Remembering.... The lost letters home of a Great War airman

[Mike1973]

My work colleague Dan (I think Dan may be a fellow Lounger actually..) came in with an old tupperware tub full of crumbly old letters last year. They were passed on to him by his lodger, who thought he may find them interesting. They were rescued while roof work was being done on an old house here in Southampton in the mid '90's. Me and Dan both share an interest in the Great War, and we soon realised we had something special here. These were some of the letters home to his mother of a young man called Oliver Charles Pearson, and charted his life from the Officer Training Corps in 1915, to his brief time in 70 Squadron in France in 1917.

We knew these letters were important, but couldn't decide what the best thing to do with them was... Should they be donated to a museum? Or the PRO? What would happen then, would they just be lost in archives? Or maybe Olivers old school would like them? After a quick internet surf we knew it was still around. Or maybe we could try and see if there were any descendants left who would like the letters? While this was going on, I decided to type them all out, for my own reference if nothing else. This took a while, on and off for months.

When I had nearly finished we were still no nearer working out what best to do with the letters. Then Dan had a brainwave! We could start a blog! It would be free, and being an illustrator and designer suited our creative urges... It would mean the letters would be available to anyone with an interest. Also we hope people with more knowledge than us will be able to fill in some of the gaps, and add their input. Maybe we may even be able to turn up some photo's of him, and put a face to the name? And maybe also we may be able to find the right home for these letters through it. We're hoping to put one or two up a week, so add yourself as a follower if you'd like email updates.

http://olivercharlespearson.blogspot.com/

We've posted on a few forums in the last couple of days, so apologies if you've seen this already. Thanks for looking.

Mike.

 

[BellyTank]

Nice work, Mike- very thoughtful.


B
T

 

[Mike1973]

Cheers BT. Just posted first letter up! Gives a snapshot of life in the Officer Training Corps. He was in the Inns of Court OTC for just over a year, unfortunately this is the only letter we have from that period.

 

[Rufus]

Fantastic work Mike! What a great thing to do, and a amazing window for us into not only the Great War, but one man's journey through it.

I look forward to reading more... and Thank you again, for your hard work.

Rufus

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Following(reading) with interest.

 

[KilroyCD]

On this, the 90th anniversary of the end of the "War to End All Wars", only a handful of WWI vets still survive. The oldest, Henry Allington (112) was a RNAS airman, and here is his story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27646518/

 

[Mike1973]

On this, the 90th anniversary of the end of the "War to End All Wars", only a handful of WWI vets still survive. The oldest, Henry Allington (112) was a RNAS airman, and here is his story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27646518/

Cheers for the link Kilroy. Henry sums it all up perfectly in a few words -

"I don't want to see them forgotten,"

Me and Dan knew as soon as we saw these letters they were important fragments of history. Nothing groundbreaking, but an insight into everyday life then that can easily get forgotten. We just feel lucky that they ended up falling in our laps, and that we had the means to set up the blog and try and get them out to a wider audience.

 

[Smithy]

Brilliant idea and what a way to keep the memory alive.

Well done :eusa_clap