Ipswich to Ipswich: World War II-era correspondence from young people in Ipswich, England
A new display in the archives case highlights 1940s correspondence from the library’s Ipswich, England collection. Young people from the Borough of Ipswich Youth Centre in Ipswich, England sent letters about their wartime experiences to young people here in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The letters cover such topics as “Soccer” (English football), “Rationing in War-Time,” “The Forestry Camp,” and “The Weekend Cycling Trip to Croxton.” You can page through the letters and writings from our collection here:
Some of the letters from the English kids were published in the Ipswich Chronicle, and young people in Ipswich, Mass. were encouraged to write back, as seen here on July 11, 1941. Allan Forbes quotes several letters in “Namesake Towns of Our Essex County” in 1945:
Dear Casimir,
During air raids we go down our cellar. It is our dug-out. We are safe down there and it is warm too. The air raid siren makes a terrible noise. We play darts down our cellar, and there are plenty of books. We have also got a cot down there for my small sister to keep warm. She does not mind air raids at all and loves her gas-mask.
Thelma
Dear Nellie :
You ask about my family. You will be interested to hear that my father is Mayor of Ipswich this year, it is the second time he has held this office. In peace time you can sit in a tram car and your neighbour remains rigid, whereby now he or she will tell you where you can get eggs or marmalade or what new cooking recipe they have discovered.
Joan Tuthill
We hope the American side of the correspondence is in an archives somewhere in England.
