to get to know a bit about the young man he once was. We were never trespassing on his privacy, because he included us in it. I know that if Dad didn't want us to read anything, he would have removed it before hand.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I think because you are his child that you are part of all that was your father. I would have loved to have seen the letters my dad wrote to my mum in the war. Given that he spent most of the war in Australia waiting to invade Japan. It never happened.

A few years ago an elderly friend of mine who was the daughter of the local vicar during the war, gave me some letters to photocopy. They were from some of the parishioners who were away fighting. They were addressed to the vicar telling him of conditions in the various war zones. The most interesting ones were from her future husband (who is sadly no longer with us). He was in the 8th army fighting in the desert. Some of the letters were written while he was dug in under enemy bombardment. He tells it as it was happening. I still like to look at them as they are quite scary.

[LizzieM 9,507]

I have two letters written by Albert Ball and sent to my Great-Aunt in WW1. They were friends growing up in Lenton. In one he says that he's sorry he hasn't written for a while but he's 'been busy' ....... you're not kidding he was BUSY !!

[PeverilPeril 3,281]

OK I will read one or two and see how it goes. My sister says that there is a lot about me as a child.

[Chulla 4,946]

Photo shows dad and his Sherwood Forester comrades reading the Nottingham Evening Post at Lake Lines camp, Secundrabad, India. He is third left, back row. The Indian in front is the fruit waller. Sadly, none of the letters he sent to mam have survived.

Lake Lines was a tank training base. Actually, he was then in the Royal Armoured Corps, but they were allowed the retain the Sherwood Forester shoulder flashes. the tanks were taken off them and they joined Wingate's second expedition as Chindits.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

It ain't 'arf hot mum!