Description
Object description
A collection of letters written to her by her father during the First World War, and her brother during the Second World War, comprising: 4 ms letters (10pp, plus 6pp ts transcriptions and explanatory notes) written by Captain Ambrose Good to his eldest daughter, Edith May Good, by a Railway Transport Officer (RTO) with the Royal Engineers, the first written in October 1916, with details of his accommodation, the trenches, German shells, and souvenirs, the rest written April – August 1918, with details of the French village he was in, Villers-Bocage, as Town Major, complaints by the villagers about his men, sending her a cheque for her birthday, the Chinese coolies under him, seeing German prisoners, asking after his other children, Cyril and Freda, as well as an embroidered postcard saying 'To my dear daughter' containing a handwritten message (April 1917); four ms letters, airgraphs and air mail letters (17pp plus envelopes, August 1941 – March 1942, with 5pp ts transcriptions) written by Captain Cyril Ambrose Good, an Officer in 'B' Company, 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment (150th Infantry Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division), to his sister May and her husband (Mr Reg and Mrs Edith May Porter), in Gerrards Cross, while on service in North Africa, MEF, congratulating them on the birth of their third child, and with details of his hospitalisation with jaundice (August 1941), the change seeing trees at the hospital, life in the desert, leisure time, a Christmas airgraph, a trip to Palestine, celebrating Christmas early (December 1941), washing in rain water (March 1942), the differences of the different parts of the desert he has seen, vegetation and animals, the lack of necessities in the desert, and his young nieces and nephew. He was killed in action in Egypt on 31 May 1942. Together with a letter from May to Cyril (4pp, March 1942, plus 1p ts transcription), discussing her growing family, Reg being a Warden, day trips by bicycle, and gardening, the letter being returned with the stamp 'It is regretted that this item could not be delivered because the addressee is reported missing' (June 1942); a newspaper article about Cyril being posted missing (1p, n.d.(1942)) with brief details of his war service; a newspaper article from 'The Times' (1p, June 1943) about the East Yorkshires in North Africa, Alamein to Enfidaville; a letter to May from her father, Captain Ambrose Good (1p, September 1942), saying that there is still no official news about Cyril being missing, but there is now 'very little hope', and enclosing a copy of a letter (1p) sent to Colonel Morrill by Major George Watson the Quartermaster of the 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, then in an Italian prisoner of war camp (PG29), saying that he had seen Cyril fighting "up to the last" in a slit trench, covered in blood, and that it was "almost certain he is dead", and giving details of the rest of the Battalion who had been forced to surrender; a copy of a letter sent to Cyril's widow, Kathleen, by the War Office (1p, July 1943) stating that he was presumed to have been killed in action; ts extracts from the book '150th Infantry Brigade (50th Northumbrian Division) in the Middle East, June 1941-June 1942' by Lieutenant Colonel W E Bush which mentions Good and the action in which he was killed.
Content description
A collection of letters written to her by her father during the First World War, and her brother during the Second World War, comprising: 4 ms letters (10pp, plus 6pp ts transcriptions and explanatory notes) written by Captain Ambrose Good to his eldest daughter, Edith May Good, by a Railway Transport Officer (RTO) with the Royal Engineers, the first written in October 1916, with details of his accommodation, the trenches, German shells, and souvenirs, the rest written April – August 1918, with details of the French village he was in, Villers-Bocage, as Town Major, complaints by the villagers about his men, sending her a cheque for her birthday, the Chinese coolies under him, seeing German prisoners, asking after his other children, Cyril and Freda, as well as an embroidered postcard saying 'To my dear daughter' containing a handwritten message (April 1917); four ms letters, airgraphs and air mail letters (17pp plus envelopes, August 1941 – March 1942, with 5pp ts transcriptions) written by Captain Cyril Ambrose Good, an Officer in 'B' Company, 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment (150th Infantry Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division), to his sister May and her husband (Mr Reg and Mrs Edith May Porter), in Gerrards Cross, while on service in North Africa, MEF, congratulating them on the birth of their third child, and with details of his hospitalisation with jaundice (August 1941), the change seeing trees at the hospital, life in the desert, leisure time, a Christmas airgraph, a trip to Palestine, celebrating Christmas early (December 1941), washing in rain water (March 1942), the differences of the different parts of the desert he has seen, vegetation and animals, the lack of necessities in the desert, and his young nieces and nephew. He was killed in action in Egypt on 31 May 1942. Together with a letter from May to Cyril (4pp, March 1942, plus 1p ts transcription), discussing her growing family, Reg being a Warden, day trips by bicycle, and gardening, the letter being returned with the stamp 'It is regretted that this item could not be delivered because the addressee is reported missing' (June 1942); a newspaper article about Cyril being posted missing (1p, n.d.(1942)) with brief details of his war service; a newspaper article from 'The Times' (1p, June 1943) about the East Yorkshires in North Africa, Alamein to Enfidaville; a letter to May from her father, Captain Ambrose Good (1p, September 1942), saying that there is still no official news about Cyril being missing, but there is now 'very little hope', and enclosing a copy of a letter (1p) sent to Colonel Morrill by Major George Watson the Quartermaster of the 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, then in an Italian prisoner of war camp (PG29), saying that he had seen Cyril fighting "up to the last" in a slit trench, covered in blood, and that it was "almost certain he is dead", and giving details of the rest of the Battalion who had been forced to surrender; a copy of a letter sent to Cyril's widow, Kathleen, by the War Office (1p, July 1943) stating that he was presumed to have been killed in action; ts extracts from the book '150th Infantry Brigade (50th Northumbrian Division) in the Middle East, June 1941-June 1942' by Lieutenant Colonel W E Bush which mentions Good and the action in which he was killed.
History note
Cataloguer SJO