Private Papers of Miss A Davis

A printed memoir entitled 'The First Thirty Years' (100pp) with memories, interspersed with contemporary poems she had written, covering her childhood in Cheshire, and Golders Green, London (1923 – 1928), then Old Clack Farm, Ruislip, Middlesex (1928), schooling in Kelvin House, caravan holidays during the 1930s, attending Northwood College (1935 - 1940), briefly becoming a nurse in Northwood Cottage Hospital, leaving and working for the Times Book Club, deciding to join the Women's Land Army, time based in Wood Ditton, near Newmarket, then for the Middlesex War Agricultural Executive Committee, details of her duties, having to leave the WLA through tonsillitis, but joining the Government Communications Centre at Knockholt, decoding into letter form things that came from Wireless Operators (1943), taking various jobs and going to the Hampstead Secretarial College after the war, jobs with the NSPCC and an architect, Joseph Emberton (1948), working in various posts at the Foreign Office, being asked to go to the British embassy in Tokyo, Japan (1951), social life being dominated by Rest and Recreation parties for soldiers from the Korean War, life in Japan in the early 1950s, moving to work in the embassy in Moscow, USSR, meeting her future husband, Richard Freeborn, and getting married in the consular office. Together with letters, photographs, telegrams, cards and sketches sent to her and relating to her time as a consular official at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, during the Korean War, together with her annotated explanatory notes, comprising a series of letters from members of 162nd (Queen) Battery, 16th New Zealand Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery (1st Commonwealth Division), with whom she had become friends while they stayed in Tokyo on leave from the fighting in Korea, and who had adopted her as an honorary Bombardier, including: a joke letter (6pp) written from "Q Batri, somewear in Career" and illustrated with cartoons cut from papers and magazines; nine ms letters (36pp plus envelopes) written by Major R J 'Dinty' Moor, Commanding 162 Battery (June – October 1951), thanking her for sending him things, introducing other officers going on leave to Tokyo, including Murray Preston and Gordon Menzies, describing his journey back to Korea, the lousy weather, his sobriety, a sketch of a Battery Mess, talking of mutual friends, patrols, the anniversary of NZ Kayforce embarking, their luck at having no casualties, description of the construction of a large dug-out with a sketch of same, the dull routine in the OP and having to try to shoot Chinamen over the telephone, plus two photographs of Moor and others, a cutting from a newspaper showing a repatriation camp for former prisoners with Major Moor commandant, and one Christmas Card from Moor and his wife from New Zealand (December 1952); 4 ms letters (14pp plus some envelopes) written by Captain R Murray Preston (July – December 1951), talking of the hell of returning to Korea after leave in Tokyo, asking for some Japanese prints, talking about oil painting, having 'a lot of fun' shelling some enemy, referring to Major Moor's preparation of Britannia Camp for returning POWs, preparations for Christmas (December 1951), decorating the mess, entertainment from Maouri gunners, and a copy of the invitation to the Battery Christmas party written as an order to appear at a court martial, and, being found guilty, remaining until he his lost use of his faculties and powers of locomotion; 3 ms air mail letters (6pp, September 1951 – February 1952) from Mr George B Menzies, father of Captain Gordon Menzies (to whom Anne was briefly engaged) thanking her for her kindness towards his son; and a letter from one of Gordon Menzies' friends who had returned to New Zealand (2pp, February 1953). Together with: six telegrams from friends and family wishing her luck for her journey to Japan (January 1951); letters from Japanese friends including a ms letter (2pp, December 1951) from Adele M Okamoto, thanking her for Christmas greetings and inviting her to her house, two letters from Benjamin Nishikawa (ts 1p, and ms 3pp, March 1951) talking of the 'spiritual vacuum during the post-war confusion' and the loss of respect by the Japanese of their spiritual culture of the past, and inviting her to see Japanese Kabuchi theatre and Japanese dancing; three ms letters and two Christmas Cards, including a photograph, by Ken Aoto who taught Davis Japanese while she was in Tokyo (11pp, October 1951 – March 1956), inviting her to Japanese lessons, and then later congratulating her on her marriage and baby daughter, and discussing Shintoism; a ms letter (4pp in Japanese, with a ms translation by her sister, 5pp), by Yachiyo Nobruko, one of the room girls in the house where Miss Davis lived after leaving the Maronouchi Hotel, written on Davis' leaving Japan and saying how sorry she was that she was going and reminding her of their time together (April 1953); a Divisional Artillery, 1st Commonwealth Division Christmas card, inviting her to a party (December 1951); a Kayforce Christmas card signed by Maurice Munro (December 1951); a Christmas card from Ms F Miller, sister of the British Ambassador in Tokyo; a Christmas card from the New Osaka Hotel where Davis lived for six weeks (December 1952); a Christmas card showing a Japanese Christmas street scene (n.d.); a ts poem (1p) about 162 Battery, beer and R and R by Davis and others; a programme for the Review of the Fleet at Spithead by HM Queen Elizabeth from HMAS SYDNEY which her New Zealander friends had organised an invitation for (June 1953); a photograph of Captain Gordon Menzies; and a photograph of a party in Tokyo including Davis and Menzies. Also included is a large scrapbook (16pp, May 1942 - May 1943) containing newspaper cuttings and other papers relating to her father, Captain Alfred M Davis, who was principal organiser of volunteer agricultural labour camps in the Home Counties, and other details of the Volunteer Land Corps during the Second World War, as well as an edition of 'Picture Post' (17 July 1943) containing an article on one of the camps

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