Happy return for wartime letters of love and grief
THE FAMILY of a woman whose stash of love letters from the First World War were found in a charity shop are to be reunited with them thanks to the power of social media.
Mary Fortune’s letters sent by her husband George, who served in the war, were discovered in a Sue Ryder charity shop in Fulwell, Sunderland.
The charity launched an appeal on Monday to trace the original recipient of the letters, and as a result they will now be safely returned to the hands of her great- grandson, David Bambrough. Mr Bambrough said he thought it had been “a scam” when he first heard his greatgrandmother’s letters had turned up in the shop.
“I did my own research just through Google and I found the story and was like ‘ Blimey, it’s true!’” The letters – which provide fascinating details into life during the war and, tragically, include a note from King George V to inform her that her husband had died in battle – were lost to the family in 2003 when Mary’s daughter, Marjory, died.
Marjory did not have children and neighbours got rid of her possessions. Staff at the shop struggled to find relatives as the address to which they were sent no longer exists and Mary remarried to become Mary Bambrough.
Users of the site Ancestry were able to track Mrs Fortune’s ancestors to find Mr Bambrough and get in contact.
“They had basically done the research, all these people had done their own detective work, and found this Mary Bambrough through my family tree,” her great- grandson added.
“It was really amazing that they took the time to go to the lengths to find me.”