Skip to main content

News

Treasures from Worcestershire’s Past: ~8~ Letters from a Malvern Family

  • 17th January 2014

New deposits of archives come in to us in all shapes and sizes, this particular one arrived in a rusty hat tin. It had been found by a mechanic in a Malvern garage and passed on to us via a local historian. Initially the box appeared to contain about 200 letters and photos dating from the First World War, however when we started to sort the box it became apparent that it spanned a slightly wider period of history and using other resources we have been able to piece together the story of one Malvern family over a 25 year period.

The letters fall into two distinct periods of time, 1892/83 and the majority from 1914-1917. The early letters chart the growing relationship of ‘Louie’, who is in service in Hallow and ‘Tom’ who lives and works in Worcester, while the later letters were sent home by soldiers serving during the First World War.

 

Using various sources we found the marriage of Tom and Louisa in 1893, a census record showing the family living in Malvern in 1911 and details of the family grocery and cab hire business. At the outbreak of war three of their sons joined the Worcestershire Yeomanry and while on active service wrote home from camps in Britain as well as Egypt. These letters mainly contain notes of thanks for gifts sent by the family, brief descriptions of day to day life and questions about the family and acquaintances back at home.

These letters are just some of the World War One archives currently being researched by our team of volunteers.

Comments are closed.

Related news


  • 18th April 2025
The 1921 census solves a family mystery

This is the third blog in the series on how members of staff have used the recently released 1921 census to further their own research. This is Julia’s story. We all have our family mysteries; those stories you half remember from childhood, but didn’t ask questions about at the time, and now it’s too late....

  • 14th April 2025
Milestone Ground Broadway – Dig Diary 3

Welcome back to our dig diary! In this instalment we will be looking at some of the burials found on site, including a cemetery located on the eastern side of the site. Content Warning: This blog post discusses archaeological burials, including human remains and funerary practices. If you prefer not to see the images of...