Bossenden Wood Connections
I read your magazine every month, and love to wonder and hope to see a relative asking for help etc. Imagine my delight in seeing the letter from Wendy Tait Mayfield in your December issue about the forgotten Battle of Bossenden Wood. The name ‘Culver’ jumped out of the page, as William Culver is my husband’s great great grandfather and lived in Dunkirk as a woodsman.
Please can you put me in touch with Wendy, as I would love to find out more. My William Culver was married to Mary Branchett whose brother was one of the rioters. Wendy mentions that William was living with his daughter at the time of the battle at Bossenden Farm, whereas I have him in Frogsbottom Cottage on the edge of the woods. My husband and I have visited the cottage, and the owners kindly let us in to walk the flagstones as his ancestors had – I hope I was correct in my research! I also have no record of a daughter called Sarah.
Melanie Moore, by email
@MrsCourtyard, on a mid-November repeat of
Danny Dyer’s episode of WDYTYA? from 2016
I watched this Danny Dyer #wdytya the first time round, and it’s such a pleasure to see it again. Without doubt, it’s the best one ever.
I was thrilled to read Wendy Tait’s letter about the Battle of Bossenden Wood, and I’ve not heard it mentioned anywhere else. I would be grateful if you could put me in touch with Wendy, as my husband is a direct descendant of Edward Wraight (senior), one of those who died.
A number of years ago, when we were visiting various Kent churchyards, I spotted a sign beside the path up to Hernhill Church with the names of those who had died. When I saw Edward Wraight’s name I asked my husband if he was “one of yours”. He was! Helpful folk in the church told us the story, and since then I have found two books all about it. I’m fascinated to find someone else who is descended from a person whose name was on the sign, and I will be glad to share any information I have.
Thanks for printing the letter. Marion Hollingsbee, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Thanks Melanie and Marion, your details have been passed on to Wendy who will be in touch. Are any other readers descended from those involved in the Battle of Bossenden Wood?
POW Postcard
During a recent decluttering session I came across this postcard (pictured right) from a British prisoner of war in the Far East. Some research into the sender and the recipient unearthed an incredible family.
Captain Hugh Creighton Martindale Pitts was born in 1896 to Rev Thomas Pitts and Honor Thursby Vale, in Loughborough.
Hugh served in the First World War as a lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps. A brother, Francis Burton Pitts, died in action at Bouchain in 1917. Hugh then served as a captain in the Second World War in the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force. His capture by the Japanese army led to the records that started this search. After the war Hugh returned to Singapore as a government official in 1947, as a ship’s manifest shows his departure from Southampton. Hugh died in 1988.
His brother, Bernard Thursby Pitts (the recipient), was two years younger and became a clergyman like his father and his grandfather. Bernard died in 1968, still living in Norfolk as in the postcard. This is just a small part of this family’s history, and Honor Thursby Vale’s family is equally interesting.
Hugh appears to have never had children, although Bernard did: Angela and Michael Thursby Pitts. I would like to find their children, because the postcard should really return to the family. Ian Mooney, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Come on readers, let’s get this postcard back to the family!
Sharing Stories Of The Shaftos
I was very interested to read the Reader Story article about the Shafto family in the October issue of the magazine. A half-sister of my 4x great grandfather, Elizabeth Hodgson (baptised 1779 in Winston, County Durham), married one of the Shafto family from Bavington Hall, Edward Shafto son of Sir Cuthbert Shafto by his first wife. The article mentions a meeting between the author and a Shafto owner of Bavington Hall who had a family tree but still had some gaps. There was mention of a disastrous marriage, which I suspect was Sir Cuthbert’s second marriage.
I would like to pass on the information I have, but the Shafto family no longer seems to be at Bavington Hall. I wonder if
you could please pass this email on to the reader interviewed in the article, Robert Shafto, in case he is able to point me in the right direction to make contact with the family.
Virginia Silvester, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Thanks Virginia. We’ve passed your request on to Robert. The disastrous marriage sounds intriguing!
South African Love Letters
I have come into contact with the most beautifully written love letters from a gentleman called Robert Raven, a flight sergeant in the Second World War, to his wife, and hers to him. During the war he was stationed in Italy with the RAF and he writes about his visits to the opera, life in the RAF (the terminology he uses is so amusing) and his deep love for his wife Margaret (née Blythe), who was originally from Scotland. You would not believe the quality of the writing and the poetic phrasing he uses… Robert was clearly a very intelligent man, as well as a passionate one. He was also a very fine critic of opera!
The couple lived in Cape Town, although Margaret returned to the UK now and then to visit relatives. Letters to and from each other were written every week, and capture a unique and true picture of life during the war at
Tessa Reeves responded to an article on our website about researching servant kin: bit.ly/wdytya-servants
I have just come back from Holkham Hall, Norfolk, where my 3x great uncle Orlando Goldsmith was coachman.
the time. Somehow, these letters became lost and are now in my friend’s possession.
The couple had three children: Andrew, John and Lesley. My friend and I have tried in earnest to track the family history, so that we can give these lovely letters back to the children or grandchildren – I know that if they were from my parents or grandparents, then I would treasure them forever.
We have traced the family back to living after the war at 62
Dorp Street, Pietersburg, North Transvaal, and this is where we have hit a problem. The records kept in South Africa are not easy to access (or at least not for us mere nobodies), but this is where you can help. Could your readers help us return these precious love letters to their rightful owners?
Robert and Margaret were clearly very much in love, and I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to read about their lives.
Tracey Dene Powell, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: What wonderful letters Tracey. We will also put a call-out online to see if we can find any family members who can treasure them.
Correction
In the Military Picture Analysis article in the Q&A section of our December issue, we referred to the depicted soldier as John Langworthy Ellis. The correct name is Nathaniel John Ellis.