Letter from 1933

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Re: Letter from 1933

#5640 Evening all,

I reproduce this genuine & original letter sent from nurse Gillian's father Frank to his mother who was recuperating.
It's dated about 1933 & I just thought it would be interesting to read.


Here goes.............................................


Sunday 31, Mainstone Romsey


My darling Mother,
Just a few lines hoping that you are feeling the benefit of the baths. Very glad to get a letter from you. By the look of the views of the postcard, I should say it is a quaint old place.
Well dear, to change the subject, Mainstone is the centre of liveliness at present.
On Friday night from half-past nine to midnight old Bill Offer was fighting & squabbling Bill Harrington, Harry Frampton, Dick Pragnell & the Edwards boys.
Oh dear, fighting!
Haven’t seen anything like it for a long time. Last night (Saturday) about 12 lads, under Dick’s son, plus about 20 onlookers were laying in wait for Bill. Harry & the Edwards boys. They meant murder. Really & truly,’. They got hold of Jesse Edwards & chucked him in the Test river. But they couldn’t get the others, they didn’t turn up.
Tonight they are still there, laying in wait for Harry, they are stopping any likely car. They’ll kill him when they do get him. The trouble arose out of the fighting. Harry hit Dick Pragnell when he was down .but eventually got 2 black eyes himself and ran away home, the coward after hitting a man when he was down on the ground.
It is quite a picture, all of the people looking out of the windows & no light on the bridge, only on the corner.
Well, darling, I can’t keep on talking about it so I shall change the subject again.
We shall both be glad to get you back again of course, when you are better.
The honeysuckle is nearly all out now & people are admiring it
Well dear, I think I will close now.
With love from your ever-loving son

Frank
Xxxxx
Ps excuse writing, it’s 11 pm

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NB, Tom seems to have left Dick & Harry to it .

Re: Letter from 1933

So they DID fight and almost kill each other ? What a story to tell his mother !

Thanks for sharing Robert J.

I love these old letters, they tell so much about the lives of others.
Today sadly lacks the same . Letter writing has mainly gone , due to text messages etc.
I have many letters and cards written between family members, so many ,that I have not read them all yet. Some of them are hilarious.
On asking my daughter what I should do with them, would anyone be interested or should I throw them out. Her response was one of outrage. NO, don't throw them out, we don't have things like that anymore.
The same applies to photographs.

Re: Letter from 1933

I have lots of old photos, some going back to the dawn of photography, but no old letters.

Re: Letter from 1933

Thanks, ladies for your memories. I've inherited hundreds of letters & photos from my inlaws.
They all kept everything.


We were too soft to throw much of it away. Some of it went to local historical groups with the bulk going to the city archives

Re: Letter from 1933

I have never kept any letters, they have always been thrown away.

Re: Letter from 1933

Just an interesting (to me) aside. At the time it was written, Dec. 31, 1933, I had just reached the ripe old age of 24 - - - - days old!!

Re: Letter from 1933

Nice to hear from the Colonies Dave.

Here's another interesting (to me) aside. My mother was a prolific letter writer & 6 years after the year in which you were born began writing to a 14-year-old girl in Minneapolis Minnesota.
This soon developed into a firm friendship, lasting for an amazing 72 years when my mother passed on in 2011.
They met once only in 2005.
Mother was in service to the Russell family aged 15 in 1940 &kept a correspondence going with Ken Russell, the film director until, their deaths coincidentally on exactly the same day in November 2011