Description
Object description
Bound photocopy (18pp) of a ts transcription of his diary entries for October 1944 - February 1945, kept during his service with No 1 Special Force as an agent for the Special Operations Executive while based principally in the Veneto region of northern Italy, with useful descriptions of his experiences while living with Italian partisans often under spartan conditions and interesting references to the tensions between the various resistance groups, the character of their leaders and their uncompromising attitude towards anyone connected with the Fascists (which led to the execution of an 18 year old on 25 December 1944), contact with other SOE agents and SOE HQ and difficulties experienced arranging for air drops and retrieving supplies, contact with the enemy and the necessity for constant moves, as well as transcripts of 2 letters received by him during his Italian mission, an original ts memorandum (6pp) advising British SOE personnel returning from working behind the lines in Italy on how to fill in reports, and copies of 2 photographs of him in uniform.
Additional material includes Richard Tolson's account of his war experiences, 1939 – 1947, dictated for the Imperial War Museum (n.d.) beginning with his training at Sandhurst in August 1937 and his subsequent recruitment to the Sussex Regiment in February 1939, the same regiment that his grandfather had joined in 1860. The account also goes on to detail his initial posting to France, in April 1940, and subsequent postings to Cairo, Palestine and also Italy (15pp); two unbound volumes of ts transcriptions of his letters - Volume I: January 1938 – September 1943 (105pp), Volume II: September 1943 – June 1951 (101pp), along with 209 original ms letters (1939 – 1950); his British Forces identification cards 1944 – 1947; a leather wallet, which contained: two black and white photographs, ms poems (5pp), ms letter from 'Kit' (4pp), ms letter from his mother (4pp), original diary entries for October 1944 – February 1945, as detailed in the description of the bound photocopy – see first paragraph above (56pp); an ms play script, written in an Army Field Message Book, with a note on the front cover stating that it was written by Richard [Tolson] and Palmer Thompson (88pp); a map of Conegliano in the Veneto region of northern Italy (1944, 1p) scale: 1:50,000, along with 3 colour photocopies of maps (copied in sections and pieced together) of: Moniago (1950), a Tramonti di Sotto (1949), and Belluno (1943); along with later material, including diary notes (23-26 April 1987, 5pp) along with a programme for a conference about the No 1 Special Force in Italy and the Italian Partisans that took place in Bologna (28-30 April 1987; 12pp); a poster advertising the anniversary of the fallen partisans (25 October 1981; 1p); letters of gratitude following a reunion party hosted by Major Tolson and his wife (November 1987, 20pp); and a ts letter from the Ministry of Defence (21 August 1984) along with a copy of the citation in respect of the Military Medal awarded to Rifleman Norman Paley Norton, at Major Tolson's request.
Content description
Bound photocopy (18pp) of a ts transcription of his diary entries for October 1944 - February 1945, kept during his service with No 1 Special Force as an agent for the Special Operations Executive while based principally in the Veneto region of northern Italy, with useful descriptions of his experiences while living with Italian partisans often under spartan conditions and interesting references to the tensions between the various resistance groups, the character of their leaders and their uncompromising attitude towards anyone connected with the Fascists (which led to the execution of an 18 year old on 25 December 1944), contact with other SOE agents and SOE HQ and difficulties experienced arranging for air drops and retrieving supplies, contact with the enemy and the necessity for constant moves, as well as transcripts of 2 letters received by him during his Italian mission, an original ts memorandum (6pp) advising British SOE personnel returning from working behind the lines in Italy on how to fill in reports, and copies of 2 photographs of him in uniform.
Additional material includes Richard Tolson's account of his war experiences, 1939 – 1947, dictated for the Imperial War Museum (n.d.) beginning with his training at Sandhurst in August 1937 and his subsequent recruitment to the Sussex Regiment in February 1939, the same regiment that his grandfather had joined in 1860. The account also goes on to detail his initial posting to France, in April 1940, and subsequent postings to Cairo, Palestine and also Italy (15pp); two unbound volumes of ts transcriptions of his letters - Volume I: January 1938 – September 1943 (105pp), Volume II: September 1943 – June 1951 (101pp), along with 209 original ms letters (1939 – 1950); his British Forces identification cards 1944 – 1947; a leather wallet, which contained: two black and white photographs, ms poems (5pp), ms letter from 'Kit' (4pp), ms letter from his mother (4pp), original diary entries for October 1944 – February 1945, as detailed in the description of the bound photocopy – see first paragraph above (56pp); an ms play script, written in an Army Field Message Book, with a note on the front cover stating that it was written by Richard [Tolson] and Palmer Thompson (88pp); a map of Conegliano in the Veneto region of northern Italy (1944, 1p) scale: 1:50,000, along with 3 colour photocopies of maps (copied in sections and pieced together) of: Moniago (1950), a Tramonti di Sotto (1949), and Belluno (1943); along with later material, including diary notes (23-26 April 1987, 5pp) along with a programme for a conference about the No 1 Special Force in Italy and the Italian Partisans that took place in Bologna (28-30 April 1987; 12pp); a poster advertising the anniversary of the fallen partisans (25 October 1981; 1p); letters of gratitude following a reunion party hosted by Major Tolson and his wife (November 1987, 20pp); and a ts letter from the Ministry of Defence (21 August 1984) along with a copy of the citation in respect of the Military Medal awarded to Rifleman Norman Paley Norton, at Major Tolson's request.
History note
Cataloguer AC
History note
Catalogue date 2005-05