Love letters show pain of wartime separation

Glasgow University publishes letters from captivity sent by academic in First World War

The letters of a First World War prisoner to his family are to be released by a university a century after they were written.

Seven months of correspondence between Professor Archibald Allan Bowman and his wife Mabel are being revealed by Glasgow University.

The first letter was published on social media yesterday before the others are gradually released to show how it must have felt to wait for news of a loved one.

Written between April 1918 and November 1918, they will be published 100 years later in the order they were written.

Petros Aronis, a history of art student from Athens, has curated the Bowman social media project on Instagram called Letters from A Prisoner of War 1918.

He said: “There are beautiful and touching sentiments expressed in the letters.

“It also shows the vital role, those on the home front had in providing prisoners of war with food and provisions parcels to keep them feed and clothed in the camps.

“In this project, as well as putting them into chronological order, I also have tried to highlight how the letters were impacted by the war.”

During the war, with censorship in place, the couple would not have received the letters in order and in some cases there would have been a lag of a few weeks.

For some of the letters the censors used black ink on top of the writing and in Mabel’s case the censor cut out parts of her letters.

Written in both English and German, they paint a picture of life for the officers in captivity – although many sections of the correspondence are blacked out by censors.

Professor Tony Pollard, of Conflict History and Archaeology, said: “As a conflict historian, this is a remarkable insight into wartime Britain.

“They transport us back in time to see what ordinary people had to deal with both at home and on the front line during the First World War.

“This student research project also helps to bring a new understanding to the documents, showcasing the letters as historical objects which tell their own special story of war censorship.

“I am delighted to see these letters being published on social media to give a modern day context to this superb archive.”

I am delighted to see these letters being published on social media to give a modern day context to this superb archive. PROF TONY POLLARD

Picture: SWNS. Petros Aronis and Professor Tony Pollard with some of the Bowman letters in archives redacted at Glasgow University.