This blog has been researched and written as part of Northumberland Archives Heritage Lottery funded ‘At War and In Peace …’ project. The project allows us to explore sources relating to the Second World War Home Front in Northumberland and societal reconstruction in the county in the period immediately after the War. The research undertaken within the project will inform a programme of related exhibitions, outreach and schools education activity that will be hosted at venues across Northumberland.
This is our second blog about Mitford Welcome Home Fund 1944-1946. In our first blog northumberlandarchives.com/2025/09/05/mitford-welcome-home-fund-1944-1946/ we wrote about the establishment of the Fund, the fundraising efforts of the Committee and monies raised and distributed. Our research has been based largely on papers of the Fund found amongst the personal papers of Mitford resident George Brown (ref: NRO 02965/2) deposited with Northumberland Archives in 1983. As part of our project, we will catalogue the records of the Welcome Home Fund in more detail.
Within the Mitford Welcome Home Fund papers in this collection are 26 thank you letters written by recipients of the monies distributed by the Fund and their families. Letters were received from:
- Mary Brewis (WAAF)
- Mrs. Brewis of Whalton Mill (mother of Richard Brewis who lost his life)
- R.W. Brewis, T.S. Brewis of Benridge Hall
- Margaret Clark of Heighley Wood Cottage
- R.E. Clark of Ashington (Army)
- Joan Dargie (ATS)
- Mrs. Dodds of Abbey Mills, Morpeth, on behalf of her son, Leslie (Navy)
- Dora Elliott of West Woodburn, possibly mother of George Elliott (killed)
- John Elliott of Heighley (Army)
- Desmond Ellis (RAF)
- Norman Hood (Army)
- Mag. Hornsby of Glororum Farm, writing on behalf of her sister, C. Hornsby (ATS)
- C. Hornsby of Glororum Farm, (ATS)
- Mr. & Mrs. Little of Mitford (parents of James Little who lost his life)
- Thomas Lowthian of Fairmoor (Army)
- Hester Speke of Aydon, (ATS)
- Meriel Speke (British Red Cross Ambulance Driver)
- Neil Speke (Army)
- Thomas Taylor of Page Bank, Spennymoor (Army)
- John Tweedle of Spital Hill, (Army)
Interestingly, the bundle of letters appears to include two from persons whose families do not appear to be referred to in the list of recipients listed in Morpeth Herald – H. Gray of Lough House Lodge and Franklin Murphy of Southern Wood, Morpeth.
The letters from those who lost loved ones are particularly poignant – Mrs. Brewis writes “… and the dearest wish of our own hearts today is that he had come back & received it himself …” As would be expected the letters vary in length and content. Some are straightforward – for example, T.S. Brewis writes “I am very sorry I have been so long in writing to thank you for the very generous “Welcome Home” gift. Will you please thank the people of Mitford for me”. Others are more effusive. For example, Desmond Ellis writes “I thank you for the bottom of my heart, for the kindness you have shown, by including me in the “Welcome Home Fund” but I assure you, that any sacrifice that I may have made was simply repaid, by the knowledge, that Mitford would never experience the miseries that various of the occupied countries have had to undergo”.
The bundle includes thank you letter from three siblings – Hester (ATS), Meriel (Red Cross) and Neil Speke (Army). At the beginning of the War the family were living at Pigdon Hall. Their father, Herbert, was a stockbroker and a Special Constable. The 1939 Register records Hester Speke living at 20 The Grove, Gosforth, a property occupied by the Women’s Transport Service. Neil Speke was to have a distinguished military career reaching the rank of colonel. An article in The Morpeth Herald of April 1943 provides an account of (then) Major Speke’s involvement in an incident on the Gafsa road forty miles from Gabes in Tunisia. Major Speke, a member of the Royal Lancers, was commanding a squadron of scout cars when his car was hit by a shell from a German tank. The account records the meeting of British and American forces.
Hester Speke’s letter, dated 31 January 1946 and written from the family’s new home at Aydon, near Corbridge reads, “I feel rather unworthy, having spent the whole six years service in England and have been in no more peril than the civilian population but I am honoured to be included with all those others who have made the greater sacrifices”. The letter goes on to say that Neil Speke was at that time in the Middle East and Meriel serving in Belgium. Neil Speke’s letter thanks the people of Mitford for “the annual presents of the past …” suggesting that regular collections may have been held throughout the period of the war. Meriel Speke’s letter suggests that, “It is far more difficult to stay at home and wait, and worry, and struggle with the meagre rations so that everything will be the same when your families come home”.
The small bundle of thank you letters demonstrate the spirit and resolve shown by the people of Mitford parish and their appreciation for the efforts of the Mitford parishioners to provide a modest thank you for their war effort.
NRO 2695/8/12
Letter from Norman Hood thanking the people of Mitford for their Welcome Home Fund gift, 8 Dec, 1945.