WARTIME NOTES TO SERVICEMEN Bomb factory worker who wrote over 1,000 letters to keep up troop morale on the front
night and happy dreams. Forever and ever yours Angel, Tootsie.”
Lenora accepted the offer of marriage, but it was not to be. In March 1945, she received a note from the Army revealing the paratrooper was “dangerously ill” after being hit by shrapnel in northern France.
Lenora could not get to Northern Ireland to meet Tootsie’s family and the romance eventually fizzled out.
But in 1946 she began swapping letters with Ken Williams, a sergeant in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, who had been held captive by the Nazis near Dresden.
The pair, who met at a dance in Hereford after the war, wed in 1948. Lenora worked as a dinner lady at All Saints primary school in Hereford, while Ken, from Crewe, ran a catering business. They had three children, four grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. Ken died in 2014 at 88.
PRISONER
Alan said: “Mum thought Tootsie was the bee’s knees, and by all accounts the whole family loved him.
“But the letters with Dad are much different. He was held as a prisoner of war on the Greek island of Leros and there’s an element of post-traumatic stress coming through.
“All he talked of was food – which is probably why he went into the food game when he was demobbed. He would talk about the rebuilding of Germany and how he couldn’t wait to come home to see her.”
The hoard of letters reveal little of the horrors of frontline warfare. Instead they talk fondly of civvy street, with soldiers inviting Lenora to dances and the cinema.
Scores are signed SWALK – sealed with a loving kiss – and TOIL, the one I love. Alan added: “You can almost plot the war by following the franking stamps as soldiers go from A to B.
“And you can work out where the bombs from Rotherwas were headed from the letters that were sent back.
“But there’s surprisingly very little about the trauma of life at war. I think it was escapism for soldiers who
Lenora with pen pal hubby Ken and, above, letter sent to her wanted to retain some kind of Service by researcher Angela Williams. normality of what life was like before She said: “They give us such a personal they went away. Writing was a way to and fascinating perspective of the war. while away the hours. The conversa“Some soldiers can be quite cheeky tions they were having just happened and Lenora was not afraid to force an to be against the backdrop of war. apology if a soldier overstepped the
“The most harrowing thing for me mark. Some of the letters are romantic is that some of the exchanges just stop and others perhaps hint at the naughand you can’t help but presume that’s tier side of life. because the worst has happened.” “It shows just how important letter
Lenora’s letters, plus two pocket writing was for morale. It’s such a diaries, are currently being filed at the wonderful thing to have saved.” Herefordshire Archives and Record