The mystery of an affectionate letter sent “from a trench” by a Second World War soldier weeks before he died has united the pen pals’ living relatives eight decades later.
Jo Element, 35, who lives in Brighton, discovered a box of old papers in her grandmother Dora’s possessions after she sadly passed away on her 95th birthday in May 2020.
Among them was a letter dated January 26 1945 from John Merritt Wentworth, a soldier serving in the British forces in Burma, present-day Myanmar.
“I am writing this letter in a trench that doesn’t seem like home at all but it will do,” were John’s words, scribbled on HM Forces Air Mail paper with a pale blue envelope.
Jo was curious about the correspondence as her grandmother had never mentioned John before, yet based on the letter, they were at least close friends – describing mysterious memories which seem to suggest they met during an air raid.
John, who signed his letter off with “Love Johnnie xxxxxxxxxx”, sadly died from wounds he sustained in service a few weeks later on February 13 1945.
It was not until earlier this year, after repeatedly being encouraged by her mother, Stella, that Jo decided to search for John’s living relatives and found his 94-year-old sister, Grace.
“After my nan passed away, my aunt was cleaning out her flat in Putney and there was a box, which had things like drawings from when my mum was a toddler and old birthday cards,” Jo told PA Real Life.
“But then there was this letter from John, and we didn’t know who he was, she had never mentioned it to us.”
On discovering John’s sister, Grace, Jo said: “It was overwhelming, I didn’t expect to find any direct relatives so to find his living sister was fantastic.”
Jo first began her search by checking for any information about John on the internet, discovering a tribute to him from someone called Robert Pike.
“There’s quite a lot of information about John on the letter … so I ended up going online and pretty quickly, found his details and a photo of him on Forces War Records,” she said.
“But that’s all we had, his picture and a tribute that someone had posted online.”
Jo decided to let the letter lie but her mum insisted she try and find John’s family.
“My mum kept (mentioning) it for a couple of years,” said Jo.
“Obviously somebody remembered him and was posting about him online.”
Earlier this year, Jo contacted the Forces War Records over Instagram to see if she could find out more about the person who had posted his picture online.
Military expert Simon Pearce responded saying he had uncovered some more information on the website Ancestry.com, some of which he could not share for privacy reasons.
“I ended up creating my own account on Ancestry,” said Jo.
“I think it was a free trial for one month so I started frantically searching for people.”
Jo sent the letter to a number of people but received no response and feared it was a dead end.
“Then, it was on the last day before my membership expired, and I found Rob Pike, the person who had posted the photo on the forces website,” she said.
Jo managed to send him a message before her account closed and received an email the next morning saying “really intrigued to hear that you’ve got a letter from my uncle”.
After exchanging several messages, Jo learned that John’s sister, Grace, was still alive and shared his letter with her.
“It was really exciting to actually get in contact with someone,” she said.
“For it to reach his nephew, and then his sister, was quite amazing really.”
John’s living relatives were able to shed light on how he was connected to Jo’s grandmother.
“My nan’s half-sister was called Lally and she lived on Pincott Road, a few doors down from where John lived,” said Jo.
“I assume that’s how they met because in the letter, John talks about them going to an air raid shelter together.
“So, maybe they met during an air raid or just from living in the same area – we just don’t know.”
One line from John’s letter reads: “I hope you don’t mind me writing to you like this but last night I had memories of the first air raid on our manor and you went out with young Fred and I took you away from him.”
The “young Fred” in question is believed to be Dora’s brother, Alfred.
In his letter, John apologises for not having written before and for using a pencil, which he says is all he could find.
He also requests a photo from Dora and alludes to a particular incident, when he bumped into Dora while returning from leave, wanting to stay longer so they could spend more time together.
The letter read: “I was sorry when I came back off of leave and meeting you the same day. I wanted to over stay my leave and go out with you.”
It is most likely the last Dora ever heard from John, as he sadly died a few weeks later on February 13 1945.
“I’ve got so many questions but obviously my nan’s passed away so I can’t ask her,” said Jo.
“It’s one of those things, you don’t have the questions at the time and I wish I had.
“But we didn’t have the letter.”
In November 2024, Ancestry is launching new digitised Ministry of Defence service records and Second World War medal cards in partnership with The National Archives.
To mark Remembrance Day, the company is offering free access to the records which contain more than 1.5 million images and 150,000 service records.
For more information visit: www.ancestry.co.uk/c/
