Yellow ribbons and 300 letters of love
Jeweller finds her grandparents’ inspirational notes
Torn apart by war as the world was riven by conflict, only words on a page kept their young love alive.
Trevor Smith and Margaret Gibb had only been together a few short months before the RAF spitfire pilot went off to war in 1943.
But a moving cache of handwritten letters reveal how the couple kept the flickering flame of their love alive before they could reunite three years later.
Often spanning more than eight pages and always filled with declarations of devotion, their handwritten notes helped build a relationship that led to marriage and four happy decades together.
Now, after Trevor’s death, the letters he tied in yellow ribbon have been rediscovered and helped inspire granddaughter Rebecca Devine to create a jewellery collection documenting her grandparents’ transatlantic love story.
She named her jewellery company Smith & Gibb after them, and believes keeping their story alive has helped her to feel closer to her family’s past.
Rebecca, 28, said around 300 letters written by her grandfather from Canada, where he was stationed between 1943 and 1946, have survived and his love and affection for his wife-to-be are evident on every page.
After Trevor returned from Canada, the couple married in Aberdeen in 1948. They then relocated to Callander, Perthshire, where they settled down to have their children, Margaret, Valerie, and David. Later eight grandchildren followed.
The family ultimately moved to Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, where they designed and built a home together. So strong was their love, the couple even worked at the same school, Trevor serving as headmaster and Margaret working as the receptionist.
After 45 years together, Margaret passed away in 1994 and Trevor followed 10 years later. Without darling Margaret, the family say Trevor was “heartbroken living his life without her”.
Rebecca said: “His letters mostly starting with, ‘ To my darling Margaret’ or ‘Dearest Margaret’ and he poured his heart into them.
“Although it has been quite a few years since my first collection, I still use their story as inspiration for my work. After Dearest Margaret, I created a set of jewellery called Stamp Collection, which used the colours from the stamps of the time – strong blue, yellow, green and orange – and simplified shapes of envelopes. I tried to really create a mix of vintage and modern.
“I think about my grandparents a lot when I’m making and designing jewellery. I’ve got their wedding